Fall Recipe - Honeydew Melon Soup
By Vicky Chan of NourishU
Eating in the Fall Season - Fall Recipes
Fall is the time when dryness and cooler temperatures predominate. Fall is also when your lungs are most vulnerable to attack. Symptoms related to dryness include coughing with sputum, dry nose and throat, dry skin and lips, chest pain and dry stools.
It is important to increase the intake of soothing fluids to balance the effects of external dryness. The cooling temperatures can increase your appetite, especially for meat, but it is important to change gradually from a diet high in vegetables and fruit over the summer months to one that is a mix of meat and vegetables so that the digestive system can adjust more easily. In fall, eat less eggplant because they can turn the digestive system sluggish.
The following super foods are highly recommended to be taken more in fall to counter the dry seasonal effects.
Fresh Lily Bulb
Excellent for moisturizing lungs and is regarded as vegetable ginseng because of its high protein, phosphate, potassium, calcium and rich multivitamin content.
Red Dates/Jujube
Promote energy, reduce stress of liver, benefit the formation and maintenance of the blood stream, body hormones, bones, muscles, skin, hair, body enzymes and neurotransmitters.
Sweet Potatoes
High in fiber and nutritional content can help to prevent constipation and adding pounds.
Goji-berries
Goji-berries have many health benefits and can improve immune functions to prevent sickness.
Pears
Excellent in lowering heat and moisturizing lungs, prevent cough and clear phlegm.
Pumpkin
Moisturizing, strengthen stomach and spleen functions.
Honeydew Melon Soup
Symptoms
n/a
Therapeutic Effects
Moisturize internal systems, promote blood and energy.
Ingredients
- Honey dew melon 青蜜瓜 – one whole
- Rehmannia Radix (sheng di) 大生地 – 30gm
- Lotus Seeds (lien zi) 蓮子 - 30gm
- Glehnia (bei sha shen) 沙參 - 30gm
- Solomon's Seal (yu ju) 玉竹 - 30gm
- Honey dates 蜜棗 - 8
- Sweet apricot kernel 南杏仁 – 60gm
- Bitter apricot kernel 北杏仁 – 12gm
- Lean pork/pork hock 豬展 – 180gm
Directions
1. Rinse pork, cut into large pieces and put in boiling water to cook for a few minutes, retrieve and rinse.
2. Soak apricot kernel for at least 2 hours and keep aside.
3. Remove skin and seeds of melon and dice into cubes.
4. Rinse other herbal ingredients and put together with pork in a soup pot with about 2 litres of water. Bring to boil, remove foam and reduce heat to medium to cook for 30 minutes. Add melon to cook for another 15 minutes.
5. Put apricot kernel in a grinder to grind into a fine paste and filter out any large pieces. Add the juice to the cooking and cook for another 15 minutes.
6. Add salt to serve. Eat some melon with soup.
Usage
No restrictions.
Detoxifying & Balancing 6 Vegetable Stir-Fry
By Vicky Chan of NourishU
Detoxifying and Balancing
Toxins are a fact of life, but taking proactive actions to expel them and not allowing them to accumulate in our body can make a big difference. The best approach to detoxify is to eat fresh clean food with high fiber and antioxidant content, drinking plenty of good clean water to flush the system and passing bowel at least once or twice daily. Exercising and taking sauna bath occasionally are all effective in helping the body to expel toxins through sweating.
Eating foods such as carrot, pumpkin, garlic, seaweed, green tea and foods with high vitamin C content such as oranges, lemon, leafy green vegetables, water chestnuts, etc. are excellent in cleaning out heavy metals from our body such as lead. Blueberry is high in anti-oxidant but purple or black glutinous rice is even higher in vitamin E and anti-oxidants.
To get the most disease-fighting antioxidants from fruits and vegetables, choose those with color; usually the deeper the color, the more antioxidants. Also fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables have more antioxidants than those that are canned, processed or heated.
Therapeutic Effects
Benefits all five organs, balancing yin and yang.
