This cauliflower rice recipe is really easy to whip up. All you have to do is throw all of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse a couple of times. Then you can eat it with anything you like. I made a rice bowl with it and topped it with some seasonal summer favorites like a homemade fermented beet salad, Japanese sweet potato fries, tempeh, and fresh cucumber. The fermented beet salad is an easy way to incorporate more red foods for the fire season. According to TCM red foods help harmonize the blood and the heart.

The Importance of Heart Health In The Summer

Our hearts do a lot for us. When you realize how much the heart does you start to see how important it is to keep it healthy. A healthy heart is the foundation of our vitality and longevity. In Traditional Chinese Medicine each organ system has a different spirit. The heart is referred to the shen. When the shen is disturbed it normally means our mind is not at ease.

Keeping our hearts healthy starts with checking in with them. Start by sitting quietly and doing a body scan each morning when you wake up. Incorporating this daily habit can tell you a great deal about how your emotions are manifesting in the physical body. Each morning as soon as I wake up I lie to sit in meditation and then sit in tea ceremony. Giving me time to listen to what is going on in my heart before I do anything else with my day.

Summer’s Association with The Heart

In the summer emotions that cause over excitement or not enough excitement can affect our heart and small intestine. And can wear down our spirit. Signals for a weakened heart spirit can look like lac of coherence to life, your personality don’t fit the life they are living, experiencing lack of inspiration and insights, lack of ambivalence, business with lack of clear focus, anxiety, restlessness, fatigue, no self-reflection.

The shen is like fire that can burn brightly encoring a free spirit and fiery charisma about life. But the light can quickly dim or burn out without proper care. The fire in our hearts is sensitive stimulus. If we are over stimulating ourselves during the heat of the summer our shen can weaken. If the shen is disturbed it is important to learn to take care of it.

Healing Foods For the Heart Spirit

As we increase awareness of these natural associations we can become more responsible for our own health and begin the path of healing though food, herbs, and our daily habits. Red foods work through the heart and can help conditions like anemia, palpitations, cold limbs, pale complexion and general weakness. Red foods are best for summer because they help nourish blood, improve circulation, and reinforce warmth.

Making a heart centered meal with this fermented beet salad and cauliflower is a easy way to continue to nourish our heart spirit through food. Some herbs that can help are rose, hawthorn, hibiscus, milky oats, and ashwaganda.

Read more about fire season foods with this summer eating guide built around Traditional Chinese Medicine guidelines. Also find a heart nourishing tea blend made specifically for the fire season in the Farmacy.

Cauliflower Rice Recipe