Morning glory soup should be squeezed with lemon or pickled with star fruit?

I usually squeeze lemon into the water spinach soup, but my mother-in-law likes pickled star fruit because she thinks it is sweeter and more nutritious. Please advise. (Thu, 29 years old, Ha Nam ).

Reply:

In the summer, people need to eat cool, refreshing soup. Vegetable broth when squeezed with lemon or pickled with star fruit both increase the sour taste, creating a more delicious feeling. Ripe star fruit contains 86% water, in addition to calcium, iron and vitamin C. Lemon is rich in vitamin C, low in calories. A lemon is only about 20 calories and nearly 90% water. Therefore, squeezing lemon or pickled with star fruit both provide vitamin C, helping to cool down and refresh. Depending on each person's taste, some people are used to eating star fruit, some people like to eat lemon, even kumquat is good.

However, lemons are available all year round, easy to find, preserve, and prepare. You just need to cut the fruit in half and put it directly into the soup. Lemons can also be used daily, with more diverse functions.

The season for star fruit only lasts from May to August every year. Late June to early July is the best time to store and preserve star fruit. If you want to eat it all year round, you must store star fruit in the refrigerator.

You should peel the crocodile skin before storing it in the freezer to avoid it being astringent when cooking. Do not leave the crocodile skin in the freezer and then defrost it before peeling it, as it will be soft and difficult to peel. If you are afraid of peeling, you can go to a shop that specializes in peeling crocodile skin very quickly and evenly.

In addition, the process of selecting and processing the fruit is also more complicated. You should choose fresh, newly picked star fruit, with the stem still intact, the fruit has a bright green color, thick flesh, and slightly rough skin. You should not choose bruised or crushed fruit, or choose young star fruit. Young star fruit often has a light green skin, soft seeds, while too old star fruit has large seeds and thin flesh. To preserve it for a long time, you can put lemon and star fruit in the refrigerator. Lemon should be left whole, and star fruit should be divided into bags.

Note that lemon and star fruit are both very sour, so they are not good for people with digestive, stomach, or colon diseases. You should not eat star fruit or lemon when you are hungry because the acid can harm the stomach and cause stomach upset and discomfort. Children under one year old should also limit their use.

Physician Bui Dac Sang

Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi Oriental Medicine Association

Source link