Arrowhead: A Detailed Guide to Its Nutrition, Benefits and Culinary Uses

Arrowhead is a common plant that people often eat and use in cooking. What are the benefits and effects of arrowhead? Let's take a look together below.

Arrowhead is a perennial herbaceous plant that grows in paddy fields, has arrow-shaped leaves and bears white flowers. It has an underground corm, yellowish-white or pale bluish-white, which is edible. It refers to the underground stem of this plant. It is a perennial aquatic herb of the genus Sagittaria in the family Alismataceae. It is a monocotyledonous plant without endosperm. Also known as scissors grass, swallowtail grass, etc. Its corm is eaten as a vegetable.

The Benefits and Effects of Arrowhead

The corm of arrowhead tastes sweet and astringent, is slightly warm in nature, and enters the lung and heart meridians; it can astringe the lungs, relieve cough, stop bleeding, and firm the intestines; it is mainly used to treat phlegm nodes and scrofula, masses, sores and boils, cough due to lung heat, panting and feeling of suffocation, palpitations and restlessness, edema, difficult urination and other ailments.

Arrowhead can be used not only as a vegetable but also has medicinal functions. Fresh arrowhead is chopped, added with an appropriate amount of rock sugar and soybean oil, and boiled; taking it before bedtime can treat hemoptysis caused by pulmonary tuberculosis. In addition, mash arrowhead and mix it evenly with ginger juice, then apply it to swollen and painful skin areas; it has anti-inflammatory, swelling-reducing and pain-relieving effects.

The Nutritional Value of Arrowhead

Arrowhead contains various alkaloids such as colchicine, and has anti-cancer and anti-tumor effects as well as detoxifying and carbuncle-dissipating effects, and is often used to prevent and treat tumors. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that arrowhead mainly resolves all kinds of toxins, can detoxify and reduce swelling, and promote urination, and is used to treat various unnamed swellings and toxic snake bites. Arrowhead contains a variety of trace elements and has a certain cardiotonic effect. At the same time, the water and other active ingredients contained in arrowhead have the effects of clearing lung heat and moistening the lungs to relieve cough.

How to Eat Arrowhead

Arrowhead is rich in nutrients, but how should it be eaten to bring out its best texture?

The main cooking methods for arrowhead are stir-frying, making soup, and braising. Braised arrowhead tastes very starchy, tender and smooth, but may have a slight astringent taste. Arrowhead soup is fresh and leaves a pleasant fragrance in the mouth. Stir-fried arrowhead is crisp and delicious. Whether stir-fried, in soup, or braised, the unique flavor of arrowhead always attracts people.

However, it is worth noting that arrowhead is not suitable for cooking together with vegetarian dishes. This is because when arrowhead is cooked with meat dishes, it absorbs some oil, which can neutralize the bitter and astringent taste of the arrowhead itself. If it is cooked with vegetarian dishes, arrowhead will also absorb the vegetable flavor and bitterness of other vegetables, thus becoming unusually bitter and unpalatable.

Arrowhead is an aquatic vegetable and has a strong ability to absorb and accumulate heavy metals such as lead, so the lead accumulation on the surface skin of arrowhead corms is relatively high. Therefore, when eating arrowhead, do not be afraid of the trouble; be sure to carefully remove the skin and pinch off the terminal bud.

How to Eat Arrowhead

Arrowhead paired with pork (or pork intestine), garlic, fried tofu, etc., can be made into dishes such as braised pork with arrowhead, "monk wearing a hat", and stir-fried lean meat with arrowhead slices, all crisp, fragrant and delicious, and it is one of the famous dishes of Liancheng at banquets.

Braised Pork with Arrowhead

Ingredients: 200 g pork belly, 300 g arrowhead

Auxiliary ingredients: 5 g shredded ginger, 10 g green garlic, 2 teaspoons cooking wine, 2 teaspoons dark soy sauce, sugar,

Method:

① Cut the pork belly into pieces (personally, I like to keep the skin on), and cut the arrowhead into pieces;

② Blanch the pork belly in water; heat oil in a wok to 50 percent hot, add the blanched pork belly and shredded ginger, and stir-fry until it changes color,

③ Pour in the arrowhead and stir-fry, then drizzle with cooking wine, soy sauce, sugar and a small amount of water,

④ After the pot comes to a boil, switch to low heat until the meat is soft and tender, then reduce the sauce

⑤ Plate it and sprinkle with chopped green garlic (preferably green garlic leaves) and it is ready.

The above is an introduction to the nutrition and benefits of arrowhead. I hope it is helpful to you.