It may be hot outside but I am still making hot soup to help ease my gut health. One of my favorite meals to eat year round is ramen soup. The warming and moistening ingredients in ramen are extremely gut friendly. Depending on the season you are in you can add what ever seasonal ingredients you prefer. Typically we eat a lot of cooling raw foods in the summer time but this can cause stagnation in the gut. Our bodies can struggle to digest raw food especially if it has a cool energetics. Changing a daily summer salad with a bowl of ramen now and again will make the gut much happier, especially if you are. already experiencing digestion issues.
Raw Food According to Traditional Chinese Medicine
Traditional Chinese Medicine usually does not recommend raw food because it is thought to put out the digestive fire and cause digestion issues. This is especially true in the summer because when the hot weather heats your body up. You can become more at risk of inflammation and infection. Moderately cooked foods are recommended to support more refined consciousness. Raw foods are viewed as too stimulating to the mind.
Foods that are cooked and are cooling energetically can help protect us against food borne illnesses. Making a summer ramen soup with vegetables that are cooling in nature helps our body assimilate nutrients and keeps the body at a more ideal temperature when we are in the fire element (the heat of summer). If your having digestive issues try adding this ramen recipe into your weekly meals.
Raw foods are used for specific people based on their constitution and the health problems they may be facing. Very much like using cooling herbs to heal those with hot conditions. Raw food can be used in the same way. For a hot body type or for someone who is dealing with inflammation and other hot conditions. Hot constitutions typically can be spotted easily because they get angry easily and have a red complexion.
The 5 Temperatures of Food
Considering the five temperatures of foods and how they correspond with your unique body constitution is the foundation of Traditional Chinese Medicine. These temperatures are cold, cool, warm, hot, and neutral. Every type of food has it’s own energy and can be considered medicine that helps harmonize temperature imbalances within our body that are causing illness or disease. Someone who is too cold and suffering from qi stagnation will be told to eat more warming foods and to avoid cold foods. Both warm in temperature and also warm in energetics.
The energetics are even influenced by who grows the food. As well as, the energetics of the environment should be considered. This is something we often don’t think about because our food system has us completely disconnected from how our food ends up in the grocery store and onto our plates. That is why if you want to choose a healthy lifestyle it is all about sourcing food from farmers. Building relationship with them and your food. Or growing food yourself. It doesn’t have to be all the time but just stating with one locally curated meal a day will have a beneficial impact on your life in more ways than one.
Living a life aligned with the 5 element system of Traditional Chinese Medicine is ultimately the studying of how the macrocosm affects the microcosm. How everything affects our health. It is not a complex way of life. It just requires us to pause and observe what is happening around us and how our way of life today is causing us to be sick. Going back to nature is our only hope of fixing that.
Intuitive Eating
For this summer ramen recipe I encourage you to use your intuition when it comes to the temperature energetics. Consider first listening to what your body is telling you sounds good. Then consider if you think each ingredient you choose is either cooling or warming. Your intuition will tell you the energetics it needs to heal. See if your intuition corresponds with your natural body temperature. Maybe you are naturally a cold type that needs more warming foods or a warm type that needs cooler foods. This is a great place to start getting in touch with your unique constitution.
Ramen Soup
Ingredients
- 2/3 pound of black pearl oysters
- 1 bunch of kale or spinach
- 1/2 a head of cabbage
- 1 zucchini
- 1 clove of garlic
- 1 bunch of green onion
- 1 1/2 liters of vegetable broth
- 1 tbsp of wakame
- 1 tbsp of miso
- 1/4 cup of coconut aminos or tamari
- 1 tbsps of rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp of sriracha
- 1 block of tempeh or tofu
Seasoning mix
- 1 tbsp of smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp of dried ginger
- 1 tbsp of Chinese five spice
- 1 tbsp of garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp of sea salt
Instructions
Instructions
- Shred the black pearl mushrooms with a fork.
- Add to a pan on medium heat with oil.
- Mix the seasoning together in a bowl. Add some to the mushrooms and set aside the rest.
- Chop veggies of choice and add to pan once the mushrooms are slightly toasted.
- Add more of the seasoning, veggie broth, and the rest of the ingredients. Let it cook for 15-20 minutes.
- Cook the ramen noodles in separate pot according to package
Learn more about food for the summer time according to TCM with this fire season eating guide and shop fire season herbal remedies in the Farmacy.