How to cook and eat borage

Contents

1 COOKING BORAGE

COOKING BORAGE

How to clean borage, remove the hairs and save it before cooking

Before cooking borage, it must be prepared. The problem is that this plant is very hispid, especially the wild varieties. So, before eating it, we must remove their annoying hairs.

To collect and prepare it, we will protect our hands with gloves. Later with a plastic bristle brush (one of these that are used for brushing clothes) we will brush the leaves and specially the stems. Then, we will take the stems and leaves and rub them well with our hands to remove all the hairs.

Once well rubbed, we will introduce it in a plastic bowl with tap water and clean up all the leaves well to loosen the soil and the last hairs. We will finally rinse it with tap water.

Rubbed and cleaned borage can be stored in the refrigerator for about three days. To do this, place it in a plastic bag to which we will do a few holes. Before four days, it should be eaten or stewed since it turn black because of loss of chlorophyll that breaks down vitamin C and vitamin B.

How to eat borage

Borage can be eaten raw, preferably in salads. In this case, we will eat the tender leaves that have previously been brushed to remove the hairs. Besides the leaves, the flowers may be added, because it will provide its delicate flavor and serve as decoration.

Cooked borage can be prepared in many ways:

Boiled borage: The easiest way is to boil it in a saucepan with water. You need not be too long because it gets very soft. Once cooked, you will add a few drops of olive oil and vinegar.

The cooked stems are very rich when eaten with a little butter or stir-fried briefly with a few cloves of garlic.

Borage chips: Like many vegetables, borage can be fried. In this case, so as not to desegregate it, you should roll with flour or cornstarch. To do this, we will smear it with some flour and fry it in olive oil. You have to enter it in the pan when the oil is very hot and fry it lightly. To enhance the flavor, it is desirable to add a few cloves of garlic.
Borage gratin: To cook au gratin, after boiling it slightly, we’ll add some cheese to brown on top and place it in the oven for about 5 minutes at 200 º C.
Borage gratin with bechamel: Borage cooked in this way is also very tasty. To do this, after cleaning, cooking and draining the borage, we shall put it on a platter and cover it with the bechamel sauce. We will place the tray in the hot oven and we will cook it au gratin for about 5 minutes.
Borage soup (Borage water). It is prepared by boiling the borage in a pot with other vegetables like potatoes. After these ingredients are well boiled, crush them well to form a soup. You can add some bread dumplings, previously fried.