A Review of Various Health-Conscious Porridges for the Start of Summer
From the beginning of summer, the weather becomes hot, and germs multiply rapidly. The long summer days mean it gets early and late. Many people's biological clocks get disrupted, leading to a weakened immune system. Therefore, to safely get through the summer, you must establish a "fixed routine" and arrange your diet reasonably. The following introduces summer health porridges and their common methods to help you have a safe summer.
Summer-Relieving and Health-Promoting Porridges
1. Century Egg and Lean Pork Porridge
Ingredients and Method: Chop 2 century eggs into small pieces. Slice the lean pork thinly. First, mix a small amount of alum and salt with the pork until it becomes slightly sticky. Then add a little water and mix. Add a small amount of cornstarch and mix again, then add a little more water. Repeat this process until the pork slices have fully absorbed the water and have expanded by 1/3 to 1/2 in volume. Mix in a little cooking oil, ginger, and other ingredients, then marinate for 4 hours. Bring a prepared porridge base to a boil. Add the ginger and century egg pieces and bring back to a boil. Add the pork slices and remove from the heat when they float to the surface and are almost cooked. Sprinkle with cilantro and scallions, and drizzle with a few drops of sesame oil.
2. Dried Vegetable and Dried Scallop Porridge
Ingredients and Method: Trim the dried vegetables and soak them clean. Soak the dried scallops in hot water until soft, then slice them. After the water boils, add the dried vegetables, dried scallops, and pre-soaked rice to the pot and simmer until smooth and creamy, then season to taste.
3. Longevity Soup
Main Ingredient: Bok Choy
Supplementary Ingredients: White Fungus, Straw Mushroom, Egg
Seasonings: Salt, Monosodium Glutamate, White Pepper, Cornstarch
Method:
Blend bok choy with a small amount of water into a puree. Soak the white fungus, then braise it with scallions, ginger, oyster sauce, salt, and dark soy sauce until ready.
Shred the braised white fungus and straw mushrooms, briefly deep-fry them in oil, and set aside.
Add a suitable amount of water to a pot, add ginger slices and cook until fragrant, then remove the ginger. Add the fried mushrooms and season with salt and white pepper. Reserve a bowl of this soup. Add the bok choy puree to the remaining soup in the pot, thicken with cornstarch, and pour into a bowl. Pour the reserved soup back into the pot, thicken with cornstarch again, add beaten egg whites and cook until set, then pour into the green bok choy soup to create a two-color, two-flavor Longevity Soup.
4. Freshly Boiled Porridge
Prepare a porridge base. Once it's boiling, add the ingredients and cook until done. This is "freshly boiled porridge," which keeps the meat tender and smooth. It must be cooked and eaten immediately because porridge retains heat for a long time. Even after removing it from the stove, the remaining heat continues to cook the meat, which can make its texture tough if left for too long. Also, add ginger slices first, and let it boil for a while before adding the meat.
5. Fish Fillet Porridge
Ingredients and Method: Slice the fish fillets thinly and separate them with a few drops of cooking oil. Wash the lettuce and shred it. Bring a prepared porridge base to a boil. Add an appropriate amount of ginger and let it boil for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the fish fillets and mix well. Finally, add some shredded lettuce and season to taste.
6. Slow-Simmered Porridge: Various ingredients are simmered with rice and water together. This is "slow-simmered porridge."
7. Salmon and Pumpkin Porridge
Main Ingredient: Millet
Supplementary Ingredients: Pumpkin, Salmon
Seasonings: Salt, White Vinegar, Osmanthus, Monosodium Glutamate, Sugar
Method:
Soak the millet for 2 hours in advance. After the water in the pot boils, add the millet, bring to a boil, and skim off the foam. Add pumpkin pieces and a little white vinegar and cook for a moment.
Slice the salmon thinly and arrange it in a bowl with a little ginger. Once the porridge is cooked, season with salt and monosodium glutamate, then pour it over the salmon in the bowl before serving.
8. Winter Melon and Dampness-Removing Porridge
Ingredients and Method: Remove the seeds from a winter melon (with the skin on) and cut it into large pieces. Dampness-removing porridge ingredients include dried lotus pods, rush pith, hyacinth beans, red beans, Job's tears, and fox nuts. Wash them all clean. After the water boils, add all the ingredients to the pot and simmer until smooth and creamy.
