Why are cowpea beans called peas? The composition and useful properties of the plant. Are there any contraindications for eating, especially cooking and recipes. Dishes from this plant are included in the diet for losing weight: if you use them 2 times a day in the treatment of obesity, you can quickly expel excess fluid from the body.
Useful properties of cowpea
Cowpea, cowpea, has attracted the interest of culinary specialists due to its delicate taste and rich vitamin composition: thanks to its high content of nutrients, it is possible to quickly restore the reserve of nutrients necessary for normal life.
Also, the beneficial properties of asparagus beans include:
- A mild laxative effect that stimulates the acceleration of metabolic processes - peas are recommended to be introduced into the diet for diseases of the intestines and digestive tract with a tendency to constipation.
- Enveloping effect - starch in the composition allows you to use the product in case of peptic ulcer disease or erosive damage to the stomach or duodenum in history.
- Strengthening muscles and increasing their tone has made this product one of the staples in the diet of American bodybuilders - it contains a large amount of protein.
- Eliminates excess fluid from the body thanks to the presence of a balanced potassium-sodium complex.
- It has a cleansing effect on the liver, helps to remove accumulated toxins from it.
- Stimulates the dissolution of urinary salt accumulating in the joints and kidneys.
- Reduces acidity. With gastritis with high acidity, it is advised not only to introduce dishes from cowpea into the daily menu, but also to use mashed potatoes made from boiled seeds.
- Normalizes blood sugar levels due to the high amount of a special acid - arginine. Its action is similar to that of natural insulin.
- Reduces blood pressure.
Not only asparagus beans in dishes have a beneficial effect, but also tea brewed from the pods. After debilitating diseases, this drink will help you recover quickly, stimulate the hematopoietic system, and increase the production of red blood cells and erythrocytes.
Medical theorists from China and the United States, studying the properties of cowpea, found out that preference should be given to varieties with black beans. They have a very rare biological property - they do not accumulate heavy metals and excess fertilizers.
Harm and contraindications to the use of cowpea
There are no contraindications to the introduction of cowpea into the diet - green pea blades after cooking can be given to children upon reaching 1.5 years. In young children, the digestive system does not work stably enough, metabolic processes are accelerated, so it is irrational to give food that speeds up metabolism.
It should be emphasized again: you can eat asparagus lobia only after heat treatment. There is no way to eat raw beans like young green peas! They are poisonous, toxins are destroyed only after heating.
Individual intolerance may appear on cowpeas - in this case, no culinary treatment will help, you will have to refuse to add the product to the diet.
Cowpea recipes
In South and North America, cowpea dishes are eaten for breakfast, dinner and lunch - they are easy to prepare and have a high nutritional value, like all legumes. Since the yield of the crop is large, they are also interested in it in China and are now intensively cultivated. Half of the crop is usually frozen for use all year round.
Be sure to boil the beans before freezing to eliminate toxins. Cowpea recipes:
- Preparation for the winter … For harvesting, you need to collect unripe blades. The brine is made as follows: 20 g of table salt and 1 tablespoon of ordinary 9% vinegar are dissolved in one liter of water. Peppers to taste - you can use sweet peas, black and white. The cowpea is blanched in boiling water - it is better to boil water in a basin, then a metal colander with pods is immersed in it. To remove toxins, it is enough to boil for 5 minutes. Then the colander is removed, the water is allowed to drain, the cow peas are laid out in sterilized jars, poured over with boiling brine and covered with lids.
- Cheese salad with cowpea … If the beans are raw, boil them for 5 minutes before preparing the salad and leave to cool on a sieve to drain off excess liquid. You can add a little salt during cooking. About 20 cherry tomatoes are cut in half, mixed with 600 g of cowpea and 60 g of finely chopped feta cheese - can be replaced with any soft cheese. The cheese is best cut into thin slices. Salad dressing: olive oil - 3-5 tablespoons, apple cider vinegar - 1-3 tablespoons, any dry spices, to taste. It is better not to add chopped greens - this will change the taste of a rather delicate dish.
