Health Benefits of Sea Cucumber Chinese Food for Your Diet

As a nutritious tonic, sea cucumbers have always been loved by everyone. However, many people don’t know much about sea cucumbers. Today, I will give you a comprehensive scientific knowledge about sea cucumbers so that you can have a deeper understanding of sea cucumbers. But in China, we will make it into a delicacy!

Nutritional Profile of Sea Cucumbers

Protein
Sea cucumbers are rich in protein, with a content of more than 70%, which is an important component of muscles and bones. The protein of sea cucumbers is of high quality, cholesterol-free, and easy to digest and absorb. It is an ideal tonic for people who need to supplement nutrition, such as weak bodies and postoperative patients.

Amino acids
Sea cucumbers contain 18 kinds of amino acids, 8 of which are essential amino acids for the human body, including lysine and methionine. These amino acids play an important role in the growth and development, metabolism, and immune regulation of the human body. Especially for children and the elderly, it is very important to supplement enough amino acids for good health.

Trace elements
Sea cucumbers are rich in a variety of trace elements, such as iodine, selenium, iron, zinc, etc. These trace elements are essential for human health. They play important physiological functions in the human body, such as promoting metabolism, enhancing immunity, and anti-oxidation. Especially for pregnant women and lactating women, supplementing enough iodine and selenium helps the healthy growth of fetuses and babies.

Vitamins
Sea cucumbers contain a variety of vitamins, such as vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, etc. These vitamins are essential for human health. They play important physiological functions in the human body, such as promoting calcium absorption, maintaining normal visual function, and anti-oxidation. At the same time, sea cucumbers have a high content of vitamins and are a natural source of vitamins.

Other nutrients
In addition to the above ingredients, sea cucumbers also contain many other nutrients, such as collagen, chondroitin sulfate, etc. These ingredients also play an important role in human health, such as promoting bone growth and maintaining skin elasticity.

Comparison with Other Seafood

Although sea cucumbers are also caught from the sea, they are very different from other seafood varieties. Seafood refers to all foods that are eaten from marine and freshwater resources, such as fish, shrimp, crab, shellfish, etc. Sea cucumbers are a kind of shellfish mollusk in the ocean, not fish, shrimp or crab, so they cannot be equated with other seafood.

There are many kinds of seafood, which can be cooked in different ways, such as boiling, frying, steaming, and roasting. However, sea cucumbers require special cooking methods to be eaten. Sea cucumbers have a chewy texture and need to be boiled or salted to ensure their taste. Since sea cucumbers have a firm texture, they are not suitable for stir-frying or cold dishes. They are usually stewed or braised with other ingredients.

Health Benefits of Sea Cucumbers

• Nourishing the kidney and replenishing essence, removing dampness and strengthening yang, nourishing blood and moistening dryness, and promoting urination: Sea cucumbers have the effects of improving kidney function, enhancing sexual function, and beautifying the skin.
• Delaying aging: Collagen protein, arginine, chondroitin sulfate, phosphorus, selenium, niacin, silicon, etc. in sea cucumbers have the effects of prolonging life, eliminating fatigue, preventing and treating skin aging, and beautifying. In addition, arginine also has the ability to promote human cell regeneration and body damage repair.
• Improving memory: Eating sea cucumbers has a strong promoting effect on improving sleep and memory. The content of arginine in sea cucumbers is higher than that in other organisms, and it has a special effect on neurasthenia, so eating sea cucumbers has a significant effect on improving sleep.
• Anti-fatigue: Sea cucumbers are rich in acidic mucopolysaccharides and arginine, and have obvious body regulation functions and anti-fatigue.
• Regulating blood lipids: Frequent consumption of sea cucumbers can prevent cardiovascular disease, lower blood pressure, stimulate hematopoietic function, inhibit cholesterol synthesis, regulate blood lipids, etc.
• Regulate blood sugar: Sea cucumbers are “rich in arginine” and have special effects on kidney deficiency.
• Improve osteoporosis: Regular consumption of sea cucumbers can prevent rickets in children, osteoporosis and osteophyte disease in adults.
• Promote growth and development: Sea cucumbers contain chondroitin sulfate, which helps human growth and development, inhibits muscle aging, and delays human
• Inhibit tumors: Sea cucumber saponins inhibit tumors and can improve the body’s cell immunity. After long-term consumption, it is obviously not easy to catch a cold or get sick.
• Promote repair after damage: Because sea cucumbers contain a high content of arginine, they can promote the regeneration of body cells and the repair of body damage. They have special effects on the repair of body damage, which can significantly shorten the recovery time and provide comprehensive nutritional guarantees for weak patients and pregnant women.