9. Aromatic Laba Porridge
Main Ingredients: Glutinous Rice, Barley, Wheat, Sorghum, Job's Tears, Millet
Supplementary Ingredients: Peas, Kidney Beans, Mung Beans, Black Beans, Speckled Beans, Red Beans, Peanuts, Large Beans, Lotus Seeds, Chestnuts
Seasonings: Rock Sugar
Method:
Soak the beans in water in advance. Add a suitable amount of water to a pot, first add large beans and peanuts and cook for half an hour, then add black beans, red beans, mung beans, peas, speckled beans, and lotus seeds and cook for another hour.
Add barley, wheat, glutinous rice, sorghum, millet, and Job's tears and cook for another hour. Before serving, add cooked chestnuts, rock sugar, and brown sugar and simmer for a few minutes.
Characteristics: Fragrant, rich, soft, and nutritious.
10. Black Glutinous Rice and Jujube Porridge
Main Ingredients: Glutinous Rice, Rice
Supplementary Ingredients: Red Dates, Goji Berries
Seasonings: Salt, Monosodium Glutamate, Sugar, Rock Sugar, Sesame Oil, Honey
11. Pingqiao Tofu Soup
Main Ingredient: Southern Tofu
Supplementary Ingredients: Shrimp, Ham, Wood Ear, Pork Belly, Egg Skin
Seasonings: Salt, Monosodium Glutamate, White Pepper, Sesame Oil, Starch
Method:
Cut the southern tofu into thin slices, the pork belly into slices, the ham into mince, and the egg skin into shreds. Blanch the wood ear and shrimp in boiling water and set aside.
Add a suitable amount of water to a pot, add wood ear, tofu, and pork slices, season with salt and white pepper. Add the egg skin, simmer over low heat for a moment, thicken with cornstarch, and finally add the shrimp and ham mince and cook briefly. Sprinkle with cilantro, monosodium glutamate, and sesame oil before serving.
Characteristics: Fresh and flavorful soup, nutritious.
12. Lotus Root Starch and Fruit Soup
Main Ingredient: Lotus Root Starch
Supplementary Ingredients: Apple, Pear, Pineapple, Raisins
Seasonings: Sugar
Method:
Cut all fruits into small cubes. Add a suitable amount of water to a pot, add the fruit cubes and raisins, and add an appropriate amount of sugar. Bring to a boil and cook for 2-3 minutes. Thicken with lotus root starch until the desired consistency is reached. Pour into a bowl and sprinkle with osmanthus and roasted sesame seeds before serving.
Characteristics: Smooth texture, sweet and sour with a fresh aroma.
Other Summer Health Porridges Include:
1. Add mung beans, hyacinth beans, lotus seeds, and lotus leaves to japonica rice and cook into a porridge. Let it cool before eating to strengthen the spleen and stomach, and expel summer heat.
2. 100g mung beans, 100g japonica rice, cooked with water into a porridge. Mung beans are sweet and cool in nature, with effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, relieving summer heat and thirst, and clearing the heart and purging fire.
3. 100g hyacinth beans, 100g japonica rice, cooked into a porridge together. Hyacinth beans can strengthen the spleen and benefit the stomach, clear summer heat and stop diarrhea. Taken in the summer, it can not only resolve summer heat but also strengthen the spleen and drain dampness, and is effective for poor appetite, nausea, vomiting, and loose stools caused by summer heat and dampness. It is also an ideal medicinal porridge for the elderly and children with a weak spleen and stomach. However, it should be noted that uncooked hyacinth beans can often cause poisoning, so during the cooking process, the hyacinth beans should be cooked with the japonica rice until they are completely soft.
4. 50g lotus seeds, 100g japonica rice, cooked together in a pot until the lotus seeds are extremely soft. Lotus seeds have the effect of clearing the mind, relieving vexation, strengthening the spleen, and stopping diarrhea. Cooking lotus seeds with japonica rice can also nourish the spleen and astringe the intestines, making it especially suitable for those with chronic diarrhea due to spleen deficiency. In the height of summer, summer heat often disturbs the mind, causing heart fire to rise and affecting sleep. Lotus seed porridge is good at relieving vexation and heat, clearing heart fire, and calming the mind, and has a good therapeutic effect for summer heat-induced vexation and insomnia.
