Foodie Friday- CILANTRO

Happy Friday! And happy first day of fall! Ironically, today the featured food fits more in the summer category, but since there are still some fresh tomatoes and avocados around, now is a great time to enjoy….CILANTRO aka coriander.

pic found here

And now is also a good time if you have a cilantro plant growing outside (way to go Mom!) that will die soon due to frost. Sorry that sounded kind of morbid. haha

I am a big fan of cilantro. Love the fresh flavor.

Cilantro is used a lot here in VZ. In almost everything. Adobo and cilantro are like the salt and pepper of Venezuelan cuisine.

I knew cilantro was delicious, but had no idea it was healthy.

Healthy Facts- 

• Cilantro herb contains no cholesterol; but is rich in anti-oxidants and dietary fiber which help reduce LDL or "bad cholesterol" while increasing HDL or "good cholesterol" levels.
• Cilantro is a good source of numerous anti-oxidants, potassium, calcium, manganese, iron,  magnesium, folic-acid, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin-A, beta carotene, vitamin-C.
• It provides 6748 IU of vitamin-A per 100 g, about 225% of recommended daily intake.
• Cilantro is one of the richest herbal sources for vitamin K.

info from: http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/cilantro.html

Who knew this little herb was so full of vitamins??

Some of my favorite cilantro recipes are...

• Traditional VZ Homemade chicken soup with fresh cilantro- To a boiling pot of water, add chicken (could be chopped up chicken breast or legs, thighs etc), chopped up veggies (carrots, celery, chives, cilantro, etc), and spices (salt, pepper, chicken bouillon cube, etc).  Let boil for about 30 minutes, then let simmer for up to an hour. Like other recipes that have cilantro, I add another ½ cup or so a few minutes before taking the soup off the heat to give it more of a cilantro flavor. (The cilantro added earlier loses most of it’s flavor). And if you are really a cilantro fan, you can add some on top of the dish as a garnish. Serve with lime wedges so peeps can squeeze some lime juice in their soup. Yum.  Serve with rice.
• In salad. Just chop it up in extra small pieces because if you eat a whole sprig of cilantro you may be getting more cilantro flavor than you bargained for.
• In omelettes. I like the combo of tomato/onion/cheese/cilantro in omelettes.
• In chili.
• Guacamole 
• Pollo guisado
• Salsa, Pico de Gallo, or almost any other Latin dish.

Now it’s your turn! If you have a cilantro recipe from your blog/website that you’d like to share, link up below!

Or if you have a favorite cilantro recipe online that’s from someone else’s site, you can post the link as a comment.

Last Friday, I blogged about oatmeal. Click here in case you missed it!

Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend!!