Now this season, in addition to a large number of green leafy vegetables, can not ignore it, is currently on the market in a large number of limited products - cowpea! cowpea, commonly known as carob, long beans, with beans, is a legume family annual plant, rich in nutrition, every year in late spring and early summer began to market, is in season, now is a good time to eat cowpea.
Cowpea has a high protein content, which can well supplement the nutrients needed by the human body and can make people's minds clear, so it is also called "meat in vegetables". It is not too much to say that it is the most healthy vegetable~ It is also a highly nutritious vegetable, rich in various vitamins, phospholipids and minerals, which can help digestion, improve appetite, and enhance people's immunity.
April can't do without it
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that cowpea has a flat nature, sweet taste, returns to the spleen and stomach meridians, and has the effects of invigorating qi, strengthening the stomach, tonifying the kidneys, and the five organs, regulating the appearance and nourishing the body, generating essence, quenching thirst, treating vomiting, diarrhea, and detoxification. It is especially suitable for people with diabetes, kidney deficiency, frequent urination, spermatozoa, and women with kidney deficiency and leucorrhoea.
Nutrition also believes that cowpeas are rich in potassium, which is good for controlling blood pressure, and rich in dietary fiber, which helps promote digestion and absorption, and helps control blood sugar after meals.
01
Regulates blood sugar
Cowpea is mediocre in appearance, but it is a "little expert" in blood sugar regulation! It is rich in phospholipids, niacin (vitamin B3) and dietary fiber.
Phospholipids can promote insulin secretion and increase glucose metabolism, niacin is a natural blood sugar regulator, and dietary fiber can slow down gastric emptying and shorten the time food stays in the intestines, thereby limiting the diffusion of nutrients to the intestinal mucosal surface and delaying or hindering glucose absorption. At the same time, it also improves the sensitivity of peripheral nerve tissue to insulin.
These three nutrients work together to make cowpea an ideal food for diabetics.
02
Prevention of Alzheimer's disease
Cowpea also has a lot of folic acid content, although it is not as good as amaranth, which is known as a "longevity dish", but its folic acid content is 13 times that of tomatoes!
Middle-aged and elderly people are the key groups of folic acid supplementation. Appropriate supplementation of folic acid can regulate blood pressure, prevent stroke, and also play an important role in enhancing and improving brain function. Eating more cowpeas has a good effect on treating amnesia and enhancing memory.
03
Maintain blood vessels
Cowpea is rich in magnesium, which is beneficial for bone building and cardiovascular protection. At the same time, it is also rich in vitamin B5, which can metabolize cholesterol in the human body, help prevent the three highs and regulate the nerves.
Cowpea is also a good potassium supplement, with a potassium content of 171 mg per 100 grams, which is 3 times that of winter melon!
04
Boosts immunity
Recently, the magnitude of the weather change has intensified, and the elderly and children in the family have weak resistance and are prone to illness. Beans are a good source of plant protein, with a protein content of about 2.7% in dry matter, and bean pods are also very rich in vitamins, which are conducive to improving immunity and preventing colds.
In addition, each 100 grams of cowpea contains 18 mg of vitamin C, 1 mg of iron, 0.94 mg of zinc, 1.4 mcg of selenium, and 0.39 mg of manganese. These nutrients not only have antioxidant effects, but also promote antibody synthesis, which plays an important role in fighting viruses.
05
Strengthen the spleen and kidneys
According to the "Compendium of Materia Medica", cowpea "invigorates qi, nourishes the kidneys and stomach, and the five internal organs, regulates the camp and health, and produces the essence".
Li Shizhen also praised cowpea for its ability to "invigorate qi, nourish the kidneys and stomach, and the five internal organs, regulate camp and health, and give birth to essence". The so-called "camp and guard" is the two qi of camp and health in traditional Chinese medicine, which can fully ensure the quality of people's sleep when adjusted.
06
Laxative
The dietary fiber in cowpeas is twice that of bananas, which can help maintain normal digestive gland secretion and gastrointestinal peristalsis, regulate the digestive system, relieve constipation, and promote digestion and absorption by the human body.
In addition, cowpea contains a lot of potassium, calcium, iron and other metal elements, which is a good alkaline food, which can neutralize the pH value in the body and resist fatigue.
A delicious way to eat beans
Cowpea is high in protein, and nutritionists also recommend that long-term vegetarians can use cowpea to supplement the nutrients needed by the body, and some people even call it "meat food in vegetables".
Stir-fried cowpeas with pork belly
Ingredients: 300g cowpea, 200g pork, 1 shallot, 30g garlic, 3g salt, 5g light soy sauce, 3g dark soy sauce, 5g cooking wine, 2g starch, 2g five-spice powder, a little chicken powder, appropriate amount of cooking oil
Method:
1. Wash the pork to control the moisture, cut it into shredded meat and put it in a bowl, add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, cooking wine, five-spice powder, starch, stir well, and marinate for 15 minutes.
