The Four Must-Eat Spring Vegetables

Introduction: As the saying goes, a year's plan starts in spring. Have you made a dietary plan for the season? The following four vegetables are beneficial for health and wellness in spring and should be eaten more often.

Mung bean sprouts prevent symptoms of dry mouth and chapped lips. The spring climate is dry, making it easy to develop symptoms like a dry mouth, chapped lips, and angular cheilitis. Mung bean sprouts are delicious and a great choice for nourishing and moistening the body, clearing heat, and detoxifying. Compared to the original beans, both mung bean sprouts and soybean sprouts have increased vitamin content, improved mineral utilization, and their protein and polysaccharides are more easily absorbed. From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, eating sprouts in early spring helps the five organs transition from winter storage to spring growth, promoting the smooth flow of liver qi and strengthening the spleen and stomach. There are many ways to eat sprouts: you can blanch them and serve them as a cold salad, add them to soups, or use them for hot pot.

Cold Mung Bean Sprouts Salad

Shepherd's purse can supplement calcium. Although the weather hasn't truly warmed up yet, the cold-hardy shepherd's purse is already available. Shepherd's purse is nutritious, with high levels of vitamin C, carotenoids, and various minerals. Notably, its calcium content is nearly three times that of milk of the same weight. Shepherd's purse also has medicinal value, and traditional medicine believes it can be used as an adjunct in treating dysentery, enteritis, and gastric ulcers. Shepherd's purse can be used as a filling for dumplings, or blanched and served as a cold salad, scrambled with eggs, or used in soups and congee.

Shepherd's purse and egg pancake

Asparagus lettuce fights allergies. Also known as "spring vegetable," asparagus lettuce is one of the most suitable vegetables for spring. It is rich in vitamins, calcium, magnesium, dietary fiber, and other components. Japanese research has found that a substance in asparagus lettuce can resist allergic rhinitis in spring and alleviate the suffering of allergy sufferers. Asparagus lettuce can be eaten cold, braised, stir-fried, or processed into pickles and other preserved vegetables.

Cold Asparagus Salad

Chives boost immunity. Although chives are available year-round, they are at their best quality in early spring. Chives are rich in dietary fiber, which can promote intestinal peristalsis, effectively prevent habitual constipation and colon cancer, earning it the nickname "intestinal cleanser." Chives are considered "warm" in nature, so eating them in spring can help consolidate yang energy and improve a person's immunity. People who often have cold hands and feet might want to eat more chives. There are many ways to cook chives; stir-frying them with eggs or lean pork are both good choices. However, chives are not suitable for everyone. People with mouth sores, a sore throat, or excessive liver heat should avoid eating them.

Stir-fried Chives with Pork Blood Clots