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2012-02-28

Shungiku garland chrysanthemum













Glebionis coronaria

An edible chrysanthemum with a distinctive taste and aroma. This cold-season vegetable is a common ingredient in various nabe hot pots. It is also eaten raw as salad, blanched, sauteed, deep-fried, and so on. Just like with any strong-flavored vegetable, shungiku's taste softens somewhat when cooked or combined with oil or oil-rich ingredients such as nuts.

Shungiku's distinctive aroma comes from its essential oil constituents, including perillaldehyde (most abundantly found in shiso perilla leaves) and α-pinene (found in pine resin); they condition the stomach and intestines and help with poor digestion and excess stomach acid. The aroma also covers up the smell of meat and fish, so it makes good sense to add this vegetable to hot pots using these ingredients, which could cause a heavy stomach after eating too much.

Shungiku contains more β-carotene (4500 μg/100 g) and calcium (120 mg/100 g) than spinach (4200 μg, 49 mg, respectively), and shugiku's iron content (1.7 mg/100 g) is pretty close to that of spinach (2.0 mg).

Shungiku is also rich in Vitamin K (raw: 250 µg/100 g; blanched: 460 µg/100 g), and those who take warfarin (an anticoagulant) need to watch how much shungiku they eat. Consuming a succession of meals featuring food with high levels of Vitamin K counteracts the medicine. As with other leafy greens, volume goes down significantly when cooked. So watch out when eating nabe hot pot and sukiyaki, etc.

22 kcal/100 g; 91.8% water, 2.3% protein, 0.3% fat, 3.9% carbohydrate, 1.4% ash


Recipes with shungiku

Try shungiku in the following recipes

(Last updated: January 9, 2019)

2 comments:

  1. Thank you for this very interesting and informative post! I grew shungiku last year and struggled to keep up with the supply of fresh greens so look forward to trying these recipes this year! Do you have any recipes for preserving or pickling it? X

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  2. Hi Victoria,
    I have never tried myself, but people say you can freeze or dry quickly blanched (30-40 seconds) leaves/stems and they are good for several weeks. Pickling (blanched shungiku) with salt probably works too.

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