Sam greens are a cooling food with good drought tolerance, so they still grow well in the summer. The period from June to August every year is considered the “sam greens season.” They grow a lot in empty spaces, along the edges of fields, canals… with moist soil.
Although just a wild vegetable, sam greens contain many nutrients such as potassium, vitamins, protein, iron… and other nutrients. In fact, the potassium content in sam greens is 20 times higher than that in avocado. If you eat sam greens regularly, you can strengthen the immune system, detoxify, cool down, and improve vision…
Perhaps that’s why many people call this vegetable the “life-prolonging vegetable.” Despite its nutritional benefits, many Vietnamese people don’t know how to eat sam greens. Most people just feed them to pigs and chickens. Meanwhile, sam greens have a sour taste, juicy stems, so they are delicious and suitable for the summer. Let’s learn how to make a sam greens salad with an easy recipe below.
1. Ingredients for sam greens salad
– Sam greens: 400 grams
– Toasted sesame seeds
– Seasonings: 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, sugar, 1 tablespoon of vinegar, ½ tablespoon of sesame oil, MSG
2. Steps to make sam greens salad
Step 1: Prepare the ingredients
– After buying sam greens, remove the old, yellowed or worm-infested stems and wash them several times with clean water.
– Because this vegetable grows close to the ground, you need to soak them in diluted saltwater for about 5 minutes to remove sand, dust, insects… then remove them from the water to drain.
Step 2: Slightly cook the sam greens
– Put a pot of water on the stove, add a few drops of cooking oil and a little salt, then bring to a boil. Next, blanch the sam greens for about 30 seconds, then remove and immediately put them into a bowl of cold water. This method helps the sam greens stay green, crispy, and shiny.
Step 3: Mix the dressing
– Take a large bowl, add 3 tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds, 1 tablespoon of vinegar, 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, ½ tablespoon of sesame oil, a little MSG, sugar, and 1 tablespoon of filtered water.
– Mix well to dissolve the ingredients and blend together.
Step 4: Mix the sam greens with the dressing
– Place the blanched sam greens in a bowl and gradually pour the dressing over them. To avoid making the salad too salty or bland, you can divide the dressing into several portions to pour over the greens. To make the dish more appealing, you can add a little finely chopped chili to make the sam greens salad spicy and attractive.
After finishing the sam greens salad, it will have a cool, appealing color. When eating, you can feel the refreshing, crispy, and flavorful taste of the greens.
3. Notes when preparing sam greens salad
– Although sam greens are a nutritious ingredient and good for health, they belong to the cooling food group. Therefore, you should not eat too much of this vegetable at once, especially if you have a weak spleen, diarrhea, cold abdomen…
3 Delicious and Affordable Vegetables that are Better than Multivitamins
These vegetables are often referred to as longevity vegetables, as they are highly nutritious and provide numerous health benefits. So, don’t overlook them when it comes to preparing delicious meals.
