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In summer, due to the damp heat, many people experience loss of appetite and fatigue. Those who cook feel it is a chore, and those who eat find it uninteresting. In response to the climatic characteristics and common symptoms today, Professor Wu Yingen, Honorary Director of the Respiratory Disease Professional Committee of the Chinese Association of Integrative Medicine, has specially recommended ten summer health preservation recipes, including staple foods, side dishes, soups, wines, beverages, and honey pastes, which are delicious and easy to prepare.
02Main Dishes
Bitter Melon and Chrysanthemum Porridge
Ingredients: 100g bitter melon, 10g chrysanthemum, 60g japonica rice. Method: Clean the bitter melon, remove the seeds, and cut into small pieces. Rinse the chrysanthemum, wash the japonica rice, add 500ml of water, bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer for 20-30 minutes. Efficacy: Clears heat and detoxifies. Note: Mung beans, millet, coix seed, broken corn, red adzuki beans, lentils, lily bulbs, yam, chestnuts, peanuts, etc. can also be used as ingredients for summer porridge. You can also add century egg, minced pork, diced beef, salted fish, fresh fish slices, sea cucumber, longan meat, dried lychee meat, red dates, goji berries, etc. For those who like sweetness, rock sugar can be added. Salt can also be added to taste.
Porridge nourishes the body. Professor Wu Yingen suggests eating porridge once a day in summer, preferably at dinner.
Side Dishes –
Sweet and Sour Tender Lotus Root
Ingredients: 500g tender lotus root, vinegar, white sugar, and fine salt to taste. Method: Clean and peel the tender lotus root, cut into slices, and blanch in boiling water twice to soften. Drain, mix with vinegar, white sugar, and fine salt, and marinate for 3 hours. Efficacy: Clears heat and quenches thirst.
The lotus root is sweet and cool in nature, nourishes the spirit, boosts energy, and can clear heat and generate fluids. When cooked, it is slightly warm and can tonify the spleen and stomach, making it perfect for summer side dishes.
Mixed Cold Dish
Ingredients: 1 block of tofu, 50g tender green beans, 50g tomatoes, 15g black fungus (soaked), sesame oil, vegetable oil, fine salt, and chopped green onions to taste. Method: Cut tofu, green beans, and black fungus into small cubes, blanch in boiling water, and briefly blanch the tomatoes. Heat vegetable oil with Sichuan peppercorns, add chopped green onions and salt, mix well with the tofu, green beans, and other diced ingredients, and drizzle with sesame oil. Efficacy: Clears heat and stimulates appetite.
As for the “mixed dish,” Professor Wu Yingen mentioned other cooling and heat-dispelling vegetables and fruits such as bitter melon, seaweed, mung bean sprouts, celery, amaranth, eggplant, cowpeas, bok choy, cucumber, etc., which can also be mixed together.
Shiitake Mushroom and Soft-Shelled Turtle
Ingredients: 1 soft-shelled turtle (400-500g), 100g lean pork, 6 shiitake mushrooms, 150ml yellow wine (cooking wine), green onions, ginger, and pepper to taste. Method: Clean and cut the soft-shelled turtle into pieces, stir-fry in oil for about 5 minutes, place in a bowl, add pork slices, green onions, ginger, pepper, and cooking wine, and steam for 40 minutes. Then add shiitake mushrooms and continue steaming for another 30 minutes. Efficacy: Nourishes yin and tonifies deficiency.
Soft-shelled turtles, turtles, sea cucumbers, eels, ducks, oysters, and black fish all have the effect of nourishing yin and tonifying deficiency.
03Soups
Kelp, Winter Melon, and Fava Bean Soup
Ingredients: 100g dried kelp, 500g winter melon, 100g dried fava beans (peeled), sesame oil, and salt to taste. Method: Clean the kelp and cut into strips, cook with fava beans, stir-fry with sesame oil, add 500ml of water, and add cubed winter melon, cook until done and add salt to taste. Efficacy: Nourishes yin, transforms dampness, and clears heat.
In summer, families often make winter melon soup to clear heat and cool down, and adding fava beans, which tonify qi and strengthen the spleen, helps to eliminate dampness and swelling, making it a perfect match.
Wines –
Sweet Bayberry Wine
Ingredients: 500g fresh bayberries, 50g white sugar. Method: Mash fresh bayberries, add white sugar, place in a suitable ceramic jar, and seal for a week to naturally ferment into sweet bayberry wine with about 12 degrees of alcohol. If you need to store it, filter the wine, boil it, let it cool, and bottle it for summer use. Efficacy: Clears heat and treats summer abdominal pain and diarrhea.
Before summer arrives, during the yellow plum rain season, when bayberries are available, do not directly soak them in wine, as that would be “too fierce”; those with low alcohol tolerance may not be able to handle it. Professor Wu Yingen’s recommended method is to wait for the bayberries to “turn into wine” themselves, with an alcohol content of only 12%, making it suitable for everyone.
04Beverages
Watermelon and Tomato Juice
Ingredients: 1 watermelon (about 4 pounds), 1000g tomatoes. Method: Remove the pulp from the watermelon, discard the seeds, roast the tomatoes, peel and discard the seeds, mash both together and strain through cheesecloth to extract the juice. Efficacy: Clears heat and quenches thirst.
The watermelon and tomato juice made this way is sweet and sour, especially refreshing in summer.
Sour Plum Soup
Ingredients: 10 dried black plums, 20g dried hawthorn, 5g dried tangerine peel, 20g brown sugar or rock sugar. Method: Add the four ingredients to 600-800ml of water, boil, then simmer for 20 minutes, cool the juice, and store in the refrigerator (around 4°C) for later use. Efficacy: Generates fluids and quenches thirst.
If you want to drink sour plum soup, it is better to follow this recipe. Professor Wu Yingen stated that the sour plum soup and juice sold outside are usually made from sour plum powder, which often has questionable ingredients. This recipe produces authentic sour plum soup, which can also be frozen to make sour plum popsicles.
Honey Paste –
Mulberry Honey Paste
Ingredients: 1000g fresh mulberries, 300g honey. Method: Clean the mulberries, boil them in water twice, filter out the residue, and then concentrate over low heat, adding honey to form a paste, yielding about 600g. Take 1 spoon twice a day. Efficacy: Tonifies the kidneys and moistens the lungs.
Source: TCM Health Preservation Recipes and Dietary Knowledge
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