Research has proven that bitter vegetables are rich in compounds that help relieve summer heat, reduce fever, alleviate restlessness, refresh the mind, and improve digestion. They also contain alkaloids, amino acids, bitter principles, vitamins, and minerals. Therefore, one should eat more bitter vegetables in the summer. So which bitter vegetables are suitable for summer eating? Let's find out!
1. Bitter Melon
Bitter melon is an excellent food for summer, rich in nutrients mainly including protein, fat, carbohydrates, and vitamins. The unripe young fruit can be eaten as a vegetable, and the ripe pulp can be eaten raw. It can be served cold as a salad, stir-fried with meat, or braised with fish, offering a crisp, refreshing taste with a unique flavor. Bitter melon acts to increase appetite, aid digestion, clear internal heat, relieve fatigue, calm the mind, and brighten the eyes. Besides the bitter quinine, bitter melon also contains protein. Research has found that protein can stimulate immune cells and has anti-cancer effects.
Chicken with Bitter Melon and Black Bean Sauce
2. Bitter Bamboo Shoots
According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), bitter bamboo shoots are sweet in taste, cool in nature but not cold, and have the effects of clearing summer heat, detoxifying, aiding weight loss and fitness, and strengthening the stomach to resolve food stagnation. Bitter bamboo shoots are a delicious dish on the summer dining table. People often cook them with pork ribs and salted preserved vegetables to make a bitter bamboo shoot soup, which has a sweet and bitter taste, is delicious, and leaves a lasting aftertaste.
3. Bitter Vegetable
Bitter vegetable, also known as Tu, Tu Cao, Ku Ma Cai, or Ju Mai Cai, is the entire herb of the Sonchus oleraceus plant from the Asteraceae family. Bitter vegetable mainly contains nutrients such as carbohydrates, B vitamins, vitamin C, and minerals. TCM believes that bitter vegetable has a bitter taste and cold nature, and has the effects of clearing heat and cooling the blood, as well as detoxifying. Li Shizhen pointed out in his book "Compendium of Materia Medica": "Bitter vegetable regulates the twelve meridians, calms the mind, benefits Qi, makes the body light and slows aging, strengthens the body, and brightens the eyes..." Pickled bitter vegetable is a delicious side dish for rice in summer, with the effects of being refreshing, whetting the appetite, clearing summer heat, and calming the mind and alleviating restlessness.
Bitter Vegetable and Intestine Soup
4. Wolfberry Sprouts
Wolfberry sprouts, also known as sweet vegetables or wolfberry tips. TCM believes that the entire wolfberry sprout plant is cool in nature and sweet and bitter in taste, and has the effects of clearing heat and restlessness, and nourishing Yin to brighten the eyes. It is suitable for treating conditions such as Yin deficiency with low-grade fever, thirst and dry mouth, heat in the palms and soles, as well as Liver and Kidney deficiency with dry eyes, and virtual-fire toothache.
5. Lettuce
Lettuce, also known as thousand-gold vegetable or wo菜. TCM believes that lettuce is cool in nature and has a bitter and sweet taste, affecting the Large Intestine and Stomach meridians. It has the effects of promoting urination, opening the chest and diaphragm, regulating Qi in the middle Jiao, and clearing heat to quench thirst. It is suitable for treating conditions such as difficult urination, Qi stagnation in the Spleen and Stomach, poor appetite, and excessive drinking due to thirst. Lettuce can be stir-fried or served as a salad. For stir-frying, use high heat and cook quickly. For salad, marinate it with a little salt first, then squeeze out the juice before eating.
Stir-fried Lettuce with Bacon
Scorch soup
Clear the varnish
Macalon's woodcake