Warm Bellies, Warm Bodies

Here´s a couple of my favourite recipes for winter coziness. In the last blog post you can learn more about the internal environments and ways to adjust your body to the cold.

Remember, as long as you cook, the kitchen is always the warmest place in the house!

Millet & Oats Porridge

Ingredients:

1 cup of millet and/or Oats

Dates

Soaked raisins

Almonds (soaked)

Cinnamon

Cardamom

Roasted sesame seeds

Add 1 pinch of spirulina or chlorella

Preparation:

Soak the almonds the night before in water. This is to make the nutrients more available and to peel the skin, which contains high levels of phytic acid. Phytic acid prevents the absorption of calcium, zinc and manganese and we don´t want that!

Cook all the ingredients in rice milk, almond milk or simply in water. Add a pinch of spirulina or chlorella in the end (without cooking) for extra mineral content.

Sweet Potato & Adzuki Bean Stew

This is an ideal dish combination for the winter. It has a strong influence on the kidneys and spleen. The combination is very nourishing for the kidneys, as it improves the kidney-adrenal function. Parsley is used for nearly all kidney and urinary difficulties.

Ingredients: 

6 sweet potatoes

1 cup of adzuki beans

1 sheet of kombu seaweed

Shoyu sauce

Grated ginger

Black pepper

Parsley.

Preparation:

Soak the adzuki beans overnight. Cook them the next day with medium heat for about 45 minutes. Add the kombu strips in the last 30 minutes and let them cook together. By the end you should still have half of the water you started with. If you end up with less, add 1 cup. In a separate pan steam the sweet potatoes (sliced). When all is cooked, mash half of the portion of the sweet potatoes and leave them, while you mix the other half with the beans. Add the mash to the beans and sliced potatoes and season with grated ginger and shoyu. Let is simmer, at low heat, for another 15 minutes. Serve with fresh parsley and black pepper on top.

Black Bean Seaweed Soup

Ingredients:

Black beans

Kombu (seaweed)

Dried ginger

2 onions

Fennel seeds

Miso paste

Sesame oil

200 ml oat cream

Preparation:

Soak black beans overnight. Cook the beans the next day for about 30/ 40 minutes in abundant water. Add the kombu in the last 10 minutes. In a separate pan make a sauté with the onions, 1 tbs of sesame oil and the fennel seeds. Mix it all together and let it cook all for another 5 minutes. In the end add 1 tbs of miso. Add the oats cream in the bowl when serving.

Seaweed is the ideal food for the kidneys, as it is rich in minerals and iodine. They soften the kidneys and improve water metabolism.

Brown Rice Risotto

Ingredients:

2 cups of brown rice (round grain)

6 cups of water

150 grams of green peas

1 red onion

1 garlic clove

200 ml. of rice or oats cream

2 tbs. of plum vinegar (umeboshi)

4 tbs. of black sesame seeds

Preparation:

Start by cooking the rice for 45 minutes

Make a sauté with the red onions, garlic and olive oil.  Add the green peas and rice cream. In the meantime roast black sesame seeds. When the rice is cooked you can mix it with your sauté and add the vinegar. Mix well. Serve with the sesame seeds on top!

Want to go ahead and create your own recipes? Here´s a list of other winter ingredients that are ideal to nourish the yin in the body and keep you warm!

Barley, buckwheat, black rice.
Beets, burdock, asparagus.
Adzuki beans, black beans, black lentils.
Arame, dulse, Irish moss, kelp, hijiki, nori, wakame, kombu, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, purple and black grapes
Chestnuts, black sesame seeds
Tamari, shoyu, miso, tekka, gomasio, umeboshi, salt cured pickles