Summer is coming, everyone likes to eat some melons, what melons do you eat most often on the table?
Loofah? Cucumber? Or bitter melon?
In the eyes of Chinese medicine, the "first melon to remove moisture in summer" on the table is winter melon! Its whole body is a treasure!
Winter melon can not only be used for stewing soup and filling, but also has many wonderful uses! How can we better exert its anti-dampness effect? Hurry up and look down!
01
Dispel dampness and relieve heat without hurting the stomach
1. Winter melon meat
On the one hand, winter melon enters the spleen meridian, clears heat and heat, diuresis, and has a refreshing taste, which is especially suitable for summer dampness.
On the other hand, winter melon also enters the lung meridian, can clear the wind and heat, moisturize the lungs and relieve cough, such as summer wind and heat cold, dry mouth and thirst, sore throat, dry cough, red tongue, also suitable for eating winter melon.
2. Winter melon mung bean soup
Today I will teach you to cook soup with winter melon and mung beans, clear the heat and dispel the heat, and do not hurt the spleen and stomach.
Ingredients: Winter melon, mung beans, ginger.
Method: Soak mung beans overnight in advance, cook in the pot for about half an hour, and then put in winter melon and cook together.
People with a cold spleen and stomach, adding a few pieces of ginger when they are about to come out of the pot can reduce the coolness of winter melon and mung beans.
Tips:
(1) Chinese medicine believes that the effect of mung beans to relieve heat is mainly in the skin, so do not boil mung beans until they bloom.
(2) The active ingredient of ginger is volatile oil, boil until you smell the aroma of ginger, do not cook for too long.
02
"Slimming melon" with clear fat and oil
1. "Weight Loss Melon"
Winter melon has extremely low calories, only 10-20 calories per 100 grams, and it is not easy to gain weight after eating.
Winter melon also contains a substance called propanedioic acid, which can inhibit the production of fat in the human body and help lose weight [1], so it is also known as "weight melon", which is popular among people who lose weight, people with high blood lipids and people with diabetes.
2. Braised vegetarian Dongpo
People who often cook know that winter melon is large, soft and hard, and easy to taste, and can be made into a variety of "fake meat" in Chinese food, selling to fake and real, and the taste is also sweet and not greasy.
The following shares with you a braised vegetarian Dongpo, which has the taste of braised pork without bringing too much burden to the body.
Braised vegetarian eastern slope
Ingredients: winter melon, green onion, ginger, garlic, star anise, cinnamon, salt, oyster sauce, rock sugar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, water.
Method:
(1) Cut the winter melon into square chunks (similar to the shape of Dongpo meat), cook until medium cooked, remove and dip in soy sauce to color.
(2) Fry slowly over low heat, add green onion, ginger, garlic and spices, and fry until the winter melon is golden brown on all sides.
(3) Add the braised juice, simmer for a few minutes, and finally collect the juice over high heat.
03
Winter melon "offcuts"
It is also a healthy "baby" on the table
Winter melon skin and winter melon seeds are also ingredients used in traditional Chinese medicine. But many people do not know what they do and throw them away directly, which is a pity.
1. Winter melon peel
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that most of the "skin" medicinal materials have the effect of reducing dampness and swelling, winter melon skin is sweet and cool, attributed to the spleen, small intestine meridian, has a better diuretic effect than winter melon flesh, traditional Chinese medicine is often used to treat urine unfavorable, edema and other problems.
The winter melon skin can be boiled together when stewing in soup, or it can be cut separately and dried and drunk in water. It has no special taste and does not affect the mouthfeel.
Summer is to eat refreshing cold vegetables, and then teach you an interesting way to eat winter melon skin, crisp and refreshing, after eating, the mouth is cool and fragrant, very comfortable.
Mix three skins fresh
Ingredients: Winter melon skin, watermelon white bowl near the skin, cucumber skin.
Efficacy: Diuresis, reduce swelling, clear heat and relieve heat.
Method: Wash the three ingredients, cut them into strips, blanch them once, and add salt, sesame oil, soy sauce, etc. to taste according to personal taste.
Suitable people: dry mouth, sticky mouth, drowsiness, heavy and weak body, chest tightness, yellow urine, yellow tongue.
2. Winter melon bowl
The "Compendium of Materia Medica" records that winter melon bowl has a good effect of clearing the mind and eliminating troubles, and the simplest way to eat it is to cook soup and make dishes, and you can also beat it into juice to drink.
Experts also taught us to use winter melon skin and winter melon bowl to boil a pot of winter melon tea to relieve heat and dampness, with the sweetness of winter melon and the fragrance of roses.
Summer dampness winter melon tea
Ingredients: winter melon rind, winter melon bowl, brown sugar, roses.
Method: Cut the winter melon skin and winter melon into chunks, marinate with an appropriate amount of brown sugar, and then put it in a pot and boil water with roses, cold or hot drinks.
Brown sugar and rose flowers are both warm, which can both neutralize the coolness of winter melon and add taste to this cup of tea. If you like lemons, you can add two more slices of lemon before coming out of the pot, which is more sweet and sour.
3. Winter melon seeds
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that "seed" medicines usually have laxative effects. Winter melon seeds moisturize the lungs and dissolve phlegm, eliminate carbuncles and drain pus, can remove phlegm fever in the lungs, and are suitable for people with poor lungs.
You can go to a shop that sells nut fried goods, buy some fried winter melon seeds, and eat them as melon seeds, but don't eat too much, just eat a handful once in a while. You can also prepare your own raw winter melon seeds and fry them yourself.
Winter melon is full of treasures
Eat winter melon in summer
Dispel dampness, strengthen the spleen and nourish people!
bibliography
[1] QIN Chunmei. Development value and utilization of winter melon[J].Agricultural Products Processing,2014,No.351(05):44-45.)