Introduction: Food is a culture with rich connotations, ranging from satisfying hunger and curbing cravings to nourishing the body. It can be said that eating has multiple levels of refinement. Chinese "food therapy" is a crystallization of wisdom, delving into the five flavors of sour, bitter, sweet, spicy, and salty in food, and then adapting food choices to the four seasons. It can be said that eating has been explored to its极致 (utmost). Since this is the case, as summer is here, how should we nourish ourselves and what should we eat?
1. Bitter Melon
Bitter melon, though bitter, is an excellent and rare vegetable beneficial to health. Bitter melon glycosides and various amino acids in bitter melon have the effect of lowering lipids and losing weight, and can also play a role in detoxification.
Reasons for a Summer Must-Eat
Bitter melon has a cooling and fire-extinguishing effect on the heart, lungs, and stomach. Therefore, eating bitter melon in summer can clear heat, replenish qi, quench thirst, relieve fatigue, calm the mind, improve eyesight, and enhance appetite. It also has the effect of nourishing blood and moistening the liver, as well as moistening the spleen and tonifying the kidneys.
Recommended Recipe: Dry-Fried Bitter Melon
Ingredients: 500g bitter melon, 50g green chili, 50g red chili, 4 dried small chilies, 25g fermented black beans, 20g light soy sauce, 2g salt, 2g MSG, 15g sugar, 10g chopped green onion, 5g minced ginger, 10g minced garlic, appropriate amount of cooking oil.
Instructions: De-seed and cut the bitter melon into strips. Cut the green chilies into strips diagonally and set aside. Blanch the bitter melon in boiling water for 10 seconds, then remove and cool in cold water. Heat a wok, then reduce to low heat and stir-fry the bitter melon until the surface moisture is cooked dry, then remove and set aside. Add oil to the wok and stir-fry the fermented black beans until fragrant. Add the green onion, ginger, dried chilies and stir-fry until fragrant, then add the bitter melon and continue stir-frying. After stir-frying the bitter melon for a moment, add the soy sauce, pour in the other ingredients and stir-fry over high heat until well combined. Stir-fry the bitter melon over high heat a few more times for the final seasoning. Sprinkle in sugar, salt, and MSG and stir-fry until well mixed. Then, you can plate and serve.
Benefits: Prevents summer heat and lowers lipids.
Cooking Tips: When dry-frying, no oil is needed. Just stir-fry until the moisture is dry and the surface is slightly withered. This allows it to absorb moisture and flavor more easily during the final stir-fry, reducing the bitterness of the bitter melon.
Dietary Restrictions
People with a weak or cold spleen and stomach should not eat too much raw bitter melon. Preschool children should not eat too much bitter melon. Children are considered to have a body of "pure yang," with an excess stomach and a deficient spleen, so overeating bitter melon can easily damage the spleen and stomach.
Stir-fried Bitter Melon with Red Chili
2. Ginger
"Eat radish in winter and ginger in summer, and you won't need a doctor to write prescriptions." This old saying is not to be dismissed. But why to eat it and how to eat it, you might not know.
Reasons for a Summer Must-Eat
In summer, according to the traditional Chinese medicine principle of "treating winter diseases in summer," eating ginger can help expel deep-seated stagnation and cold from the body. It is most suitable for people with a constitution of deficiency and cold, especially those who often have cold hands and feet in winter. Those with a "heaty" constitution should eat less.
Recommended Recipe: Brown Sugar Ginger Tea
Ingredients: 20g old ginger, 50g brown sugar, appropriate amount of water.
Instructions: First, wash the old ginger, crush it with the back of a knife, and chop it finely. Place it in a clay pot, add water, and bring to a boil. Then reduce to a low simmer and cook for 15 minutes. Add the brown sugar and bring to a boil again, then remove from the heat.
Benefits: Sweet with a spicy kick, it has the effect of invigorating blood to resolve stasis and dispelling cold.
Cooking Tips: Do not peel the ginger when eating it. Some people like to peel ginger, but doing so prevents ginger from exerting its full effects.
Dietary Restrictions
Ancient medical books contain such a warning: "Within a year, do not eat ginger in autumn; within a day, do not eat ginger at night." In addition, people with a "heaty" constitution should not eat ginger for long periods.
Ginger Juice Sweet Potato Soup
3. Mung Bean
Mung beans are a top choice for summer diets, and their greater value lies in their medicinal properties.
Reasons for a Summer Must-Eat
In the height of summer, drinking some mung bean congee is sweet, cool, and refreshing, preventing summer heat and relieving summer heat. If children get heat rash from the hot weather, using mung beans and fresh lotus leaves is even more effective.
Recommended Recipe: Tremella and Mung Bean Soup
Ingredients: Mung beans, tremella (silver ear fungus).
Instructions: Soak the mung beans and tremella separately in water for 30 minutes. Wash the soaked tremella and tear it into small pieces. Add cold water to a soup pot, add the mung beans and tremella. Bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer on low heat for 40 minutes. Cook until the mung beans are tender and the tremella is soft, then add rock sugar and cook until dissolved. Turn off the heat.
Benefits: Relieves summer heat and detoxifies, clears heat and promotes urination, replenishes qi and blood, and beautifies the skin.
Cooking Tips: Add mung beans to cold water, bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer on low heat until tender. This way, the mung bean soup will not change color.
Dietary Restrictions
Not suitable for those with a cold constitution, the weak, or those who are currently taking medication.
Mung Bean and Coix Seed Fermented Rice Soup
4. Job's Tears (Coix Seed)
Job's tears are generally about two-thirds the size of a soybean, milky white, with a shallow groove on its belly that is light brown in color.
Reasons for a Summer Must-Eat
Dampness is heavy in summer. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that dampness is the root cause of various modern chronic and stubborn diseases. Job's tears are listed as a superior herb in the "Shennong Ben Cao Jing" (The Divine Farmer's Materia Medica). It can treat dampness impediment, benefit the intestines, reduce edema, strengthen the spleen and benefit the stomach. Long-term use makes the body light and replenishes qi.
Recommended Recipe: Job's Tears and Red Bean Congee
Ingredients: Equal parts Job's tears and red beans.
Instructions: Wash and soak for two to three hours. Bring to a boil over high heat, then turn the pressure cooker to the lowest setting after it pressurizes and cook for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it depressurize naturally. If you don't have time to soak, extend the cooking time to 30 minutes.
Benefits: Modern people are under great mental stress, with deficient heart qi and a spleen deficient in dampness. They need to remove dampness, replenish the heart, and strengthen the spleen and stomach. Nothing is better than Job's tears and red bean congee.
Cooking Tips: Job's tears and red beans are not sticky, so the congee cooked from them will feel different from the rice or millet congee we usually drink, more like a clear and light soup. Just get used to it. Do not add rice to cook, because rice is sticky and damp. Although the congee will taste good, it will lose the effect of removing dampness.
Dietary Restrictions
Job's tears are "cold" in nature, so do not consume too much at one time. In fact, even the best things should be enjoyed in moderation. Do not go to extremes, as this is the Chinese principle of the "Golden Mean."
Winter Melon and Job's Tears Pork Rib Soup
Pocahontas
Porridge
Cracker cheesepop
Apple pie