Nutrition Info For Asian Veggies

[KathyO'Flanery]

Does anyone know where i can find a good site for nutritional info for asian greens?

I like to buy asian greens over the usual american stuff cos i find it's much fresher to shop in Chinatown, plus they have the most unusal stuff and a lot of it is heirloom...basically weeds that have been unaltered by human progress.

I'm looking for info about Perilla in particular...but it would be helpful to know about the other stuff I'm buying too.

For those of you who have never had Perilla before i can't say enough good things about it, and would recommend trying some in a green salad replacing your lettuce. It's a very crisp dark green leaf, but it's tender and isn't difficult to eat raw like Kale, swiss chard or many of our herbs.
It's very much like a fragrant lettuce...but I'm guessing a lot more healthier.

I bought some seedlings from a street vendor in Chinatown for this type of perilla, just cos they looked good, but i was so surprised at how good it tasted.

File:Kkk.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I was told it was a sesame plant, but it's closely related to mint, however it doesn't have a strong taste like mint but a very nice fragrance and mild taste.
I have the Korean kind growing right now, and they are by far my favourite green...I'd like to know what sort of nutrients it has.
For those of you who want to try it, the wiki, says they are readily available at korean/japanese grocery stores.
Perilla - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[oyaji poi]

I don't think most people would want to replace all their lettuce with perilla leaf. It's quite pungent. I usually chop up 1-2 leaves and mix them in with shredded cabbage or chopped lettuce. That way the flavour comes in along with other veggie flavours instead of dominating.

That is how it is usually used in Japan, as an addition to other foods. It's also used to wrap sashimi and in some sushi rolls.

I don't know about the nutritional profile, only that it tastes good.

 

[KathyO'Flanery]

I don't think most people would want to replace all their lettuce with perilla leaf. It's quite pungent. I usually chop up 1-2 leaves and mix them in with shredded cabbage or chopped lettuce. That way the flavour comes in along with other veggie flavours instead of dominating.

That is how it is usually used in Japan, as an addition to other foods. It's also used to wrap sashimi and in some sushi rolls.

I don't know about the nutritional profile, only that it tastes good.

Wiki says the Japanese variety and the Korean one have distinctly different tastes.
I can only speak for the korean kind, and it is very mild, but I'd like to try the japanese kind as well.

Perilla complements meat nicely. I would prefer this to grape leaves for wrapping ground beef. It's much nicer than spinach, doesn't have that medicinal taste or that sticky texture like raw spinach does. Romaine can have a strange after taste, but Korean Perilla doesn't.
Also, the leaves aren't covered in sand like most lettuces are, so very quick rinse and your done.
It's very hard to find a pleasant tasting leafy green besides the typical lettuces that can be enjoyed raw, so i feel like this is a pretty good find...

it's a shame there is no nutrient info, i bet it's very healthy, the leaves are dark green with a purple tinge and they grow very well organically.

 

[turbozed]

Oh shizzle it's tia to.

Seriously though, this is a great topic which hasn't been brought up here too often.

The asian supermarket has so many varieties of leafy greens and they're all ludicrously cheap in comparison to the supermarket greens. It'd be a good resource to figure out the nutritional values of each of the popular varieties. I know the round eye buy bok choy at the local supermarket but there's probably a dozen other greens varieties that I have no idea about.

 

[KathyO'Flanery]

Can any asians perhaps help us out?
With the influx of health awareness in those countries, people are bound to be interested in nutrient value of food over there as well.
So there might be sites with this info, but we just can't read them because of the language barrier.

 

[dnj23]

It's probably similar to that of mint. Green edible leaves seem to all share high amounts of vitamins A, C, and K, moderate amount of minerals, and some fiber. I highly doubt it wouldn't resemble such a profile.