2. Remove the head and tail of the cowpea, clean it, and cut it into small pieces for later use.
3. Add an appropriate amount of water to the pot, boil over high heat, put a little salt and cooking oil, then put the cowpeas into the pot, blanch for about 2 minutes, until the cowpeas are broken, remove and set aside.
4. Heat the wok, pour in the cooking oil, pour the pork into the pan and slide it off, and fry for 2 minutes until the pork changes color and breaks off.
5. Add green onion and garlic and stir-fry until fragrant, then add blanched cowpeas, stir-fry evenly, then turn to low heat, cover and simmer for 2 minutes.
6. Finally, add salt and light soy sauce to taste, then add chicken powder to improve freshness, and stir-fry evenly.
Stir-fried eggplant with cowpeas
Ingredients: 1 small handful of cowpeas, 1 eggplant, 1 slice of ginger, 2 cloves of garlic, 3 chives, 3 grams of salt, 3 grams of sugar, 5 grams of oyster sauce, 5 ml of light soy sauce, 15 ml of water starch
Method:
1. Remove the head and tail of the cowpea, wash and cut into 4 cm long sections, wash the eggplant with the skin and cut it into 4 cm long segments, peel and shred the ginger, peel and slice the garlic, and cut the chives into sections.
2. After the water in the pot boils, add a little salt, blanch the cowpea segment for 20 seconds, and then blanch the eggplant segment for 20 seconds, then remove it at the same time, drain the water separately, and press it in the fence to squeeze out the water in the dish.
3. Heat the pot, pour in the oil, heat over high heat, when the oil temperature is 5 hot, put in the ginger shreds, garlic slices, green onion segments, stir-fry the fragrance, first put in the eggplant strips, stir-fry over medium heat for 1 minute, then put in the cowpea section and stir-fry a few times, add salt, sugar, oyster sauce, light soy sauce and stir-fry well, add about 100 ml of water, change to medium heat and fry for about 2 minutes, pour in water starch to thicken.
Cowpeas with garlic paste
Ingredients: 1 small handful of cowpeas, garlic, sesame oil, vegetable oil, Sichuan pepper, salt, monosodium glutamate
Method:
1. Wash the beans (green beans), put them in a pot of boiling water and blanch them thoroughly, then cool them with cool boiled water, remove and drain the water;
2. Mash the garlic into a puree;
3. Put the peppercorns into the hot oil pan and fry the pepper oil;
4. Put the beans into the plate, add refined salt, monosodium glutamate, garlic paste, pepper oil, sesame oil, and mix well.
Don't forget these things
First, it must be cooked! Cowpeas contain phytoerythrocyte agglutinin and saponin, which can destroy the oxygen transport capacity of red blood cells and the cells in the digestive tract, causing hemorrhagic inflammation of the intestines!
Second, people who are allergic to beans should not eat it. Beans may also become an allergen, if you are allergic to beans, eating beans may cause skin redness, frequent diarrhea, indigestion, headache, sore throat, asthma and other allergic symptoms, so such people should also avoid eating beans.
Third, because beans will produce too much gas during digestion and absorption, which is easy to cause bloating, people with bloating, functional dyspepsia, and chronic digestive tract diseases should eat as little as possible.
In addition, fresh cowpeas will have a beany smell, which can be removed in the following two ways.
Method (1): Blanch water to quickly remove odors. Moreover, adding a small amount of salt when blanching can increase the bottom taste, and adding a small amount of white sugar can also maintain the emerald green color~
Method (2): Cowpea deodorization mainly depends on acidity. Vinegar can be added appropriately when stir-frying. There is plenty of time, and you can also make capers by home-made fermentation.
Homemade capers
Ingredients: 1 handful of cowpeas (about 500 grams), 4 small red peppers, 1000 grams of water, a little high liquor, 100 grams of salt, 30 grams of rock sugar
Method:
1. After the glass bottle is washed, scald it with boiling water and dried it for later use. Wash the cowpeas.
2. Put an appropriate amount of water in the pot, add salt and rock sugar, turn off the heat after boiling, and let it cool completely.
3. Roll the cowpeas into a roll, put them in a jar, and add a few small peppers. Pour in the cooled brine, then pour in 2 tablespoons of high liquor, no more than nine minutes of the height of the jar. Then cover with plastic wrap, screw the lid on and marinate in the shade.
4. Basically, after a week, you can eat it when you see that the color of the beans has completely changed.
Source: Traditional Chinese Medicine Health WeChat Public Account (ID: zyys099)
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