5. Take 150g of fresh reed rhizome, cut it into pieces, add water to decoct, take the juice, and cook with 100g japonica rice into a porridge. Reed rhizome has the effects of clearing heat and relieving vexation, promoting fluid production to stop vomiting. Reed rhizome porridge is suitable for summer heat-induced vexation and thirst, or internal stagnation of heat with swollen gums, stomach heat vomiting, and lung heat cough. For patients with lingering residual heat after summer heat or with persistent high fever, especially children, eating this porridge can achieve a good antipyretic effect.
6. Lily and Almond Porridge: Fresh lily and almonds are cooked with japonica rice, and a moderate amount of sugar is added and served warm. It can moisten the lungs and stop coughing, and clear the heart and calm the spirit, used for post-illness deficiency heat, dry cough, and labor cough.
7. Yam Porridge: Yam is cooked with japonica rice. Regular consumption can prevent hypertension, arteriosclerosis, and excessive obesity.
8. Sesame Porridge: Crushed sesame is cooked with rice, which can treat dizziness, memory loss, and premature graying of hair.
9. Beef Porridge: Minced beef is cooked with porridge, which can tonify the spleen and stomach, and strengthen muscles and bones.
10. Black-bone Chicken Porridge: Black-bone chicken is cooked with japonica rice, seasoned, and used for hypertension, anemia, and malnutrition.
11. Take one lotus leaf, wash it, decoct it to get the juice, add 100g japonica rice to cook into a porridge, and eat with sugar. Lotus leaf is an excellent medicine for relieving summer heat. Cooked with japonica rice, it is fragrant and delicious, and has a good therapeutic effect for mild heatstroke with symptoms such as dizziness, headache, chest tightness, shortness of breath, vexation without sweat, and dark urine.
12. Walnut Porridge: Take walnut kernels, crush them, and cook with japonica rice. It has the functions of tonifying the kidneys, benefiting the lungs, and moistening the intestines.
13. Goji Berry Porridge: Goji berries are cooked with japonica rice, which has the functions of tonifying the kidneys and enriching the blood, nourishing yin and benefiting the eyes.
14. Carrot Porridge: Take fresh carrots, chop them, and cook with japonica rice. It can strengthen the stomach, tonify the spleen, and aid digestion.
15. Chestnut Porridge: Chestnut meat is cooked with japonica rice, which has the functions of tonifying the kidneys, strengthening muscles, strengthening the spleen, and nourishing the stomach.
16. Wood Ear Porridge: Take wood ear and japonica rice, cook with rock sugar. It moistens the lungs, promotes fluid production, nourishes yin and the stomach, and nourishes the brain and strengthens the heart.
17. Red Date and Glutinous Rice Porridge: Chinese yam, Job's tears, water chestnut, red dates, and glutinous rice are cooked together with an appropriate amount of sugar. It has the effects of strengthening the spleen and stomach, benefiting qi and blood, promoting urination to stop diarrhea, and promoting fluid production to quench thirst. It is suitable for patients with post-illness weakness, anemia, malnutrition, poor appetite, and chronic enteritis.
18. Lotus Seed Porridge: Soak the lotus seeds until they swell, rub off the skin with a brush in water, remove the lotus heart, and cook until soft in clear water, then cook with japonica rice. It has the functions of strengthening the spleen to stop diarrhea, benefiting the kidneys to astringe, and nourishing the heart to calm the spirit. It is suitable for spleen deficiency with poor appetite, abdominal distension with leukorrhea, seminal emission and frequent urination, vexation, insomnia, and forgetfulness with many dreams.
The summer is hot and stuffy. Drinking more porridge can replenish fluids and also relieve summer heat and calm the mind. Porridges like pine nut porridge, tremella and lotus seed porridge, mint porridge, Agastache rugosa porridge, and honeysuckle porridge are also excellent for clearing heat and relieving summer heat. If made into a chilled porridge, it is truly a refreshing treat.