Introduction: The Lantern Festival is here. Besides symbolizing festive family reunions, the diverse variety of tangyuan and yuanxiao also have health benefits such as warding off cold, nourishing the spleen and stomach, and benefiting the lung qi. However, they should not be eaten in excess. During the Lantern Festival, these are considered desserts, so you should still prepare a proper main meal. Here are a few healthy dishes for you.
Yuanxiao are made from glutinous rice and complex fillings, making them difficult to digest. Eating a small amount is fine. It is recommended to pair them with foods that aid digestion, such as hawthorn, barley malt juice, dried tangerine peel, and raw radish. Raw radish, in particular, contains mustard oil and coarse fiber, which can promote gastrointestinal motility, resolve stagnation, relieve qi, and help expel waste from the body, while also reducing the absorption of fat.
Although yuanxiao are delicious, they should be consumed in moderation and are not suitable for everyone. Patients with diabetes, kidney disease, chronic pancreatitis, or cholecystitis should avoid them. Especially for those with diabetes, sweetened yuanxiao require careful control of total carbohydrate intake.
For more delicious Lantern Festival recipes, check out our special feature: The Lantern Festival - The Most Joyful Time of the Year
New Ideas with Vegetables and Fruits
Nutrition experts point out that the main component of yuanxiao or tangyuan is glutinous rice flour, which is high in carbohydrates. The fillings are mainly pure sugar, fruits, etc., including sesame, walnuts, peanuts, red bean paste, and chocolate, plus a significant amount of vegetable or animal oil, making them high in nutrition and calories. Therefore, even during the Lantern Festival, yuanxiao or tangyuan cannot be eaten as a staple food in large quantities. They should be paired with vegetables and fruits rich in vitamins and fiber to balance nutrition and aid digestion. Eat less staple food, desserts, and meat to reduce the amount of acidic foods. For those with weak digestion or a tendency to accumulate food, yuanxiao should only be eaten as a dessert, and one should only have a small taste.
Yuanxiao and tangyuan are best eaten fresh. Every Lantern Festival, hospital emergency rooms treat patients with food poisoning from spoiled yuanxiao or tangyuan. Because yuanxiao and tangyuan are made from glutinous rice flour, which has a high water content, if left for a long time after purchase, they can easily spoil. Even if refrigerated, their original flavor is destroyed. When buying frozen yuanxiao or tangyuan, it's best to check the production date, and not store them for too long after purchase.
The "Original Soup for Original Food" with Yuanxiao
When eating dumplings or noodles, people often remind you not to throw away the soup, with the saying "original soup for original food." From a nutritional perspective, this concept is even broader. So what about eating yuanxiao?
When eating yuanxiao, don't forget "original soup for original food." Glutinous rice flour contains more water-soluble vitamins, such as vitamin B1 and vitamin B2. These vitamins are very important for human health. During the cooking process, some of them dissolve into the soup. It has been measured that during cooking, 45%-50% of the vitamin B1 is lost, but most of it dissolves into the soup.
Vitamin B1 promotes the synthesis of acetylcholine in the human body, thereby ensuring normal gastrointestinal motility and digestive gland secretion. A deficiency can directly affect the body's normal digestion, absorption, and utilization. Furthermore, people consciously add various ingredients like vegetable juice to the soup to get more nutrients. To effectively absorb these nutrients, don't forget to eat the yuanxiao soup.
Five Recommended Healthy Homestyle Dishes for the Lantern Festival
Squirrel Fish
Ingredients: 1 yellowtail fish (about 700g. Grass carp or carp can also be used).
Winter bamboo shoots 25g, peas 25g, starch 25g, cornmeal 125g, ginger mince and scallion mince, total 10g, cooking wine 10g.
Clear oil 1000g, sesame oil 50g, sugar 100g, rice vinegar 50g, soy sauce 25g, caramel color 5g.
Characteristics: The texture is crispy and tender, and the taste is sweet, sour, fresh, and aromatic.
Instructions: 1. Scale and gut the fish, then cut off the head. Fillet it along the spine, remove the backbone. Split the tail evenly so both fillets have a tail. Remove the bones and make a wheat-patterned cut. Wash clean.
2. Cut the winter bamboo shoots into small cubes and blanch the peas briefly in boiling water. Let them cool.
3. Heat oil in a wok. Roll the fish in cornmeal to open the wheat-patterned cuts. Hold the tail and slowly lower it into the hot oil. Fry until light yellow, then remove and place on a plate.
4. Leave a little oil in the wok. Add cooking wine, rice vinegar, sugar, soy sauce, caramel color, peas, bamboo shoot cubes, scallion mince, and ginger mince. Stir-fry until cooked, thicken the sauce with starch, add sesame oil, and pour the sauce over the fish.
Stir-fried Green Jade Bamboo Shoots
Ingredients: 1 pack of green jade bamboo shoots (asparagus stems), 1 teaspoon of salt.
Instructions: Wash the green jade bamboo shoots and cut them on a slant. Stir-fry in a wok for 15 seconds, add half a bowl of water and seasonings. Cover and simmer until cooked and the sauce has thickened.
Fried Yuanxiao
Ingredients: 500g of fresh store-bought yuanxiao, 1000g of cooking oil, a little sugar.
Instructions: 1. Use a needle to poke several holes in the yuanxiao to prevent them from bursting and splashing oil when fried.
2. When the oil in the wok is 60-70% hot, fry the yuanxiao in two batches. When they are light yellow, turn them with chopsticks to ensure even heating. Fry until golden brown and small bubbles appear on the surface, then remove, drain the oil, and place on a plate.
3. Sprinkle a little sugar on the fried yuanxiao.
Stir-fried Yuanxiao with Corn
Ingredients: A bit more corn (use fresh new corn, canned corn, or frozen corn), 1 bag of small pearl yuanxiao (available in major supermarkets), sugar, salad oil, a pinch of salt.
Characteristics: Sweet, fragrant, and smooth.
Instructions:
1. Boil a pot of water, cook the yuanxiao and corn, then remove and drain.
2. Heat a little salad oil in a wok. Add the yuanxiao and corn, stir-fry, and add salt.
3. Plate and add fruits, nuts, etc.
Rice Wine Cooked with Eggs
Ingredients: 1/2 box of boxed Xiaogan rice wine, some goji berries, a handful of flour, one egg.
Characteristics: A nourishing dessert (a Lantern Festival recipe) that is indispensable during the first lunar month.
Instructions: 1. Prepare all ingredients.
2. Pour the rice wine into a cooking pot (avoid using an iron one), add an appropriate amount of warm water, and bring to a boil over medium heat.
3. Once boiling, add goji berries. Slowly sprinkle the flour into the rice wine in a circular motion, stirring clockwise with chopsticks as you add it.
4. Simmer over low heat. Be sure to stir constantly to prevent the flour from forming lumps in the boiling water.
5. Crack in a whole egg and cook until the egg is done and the wine sauce has thickened. Turn off the heat.
Tips:
1. Adding flour to the rice wine cooked with eggs makes the sauce thicker and smoother, and it looks crystal clear and beautiful.
2. A new trick for rice wine cooked with eggs: Southerners are accustomed to making rice wine in winter. This rice wine is served as an aperitif at banquets in the south, and rice wine cooked with eggs is a common dessert in the first lunar month. How to make it more flavorful? Here's a new trick: sprinkle a handful of flour into the rice wine.