A Complete Guide to Chicory: Season, Food Pairing Taboos, and Delicious Recipes
Chicory is a fairly common vegetable in daily life, and eating it in moderation can bring many benefits to the body, so in what season is chicory generally available? What should it not be eaten with? How can it be cooked deliciously? Chicory is an annual or biennial herbaceous plant of the Asteraceae family, Cichorium genus, distributed in southern Europe and Nanjing, China, and other places. It prefers cool climates and bolts in early summer. Its tender leaves are edible, so chicory can be eaten in summer.
Chicory tastes sweet with a slight bitterness, is emerald green in color, and can be stir-fried or served cold. It is an excellent food for clearing heat and reducing internal fire, and also has antibacterial, antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, and eyesight-improving effects. Because it has the effect of clearing heat and relieving summer heat, it is widely praised.
Chicory Growing Environment
Chicory is a mesophytic sun-loving plant that grows on mountain slopes or at forest edges in valleys, under forests, in flat fields, in open areas, or near water, at an altitude of 170-3200 m. It is distributed almost worldwide. It likes water, is fond of fertilizer, and is not tolerant of drought. It prefers moist, fertile, and loose soil, and can grow in soils ranging from sandy soil to clay soil with a pH between 4.5–8.9, but grows best in slightly acidic to neutral sandy loam. It has difficulty adapting to environments such as drought, compacted and infertile soil, dense native grass communities, or forest land with a canopy density greater than 0.4. Chicory has relatively strong cold resistance. In temperate regions, it can grow seedlings with well-developed root systems in autumn, and its underground parts can successfully overwinter; in regions south of the subtropics, seedlings can overwinter with green leaf rosettes. It can grow slowly when the temperature reaches 5°C, and even under short-term low temperatures of –10°C, the seedlings can remain green; in regions south of the mid-subtropics, it can still grow in winter and can even flower and set seed.
What Chicory Should Not Be Eaten With
(1) Scallion
Chicory is also not suitable to be eaten with scallion. Eating large amounts will affect the absorption of various nutrients in food, and in severe cases may also lead to indigestion and diarrhea.
(2) Honey
Chicory is rich in vitamin C. After chicory reacts with the mineral copper and iron ions in honey, vitamin C will be destroyed. At the same time, honey has a laxative effect, and chicory contains a lot of dietary fiber. Eating the two together may cause diarrhea in severe cases.
(3) White shrimp
Chicory is rich in vitamin C, while white shrimp contains a lot of arsenic substances. Eating large amounts of the two foods together will cause a chemical reaction and generate arsenic pentoxide, leading to arsenic poisoning in severe cases. Therefore, chicory should not be eaten with white shrimp, and it is best not to eat chicory with seafood.
What Chicory Is Good to Eat With
(1) Chicory + jellyfish skin
After chicory and jellyfish skin are served cold, the flavor is enhanced and appetite is promoted. This cold dish can also dilate blood vessels, lower blood pressure, prevent arteriosclerosis, clear heat and resolve phlegm, and is beneficial for treating diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.
(2) Chicory + peanut
Peanuts contain oil and a special aroma. Pairing chicory with peanuts can balance the oiliness of peanuts and enhance the aroma of the cold dish. It has effects such as improving appetite, resolving phlegm and moistening the lungs, clearing heat and detoxifying, and cooling blood and stopping bleeding.
Who Should Not Eat Chicory
Because chicory is cold in nature, people with weak spleen and stomach should best not eat it, so as not to aggravate bodily cold-deficiency; chicory can promote digestion and relieve constipation, so people with diarrhea are not suitable to eat it to avoid worsening diarrhea symptoms, and patients with high blood viscosity should also not eat chicory.
