Can the stems of Amaranthus be eaten? How to eat them? What are their effects?

Amaranthus is a very delicious vegetable that contains many trace elements needed by the human body. In our daily life, we usually eat amaranth leaves, but can we eat amaranth stems? How to eat it?

Can the stems of Amaranthus be eaten?

Whether the young amaranth is green or red, it tastes good. There are two most important things to do: one is to smash a few garlic cloves, and the other is to use a high fire and heat the oil. There is a saying in my hometown that describes impatient people who fail to do good things, which is "you can't wait for the red pot to stir-fry amaranth", which is exactly this. Amaranth is easy to get old, and the stems are old first. People who know how to eat are not annoyed. They pick up a low stool and sit down, pinch off the tender parts, put the stems aside, and while talking, slowly peel the skin, put it on a plate, dip it in salt and pinch it twice, and expose it to the sun for a few hours. Before it dries up, take it home, cut some red pepper strips, stir-fry it with vegetable oil, and serve it on a white porcelain plate. It is not only beautiful, but also goes well with rice, especially porridge. This takes a lot of time and patience, so most people can't do it. Especially for large quantities of amaranth stems, it would be a pity to waste them, but if you peel them, wouldn't it be fatal? This is not a problem for us, a country of food. Zhou Zuoren recorded the way people in Zhejiang did it. When the amaranth grows to the height of a person, "when the muscles are full, remove the leaves and take the stems, cut them into pieces about an inch long, pickle them with salt and store them in a clay pot; wait for fermentation and they are ready, and can be eaten raw or cooked." That means they don't peel them, and such a large project cannot be done lightly. But how can we eat them without peeling them? Is it like chewing sugar cane? Mr. Zhitang didn't say.

What is incompatible with Atractylodes?

Fermented salt has a bad smell. I dare not imagine chewing it slowly and spitting out the residue. Fortunately, Mr. Wang Zengqi gave the answer. The method is exactly the same. When talking about eating, Mr. Wang described it vividly: "After the salt is cooked, the outer skin is hard and the core is jelly-like. Hold one end and suck it, and the core meat will enter your mouth. This is a great dish for porridge. We call it '莧菜秆', and Hunanese people call it '莧菜咕' because it makes a '咕' sound when you suck it up." What a good word! The word "jelly-like" has explained everything. Zhitang may have never seen jelly, so it is difficult for him to express it so clearly. The name "莧菜咕" is really wonderful. It can make people imagine the state of sucking, the soft touch of "jelly" sucked on the tongue, and the smell that makes people want to stop. I have been to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but because I was a guest, the dishes served by the host did not have this flavor, and I didn't want to ask for it, for fear of being looked at sideways. When the old man Zhitang talked about 莧菜, he mentioned Li Shizhen. "Compendium of Materia Medica" reprinted a saying that 莧菜 and 鲅 cannot be eaten together, and did an experiment: dig a piece of 鲅肉 the size of a bean, wrap it with 莧菜 and bury it, and after one night, it all turned into a small 鲅肉, which is really surprising. Just like the ancients said "rotten grass becomes firefly", it is okay as a fairy tale, but if it is a literary document, it is really not praiseworthy. I think Li Shizhen just had doubts. If his words were accurate, then the Compendium of Materia Medica would be questionable. Li Shizhen was able to "chew the roots of vegetables", so he could "do everything". He went through hardships and almost died before he wrote the magnificent work "Compendium of Materia Medica". If he had not insisted on revising the Compendium of Materia Medica in the Imperial Medical College, then as a leader's health doctor, he would have lived a comfortable and leisurely life as a civil servant, and there would be no classic Chinese medicine. The stems of amaranth are harder than ordinary vegetable roots, and the taste is certainly not as good as delicacies from the mountains and the sea. The Chinese who can chew amaranth stems can endure hardships and find fun in the hardships, so there is a 5,000-year-old Chinese civilization. Of course, amaranth stems are indeed very tasty.