Adherents of a healthy diet say that salad crops just need to be included in your diet daily. However, for some reason they have not yet become widespread in our area, while salads of all varieties are very popular in Europe. Let's talk about such a variety of salad vegetables as watercress, the useful properties of which make it a leader among relatives (other salads). How is it useful?
Beneficial effects on human health
The list of all the positive properties of this unique vegetable is very extensive. It is worth mentioning his most impressive “achievements”:
- Antimicrobial, wound healing, expectorant, choleretic, diuretic, hypotensive effect.
- Prevention and treatment of insomnia, depression, nervous irritability, joint pain, thyroid disease, anemia and many other ailments.
- An unusually high nutritional value of leaves: all B vitamins and other important vitamins, trace elements (copper, sulfur, magnesium, iron, iodine, phosphorus, potassium), glycosides.
How can you grow cress at home ?
The useful properties of this culture are so obvious that some people grow it directly on the windowsill in their apartment, using containers with ground (about 8 cm of soil). This is easy to do. But the easiest way is to sow the seeds on a moistened tissue (two centuries ago, in the winter, watercress sprouts were obtained with wet felt). Very useful seedlings that watercress gives. Growing seeds in winter on cotton wool, gauze and even on wet paper laid on a pallet is very fast. After a week, you can cut the shoots and sow a new batch of lettuce again. Cut stems should be stored in a glass of water in a refrigerator.
How to eat watercress?
A photo of a step-by-step recipe for a very healthy homemade cress bread explains in detail how this vegetable can be used.
- Wash and chop the salad (you can use other types).
- Fry the stuffing for tortillas with olive oil using cress salad (the beneficial properties should be preserved as much as possible).
- Knead the dough soft (flour, water or milk, salt, a little vegetable oil and a spoonful of sugar).
- Roll it into a cake, put the fried salad leaves, roll it into a roll and roll it again into a round cake to the size of the pan.
- Fry on both sides in a preheated pan in olive oil. The cover must be kept closed. The fire should be small.
This bread is perfect for
barbecue (on the wire rack). The smell of fire and the spicy taste of salad make this bread cake delicious!
However, in everyday life, most often they use fresh cress. Useful properties in this case are better preserved. Shredded leaves are added to all first and second courses, vitamin green oil is prepared for sandwiches. Dried leaves are used as seasoning.
Attention! With all its useful properties, salad crops are strictly contraindicated for those who have impaired protein metabolism, who suffer from gout and the associated accumulation of purines in the body. Kidney stones (oxolate, urate and phosphate) also prevent salad vegetables from being eaten. Watercress should be excluded from the diet in case of exacerbation of gastrointestinal diseases (peptic ulcer, digestive disorders with acute intestinal disorders, duodenitis).