How Much Chicory Is Good to Eat Per Day
Although chicory is highly nutritious, it should not be eaten in large amounts. Generally, a normal person should eat 80-100 grams each time. Because chicory is cold in nature, eating too much may cause spleen and stomach cold-deficiency and affect health; chicory is mostly eaten cold dressed, without high-temperature sterilization or other treatment, so there may be problems such as pesticide residues or pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, chicory should not be eaten in large amounts.
The Value and Benefits of Chicory
1. Preventing and treating anemia, relieving summer heat and promoting health
Chicory is rich in carotene, vitamin C, potassium salts, calcium salts, and others, and has a good effect on preventing and treating anemia, maintaining normal physiological activities of the human body, promoting growth and development, and relieving summer heat and promoting health.
2. Clearing heat and detoxifying, sterilizing and reducing inflammation
Chicory contains components such as taraxasterol and choline, and has a strong bactericidal effect on drug-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus and hemolytic streptococcus. It also has a certain killing effect on Diplococcus pneumoniae, meningococcus, Corynebacterium diphtheriae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus dysenteriae, and others. Therefore, it has certain therapeutic effects on icteric hepatitis, pharyngitis, bacillary dysentery, cold and fever, chronic bronchitis, tonsillitis, and others.
3. Preventing and treating cancer
Chicory water decoction has a significant inhibitory effect on blood cell deoxygenase in patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia and acute and chronic myelogenous leukemia, and can also be used to prevent and treat cervical cancer, rectal cancer, and anal cancer.
Chicory Recipes
Cold Dressed Chicory
Ingredients: appropriate amounts each of chicory, red pepper, salt, vinegar, light soy sauce, sesame oil, white sugar, and a little sesame
Method:
1. After washing the chicory, blanch it in hot water, take it out, drain the water, and set aside.
2. Add salt, light soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, sesame oil, and black sesame to the chicory and mix well.
Features: Crisp and delicious, appetizing and strengthening the spleen.
Chicory and White Fungus Salad
Ingredients: white fungus, chicory, cherry tomatoes, salt, monosodium glutamate, sesame oil, black pepper, white sugar, white vinegar
Method:
1. Soak the white fungus, remove the stems and wash it clean; wash the cherry tomatoes and cut each into four pieces; remove the roots of the chicory, rinse it clean, drain the water, and set aside.
2. Add water to a pot and bring to a boil. After the water boils, add the white fungus and blanch it, then remove it and cool it in cold water. Put white sugar in a small bowl.
3. Add white vinegar, monosodium glutamate, sesame oil, and salt and stir evenly.
4. Add crushed black pepper, put the white fungus, cherry tomatoes, and chicory in a basin, add the mixed seasonings, and mix well.
Features: Sweet and sour, it can strengthen the stomach and aid digestion, and beautify and resist aging.
Stir-Fried Chicory with Eggs
Ingredients: chicory, eggs, appropriate amount of peanut oil, appropriate amount of refined salt
Method:
1. Wash the chicory and cut it into sections, and set aside 2 eggs.
2. Add oil to a pot and stir-fry the eggs until cooked.
3. Add the chicory and continue stir-frying until it softens, then add the seasonings and stir-fry evenly before removing from the pot.
Features: Delicious and nutritious, it can nourish blood and prevent cancer.
Chicory with Crispy Peanuts
Ingredients: appropriate amounts each of chicory, salt, soy sauce, chicken essence, fragrant vinegar, sesame oil, chili oil, white sugar, and red pepper
Method:
1. Deep-fry the peanut kernels until crispy and set aside; wash the chicory and red pepper, and soak them in purified water with a small amount of salt.
2. Shred the red pepper and put it in a bowl, then add salt, chicken essence, white sugar, sesame oil, chili oil, soy sauce, and fragrant vinegar for seasoning.
3. Mix the shredded red pepper evenly, pinch the chicory into pieces by hand and put them in a bowl for seasoning, add the fried peanut kernels, mix evenly, plate, and serve.
Features: Sour and spicy with a slight bitterness, it can relieve summer heat and prevent cancer.