Description
Red Chilies are one of very popular spices known for medicinal and health benefiting properties. To harvest, chilies can be picked up while they are green or when they reach complete maturity and dried in the plant. Usually, the fruits are picked up by hand when they are matured and turned red. They are then left to dry, which causes them to shrivel. Chilies have a strong spicy taste that comes to them from the active alkaloid compounds: capsaicin, capsanthin and capsorubin.
Culinary Uses
It can be added to curries, vegetable dishes, tomato sauce, soups, stews. It is added to marinade for marinating and to frying onions along with chopped tomatoes while preparing curries. It can also be blended in equal proportion with red chilli powder. This is often done to improve the colour of the dish as well as to add that’s hot taste.
Health Benefits
A culinary spice, red chili is a powerhouse of nutrition. It contains vitamin C and carotene in high amount. Green and yellow chilies contain a significantly lower amount of vitamin C and carotene. Red chilies are also packed with an assortment of vitamins A, B and minerals that can help to heal a variety of illnesses from having some antioxidant factors to cancer-fighting agents. Red chilies have so many health benefits include pain relief, fighting inflammation, cardiovascular health, cold and flu protection, weight loss and cancer prevention.