- American Breakfast - Roast Veigna … Beans are needed in pods - 400 g. The pods are cut into pieces 5-6 cm long and boiled for 5 minutes, then discarded in a colander. Garlic (a couple of cloves) and peanuts (2 tablespoons) are chopped, the chili pod is cut into rings. If you want to make the dish sharper, leave the seeds. Finely chop the green onion pod. Garlic is fried in vegetable oil, a tablespoon of soy sauce and bean pods are added, fried for 1-1.5 minutes, pepper, peanuts, green onions are added. As soon as an appetizing spicy smell appears, the chopped shallots are put in the same pan - about 60 g. One more minute - and the American breakfast is ready.
- Hot … The dish is very simple. Vigna - 500 g, zucchini - 250 g, the rest of the vegetables 1 piece each, small egg noodles - 200 g. Peel the vegetables, wash, boil the cowpea - this dish is enough for 2 minutes. Cut fresh cucumber and zucchini into even slices, bell pepper strips, cowpea - into 6 cm pieces. Boil the noodles until cooked, no need to add salt. Vegetable slices are fried in a frying pan in vegetable oil - for 10 minutes, then, without removing from the heat, pour in soy sauce. The fire is made very small, add noodles, cover with a lid and stand for 2-3 minutes - extinguish and salt. Serve hot, sprinkled with sesame seeds.
- Omelet with cowpea … Main ingredients: beans in pods and fresh sorrel - 200 g, eggs - 6 pieces, hard cheese - 70 g. All other components of the dish are taken 1 piece each. The onion is cut into beautiful half rings - not very thin so as not to fall apart, a large fleshy tomato and a piece of bread are turned into even cubes, the cheese is rubbed. Boil the cowpea for 5 minutes, let the water drain, cool, cut into slices 4-6 cm long. Heat the pan, pour sunflower oil into it, fry the ingredients in turn. First, onions, then bread, then beans, break eggs, tomatoes, and after 3-4 minutes sorrel. At this stage, spices are introduced - salt, dry spices to taste, everything is mixed. As soon as the sorrel darkens, sprinkle the contents with grated cheese, close the lid and wait for the cheese to melt. Chopped parsley and dill are added to each plate before serving.
- Chinese Chicken Wign … The dish is delicious, but before you begin to cook it, you should be patient. There are a lot of ingredients - just for the marinade, you will have to mix 2 tablespoons of hot water with half a glass of red wine, half a teaspoon of salt and cornstarch, half a table sugar, a little sesame oil, to taste white pepper and soda, just a little. It is worth boiling chicken broth in advance - half a glass. Raw chicken fillet (0.5 kg) is cut into strips and marinated for 2 hours in the refrigerator. It is desirable that the marinade is completely absorbed. When the fillet is marinated, it is fried for several minutes over high heat, then put in a colander, the flowing juice is collected. The cowpea and green onions are cut into 5-7 cm pieces, the chili peppers are cut diagonally. Soak the peel with 2 tangerines - it should become very soft, chop a small ginger root and 3 cloves of garlic. The cowpea is fried in a hot frying pan, removed, and allowed to cool. Add oil to the same pan, fry chili, ginger, garlic, add cowpea. Pour in broth, and when it boils, add diluted starch. Next, put meat and green onions in a pan, bring sesame oil to readiness. The dish is served hot.
Before putting cowpea in salads or in dishes with quick heat treatment, it must be boiled, in whatever form it is used - in pod blades or beans. If this process is neglected, you can get poisoned.
Interesting facts about cowpea
Cowpeas are not actually peas, they are beans, although they belong to the general legume family. Interestingly, the plant can be found in the wild only in Central and South America, in all other areas this annual plant is grown artificially.
Currently, breeders have bred more than 230 varieties of crops - with long and short pods, curly tendrils, growing in the form of bushes. There are varieties with pronounced pods for food use and with large beans. Unlike the pods of other legumes, cowpea blades do not have a parchment layer, so their structure is very delicate.
The main asparagus vegetable varieties that are grown for human consumption are Macaretti, Countess, Butter. They are suitable for sowing in the middle lane. Most varieties are planted on farmland - toxins in fresh pods are not dangerous for animals.
Watch a video about Winga peas:
