Best herbs in vegetarian Khmer food
14:14:24How many kinds of herbs do you know? There are many kinds of herbs in Cambodia, in particular when it comes to vegetarian Khmer food. They are an important part of an ingredients in cooking and used differently depending on the food. Herb plays a role in cooking for decoration, taste and adding flavor to food. More than this it is a crop that people can grow at home. Now we are going to tell you about some herbs that people in Cambodia love to use in food.
Rice paddy herb or ma om
Rice paddy grows almost everywhere in the field.There are two types of rice paddy herbs, one has green stem and leaves, other one is dark red and has a purple flower. Rice paddy herbs are an important ingredient for sweet and sour soup that you can not miss. Beside sweet and sour soup you also can use it as a vegetable with any vegetarian khmer food or add it to beef soup. It is often used as a decoration as well.
Spring onion in vegetarian Khmer food
This herb can be grown at home or grown by farmers to sell at the market. Spring Onion normally is use in Somlor sngor(សម្លស្ងោរ) or Soup as decoration. Also used as a vegetable in nearly every vegetarian Khmer food. In addition, spring onions also have benefits for health too.
Ivy (Sloekbeas in khmer)
Ivy is a simple one that most Khmer people know and easy to find. It is a type of vine that mostly grows on house fences. Mostly used as vegetable in dishes such as samlor korko, somlor brahare and boiled with pork. You can lean how to pick ivy and cook it with food with pork at our host Dary. She also offers cooking vegetarian Khmer food for you.
Lemon grass
Cambodians in general use lemongrass in cooking or as a medicine. With many benefits, lemon grass is one of people’s favorite homegrow. Lemongrass is used in Kreung, some kind of sweet and sour soup and somlor. More than this, Lemongrass has advantages for health and helps you to relax your mind as well.
These are just some of the herbs we mentioned. There are many other types of herbs that Cambodians use to make food, drink or processed into traditional medicine. Why not do cooking class with locals to get to know more herbs that they like to use in food?
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