Ingredients
- Chinese broccoli 芥蘭 – 3 to 4 stems
- Bitter melon 涼瓜 - half
- Lotus root 蓮藕 – a small section
- Carrot 甘筍 – one
- Fresh mushrooms 鮮磨菇 - 6
- Fresh lily buds 鮮百合 - 2
Directions
1. Wash all ingredients. Cut broccoli stems, bitter melon, lotus root, carrot and mushrooms into thin slices.
2. Remove stems of lily bulb to separate petals and cut out any blackened edges.
3. Heat a spoonful of oil in a wok to stir-fry carrot, broccoli, lotus root and bitter melon together. Sprinkle in a spoonful of cooking wine and a spoonful of water and cook for a few minutes or to desire softness.
4. Add mushroom to cook for a few more minutes. Add seasoning (salt, sugar, pepper, sesame oil and a little oyster sauce) and mix well.
5. Mix in lily and add a little corn starch water to finish.
Usage
No restrictions.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Featured imagePhoto by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Insomnia Cure – Lotus Seeds, Longan Fruit and Egg Yolk
By Vicky Chan of NourishU
Insomnia can be caused by many psychiatric and medical conditions and has become a very common health challenge to many people in modern societies. To fix insomnia, finding the exact cause is very important in winning the battle.
In Chinese Medicine, insomnia can be due to unsettled gut, unsettled liver or unsettled mind. To deal with unsettled gut, one has to fix digestive issues first, and then eat a healthy and easy to digest diet and adhere to healthy eating habits. To balance liver energy, it is important to promote liver yin and lower liver heat. To calm an unsettled mind, Chinese Medicine believes that by enforcing kidney functions, it can keep the over excited mind energy in check.
Personally, I have found much success using lotus seeds, longan fruit and egg yolk to calm the over active mind at night. There is substantial evidence proving that egg yolk is not harmful but healthy for us. Egg yolks are home to tons of essential but hard-to-get nutrients, including choline, which is linked to lower rates of breast cancer (one yolk supplies 25% of your daily need) and antioxidants that may help prevent macular degeneration and cataracts. The belief that egg yolks cause high cholesterol is now found to be untrue. Chinese Medicine finds egg yolks to be great for promoting blood and yin; lotus seeds for strengthening spleen, benefiting the kidney to preserve essence, and keeping the heart-fire and the kidney water in balance; and longan fruit for invigorating the heart and spleen, nourishing blood and calming the mind.
The following is the recipe. It is a very delicious dessert recipe with no adverse side effect and can be taken by people with no problem sleeping. I will strongly recommend anyone who has problems with shutting their eyes at night to give this recipe a try. It is very inexpensive and easy to make. For convenience, you can cook a batch together to be served for a few days. Please explore our website www.noursihu.com for recipes treating other causes of insomnia.
Lotus Seed, Dried Longan Fruit and Egg Yolk Dessert
Symptoms
Insomnia due to imbalance of kidney and heart energy.
Therapeutic Effects
Keeps heart fire and kidney water in balance, nourishes heart and tranquilizes the mind, nourishes blood, and tonifies yin.
Ingredients
- Lotus seeds (lien zi) 蓮子 - 20 (best to use lotus seeds with red membrane and green centre still not removed)
- Dried longan fruit (long yan rou) 龍眼肉 - 10
- Egg yolk – one
- Sugar or honey – to taste
Directions
1. Soak lotus seeds for one hour and rinse.
2. Rinse longan fruit and put the two ingredients to cook with 3 to 4 cups of water over medium heat for about 45 minutes to about 1 cup of water left and lotus seeds are soft to eat.
3. Put egg yolk in a serving bowl, pour the hot liquid in and stir to cook the yolk. Then mix in longan fruit and lotus seeds, and add honey/sugar to serve.
Usage
Eat one hour before bed. Take continuously for 7 days as one course of treatment.
Download Our Sheet - Insomnia in Chinese Medicine
Are You A Practitioner?
Please visit the Chinese Medicine Professionals Shop to get PRO sheets for your clinic that you can share with patients. Yay!
