The Health Benefits of Cilantro
- Your Serene Health
- Jul 3
- 2 min read
Cilantro is a cute little green herb that can be pretty versatile. Sadly for many, it can taste like soap due to a genetic variation that can detect compound that is also found in soap. However, for us lucky ones, we can enjoy this inexpensive and easily found herb and any major grocery store and can even be grown in your garden if you wish!
Why eat cilantro? Aside from the freshness it offers for food, it provides nutrients that are difficult to consume these days. A quarter cup of fresh cilantro can provide roughly:
65% of your RDA of vitamin A. Vitamin A is great for the skin and the immune system. So, around cold and flu season, add a little more cilantro to your diet!
17% RDA of vitamin C. It's common knowledge that C is a great immune booster but did you know it also aids in would healing and even oral health.
20% RDA of vitamin K. K is very important and many of us are deficient in it. It works with Vitamin D and Calcium for bone health.
Folate, Calcium, and Iron. While cilantro provides a small amount of these nutrients, it's always important maintain a healthy daily dose and adding cilantro can help with these small amounts. As we always say, every little bit helps!
At first, you may wonder how on earth do I use this very unique herb? All Mexican food dishes can have cilantro sprinkled over the top. Many salsas and enchilada sauces contain cilantro in them. You can add chopped cilantro to several Indian dishes to counterbalance the sweet flavors with a dash of freshness. Add a bit to your garden salad, too! It'll give a nice pop to the flavors. Add it to pasta salads in the summer, make cilantro lime chicken or cilantro rice. Cilantro can be as commonplace in the kitchen as say, basil and oregano!
Buy it fresh, wash and dry it immediately after coming home and store in the fridge for about a week. It's all ready now to grab and toss into your food. You can even eat the stems if you like though I prefer to take off most of the stem and only use the leaves and tops of the stems.
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