Plantain Stem / Vazhaithandu Raita

Ingredients

1) Plantain stem 8-10  inch  in length
2) I bowl of curd
3) 1 green chili
4) Few Coriander Leaves

Method

1)   Cut the Plantain stem into tiny cubes.  Cutting the Plantain stem is a little tricky. Cut them into thin rounds first and try to pull out the fiber as much as you can with the help of a knife and later cut them to tiny cubes.
2)   Put this in salt water and leave it in that salt water for sometime.
3)   Take a bowl of curd, remove the plantain stem cubes from salt water and put them in the curd. Add the green chili, chopped coriander leaves and season with salt. Let it soak for a while (30mins+)  before it is served.

Health Benefits of Plantain Stem

PLANTAIN STEM / VAZHAITHANDU

A potassium rich food with high fiber content and it has many other amazing health benefits.
Most people include banana in their daily diet, but very few have ever thought of including banana stem. The banana stem has many nutritive and health benefits. The stem is usually thrown away once the fruit is cut from the plant. So next time if you happen to find one, think of including it in your menu. Here are some good health reasons why banana stem must be part and parcel of your diet at least on occasions.
Banana stem is rich in fiber and helps weight loss.  Due to rich content, it helps body to feel full faster.  The intake of food gets reduced by including banana stem to diet.  It can be taken in the form of juice, but eating it as a whole provides more benefits. Including it once or twice a week can help people looking for ways to cut down extra pounds.
Like banana, banana stem is also rich in potassium and vitamin B6.  Vitamin B6 helps production of chemicals such as hemoglobin and insulin. Again, it improves the ability of body to fight against infection. Potassium helps effective functioning of muscles including cardiac muscles, prevents high blood pressure, helps nerve impulses and maintains fluid balance within the body.
It is a diuretic and helps detoxify the body. Some believe that banana stem can prevent and treat kidney stones. This is fact under study and the effectiveness has not been proven by the western world.
It can be taken as a laxative for constipation. Again, the rich fiber content prevents constipation. It cools the body. So overall, banana stem does wonders to our body.
How to include them in diet? Very tender ones can be used in salads and not so tender ones can be added to soups or as a steamed vegetable.
Slicing banana stem for dishes might be hard work, but it provides unmatchable health benefits.Its a cooling agent to our body , so use it weekly twice is recommended.