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The Two Sides of Cilantro

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By Brenda Hyde and Lucinda Jenkins

Posted July 29th, 2007

FabulousFoods.com Recommends: Cilantro Secrets (Cook West) (Cook West), by Gwyneth Doland, (2006, Rio Nuevo)

Cilantro Secrets (Cook West) (Cook West)

Like most herbs, there are two sides to cilantro: the culinary and the medicinal. For centuries people have used plants and herbs of all sorts for their apparent health giving qualities. How convenient that something so healthy can also add so much flavor to our daily diets.

To explore the two sides of cilantro, we've enlisted the help of Brenda Hyde, editor of SeedsOfKnowledge.com, a website dedicated to creating and sharing family memories, and Lucinda Jenkins, editor of GlenbrookFarm.com, a comprehensive herbal website. We've filled this article out with some recipes from right here at FabulousFoods.com, so you can experiment with the distinctive flavor of cilantro yourself. Find them in the related recipes section below.

The Culinary Side of Cilantro
By Brenda Hyde

Cilantro is actually the leaves of coriander. The tiny round seeds are also a wonderful seasoning, but today we are focusing on the leaves. Cilantro is successfully grown where the summers are dry, and not humid. The seeds are planted after the danger of frost has passed. The plant grows to about two feet and does best if staked.

I buy my cilantro simply because my space is limited and it is readily available and inexpensive. A little goes a long way!

Cilantro does not dry well. It should be used fresh or you can freeze it if need be. Small resealable bags would work well for this. It is the perfect herb to use in any salsa recipe. Even if you are using canned ingredients, cilantro will add a fresh taste to your salsa. Adding it chopped to a chicken and rice dish while cooking will add new flavor to the recipe.

Use small amounts when experimenting because it does have a strong, unique flavor. Once you try cilantro you will be looking for ways to use it in your cooking!

The Medicinal Side of Cilantro
By Lucinda Jenkins

According to the interesting studies by Dr Yoshiaki Omura, made public in June of 1998 , and discovered almost by accident, leaves of the coriander plant can accelerate the excretion of mercury, lead and aluminum from the body.

While he was testing for those metals, Dr. Omura noticed the mercury level in the urine increased after one consumed a healthy serving of Vietnamese soup. The soup has a lot of Chinese parsley or cilantro. He continued along this line of testing and found that eating cilantro also increased the amount of lead and aluminun in the urine meaning it was drawing the deposited metals out of the body.

He also found that organisms seemed to hide and flourish in area of the body where there were concentrations of heavy metals like mercury, lead and aluminum. Somehow the organisms were able to use the toxic metals to protect themselves from the antibiotics.

Cilantro tea is also know to settle an upset stomach and is classified as an antispasmodic and stomachic.