Job’s Tears & Winter Melon for Weight Loss
By Vicky Chan of NourishU
In a previous recipe, we introduced Job’s tears and their remarkable health benefits. Job’s tears are not only good for releasing water logging in cells, they have many healing properties such as lowering cholesterol, preventing allergies, anti-cancer growth, detoxifying, clearing phlegm, removing internal heat and draining puss.
Winter melon has similar health benefits as Job’s tears. The healing effects can be even better when combining the two ingredients together. Here is a soup recipe using the two ingredients plus some more ingredients to make it very delicious. It is easy to make and is suitable for the whole family and all ages. It is best for people who are overweight and would like to get rid of some extra pounds.
If making soup takes too long for you, you can simplify the recipe by just using the two main ingredients, Job’s tears and winter melon, to make them into a beverage. It can be taken regularly throughout the day, warm or cold. It is especially good for the summer months for quenching thirst and for countering the adverse weather effects.
To make the drink, the quantity of each ingredient can vary according to your own liking, resulting in a thicker drink or a thinner drink. If you dice the melon smaller and pre-soak Job’s tears for a few hours, it will take less time to have them cooked and dissolved mostly into the water. For the undissolved Job’s tears, you can eat them separately as cereal for breakfast or add them to other recipes or salads.
It is a very inexpensive recipe to get a whole lot of health benefits. BON APPÉTIT!
Winter Melon and Job's Tears Chicken Soup
SYMPTOMS
Overweight with damp heat syndrome (scarce urination, skin eruptions and indigestion).
THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS
Relieves dampness and clears heat, diuretic, relieves constipation, improves complexion, invigorates spleen, improves digestion and benefits blood.
INGREDIENTS
(for 5 to 6 servings)
- Winter melon 冬瓜- 2000gm
- Job's tears (yi yi ren) 薏以仁 - 80gm
- Bone-in skinless chicken breast – one piece
- Lean pork with bone – 2 to 3 pieces
- Ginger – 3 to 4 slices
- Honey dates - 3
- Dried scallop – 3 to 4 (optional)
- Dried Mandarin orange peel – 1 piece (optional, soak for 15 minutes and scrape out the white membrane to get rid of the bitter taste)
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Rinse chicken and pork and cut meat from bones into large pieces. Remove skin of winter melon and dice into cubes. Rinse Job’s tears.
2. Bring 4 cups of water in a soup pot to a rolling boil and put in bones to boil for about 3 minutes. Then add meat to boil for another 1 to 2 minutes. Discard water and rinse meat.
3. Fill soup pot with 2 to 3 liters of clean water and put all ingredients in, except melon. Bring content to a boil for 10 minutes, and then reduce heat to medium to cook for 1.5 hours. Add hot water to the cooking when necessary.
4. Add winter melon and continue the cooking for another half hour to melon is cooked to desire softness.
5. Add salt to taste and serve.
USAGE
Not suitable for people with cold spleen syndrome (acid reflux). Take regularly for best results.