Role in Traditional Chinese Medicine

The sea cucumber polysaccharides in sea cucumbers have immunomodulatory effects, which can enhance the body’s immunity and improve the body’s resistance to external pathogens and viruses. At the same time, the sea cucumber saponins in sea cucumbers also have multiple pharmacological effects such as anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant, and can be used to treat cancer, hepatitis, diabetes and other diseases.

How to Cook Sea Cucumber

Braised Sea Cucumber with Scallions（Recommended for beginners）

Prepare sea cucumbers: Soak the sea cucumbers in advance. Soak the dried sea cucumbers in water for at least 24 hours. Change the water several times during the soaking process to ensure that the sea cucumbers absorb water completely and become soft.

Prepare scallions, ginger and garlic: Wash the scallions and cut them into sections; cut the ginger into thin slices; mince the garlic and set aside.

Heat the pan and cool the oil: Add an appropriate amount of cooking oil to the pan, heat it up, add ginger slices and minced garlic and stir-fry until fragrant.

Add sea cucumbers: Add the soaked sea cucumbers into the pan, stir-fry quickly and evenly, and let the surface of the sea cucumbers fry slightly.

Seasoning: Add light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, cooking wine, and white sugar and stir-fry evenly to make the surface of the sea cucumbers evenly colored.

Add soup and stew: Add an appropriate amount of clear soup or water, the amount of soup slightly covers the sea cucumbers, and add scallion segments. Turn to low heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes. During this period, you can turn the sea cucumbers from time to time to ensure that they are well-flavored.

Final seasoning: When the soup thickens, add an appropriate amount of chicken essence to enhance the flavor, stir-fry again, sprinkle with chopped green onions before turning off the heat, and serve.

Tips:
Be patient when soaking the sea cucumber. The longer the soaking time, the better. Ensure that the sea cucumber absorbs all the water and has a more tender and smooth texture when cooked.

When frying the sea cucumber, control the heat well to avoid frying it too dry or too hard to maintain the fresh and tender texture of the sea cucumber.

Adding sugar can make the sea cucumber more flavorful and bring a slight sweetness, enhancing the layering of the dish.

Sea cucumber stewed chicken（Have certain cooking skills）

Prepare sea cucumbers: Soak the sea cucumbers in advance for 24 hours. During this period, you can change the water several times to ensure that the sea cucumbers are completely softened. After the sea cucumbers are soaked, cut them into sections for later use.

Prepare chicken: Cut the chicken into pieces. If you use free-range chicken, it is best to chop it into pieces. Chicken breasts or chicken legs can be cut into larger pieces. Wash it clean, drain the water and set aside.

Prepare a stew pot: Add an appropriate amount of clear soup or water to the stew pot, and adjust the water volume according to the capacity of the pot.

Blanch the chicken pieces: Add water to the pot and boil it. Add the chopped chicken pieces, add ginger slices and peppercorns (if used), and blanch them to remove the fishy smell. When the water boils again, remove the chicken pieces and rinse them with clean water to remove the blood foam.

Stew the chicken: Put the chicken pieces in a stew pot, add ginger slices and cooking wine. Slowly add broth or water and simmer for 30 minutes to 1 hour until the chicken is cooked through and the soup is rich.

Add sea cucumber and other ingredients: Add the soaked sea cucumber segments, wolfberry, red dates and scallops to the stew pot. Continue to simmer for about 20 minutes until the sea cucumber and chicken are fully blended, the sea cucumber is tender and the soup is rich and fragrant.

Seasoning and thickening the soup: Add appropriate amount of salt to taste, simmer for 5-10 minutes, and finally check the richness of the soup and the tenderness of the sea cucumber. After the soup is thickened, turn off the heat and serve on a plate.

Tips:
Soaking sea cucumber: The longer the sea cucumber is soaked, the better the taste. Make sure the water temperature is moderate when soaking the sea cucumber, avoid overheating or overcooling, and change the water from time to time during the soaking process.

Blanching chicken: Blanching is the key step to remove the fishy smell. Ginger slices, cooking wine and pepper can be added during the blanching process to remove the fishy smell and enhance the flavor.

Stewing time: When stewing chicken, the heat should be controlled well. The chicken should not be overcooked, and the meat should be kept tender and smooth. Sea cucumbers do not need to be stewed for a long time after being added, about 20 minutes is enough.