Cardamom

Elaichi in Tamil / Ellakai in Hindi
Cardamom is used to spice up both sweet and savoury dishes. It comes in two types and used as whole pods, seeds or its powder. It is also found in garam masala spice mixture that seasons vegetable dishes and hot beverages such as Turkish coffee or masala tea. Green cardamom is known as true cardamom and which is a most common variety sold in the spice market. It is the top choice for sweet dishes. Black cardamom has a smoky element that makes it appropriate for savoury dishes. It is the third most-expensive spice in the world.

Nutrition Information for 100 grams

• Calories 6, Energy 311 k cal
• Carbohydrates 68.47 g
• Protein 6.7 g, Cholesterol 0 g
• Dietary fibre 28g
• Total fat 6.7 g, Vitamin c 21 mg
• Calcium 383 mg, Magnesium 229 mg
• Zinc 7.47 mg, Manganese 28 mg

Health Benefits

• Cardamom helps in aspects of metabolic syndrome that are a group of health conditions that leads to heart diseases and type 2 diabetes, which includes obesity, high blood sugar, hypertension, high triglycerides, high cholesterol.
• Anti-oxidants and anti bacterial effects.
• Prevents bad breath and cavities. It helps in curing stomach problems
• Cardamom tea helps in flushing out all the toxins.
• Aids in digestion and treats sleep trouble.

How to use

Can be chewed after food as a mouth freshener and for digestion. Roast few cardamom pods in a pan once cool grind it to a fine powder use this powder in your sweets, for  making masala cardamom tea, cardamom milk along with turmeric powder for curing cold and flu.