It’s Time to Warm Up Your Spleen
If you’re feeling colder and are bundling up, you may want to also take a look at the type of food your eating and drinking. As we embrace autumn, you may want to pull out the crock pot and move away from raw foods like smoothies, salads and cold juices to warmer foods like soup, stews, and cooked cereals.
Why? Because in Chinese medicine the organ responsible for absorbing nutrients and generating blood and energy is your spleen. The spleen loves warm moist foods – a diet with cold raw food especially smoothies first thing in the morning, can lead to abdominal pain, cramps, bloating and diarrhea or just leave you feeling really cold all over.
A great “spleen” tonic is carrot soup. Below is my absolute favourite recipe –make a batch and then treat yourself to a bowl each day. Feel free to add whatever orange vegetable you have like pumpkin or squash. For more protein just throw some cooked pumpkin seeds on top – they are an excellent source of iron.
Carrot Ginger Soup
- 3 large carrots – the kind you find at Chinese markets
- 2 large yams
- 1 large sweet Maui onion or white onion
- 1 900 ml box of chicken broth
- 1 can coconut milk
- 2 peeled chopped apples
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 2 large slices of fresh ginger peeled
- 2 Tbsp fresh cilantro for garnish
Directions
In large stock pot sautée onion until transparent, the add chopped up carrots, yams, apple –( large chunks are fine because you will purée the soup before you eat it). Also add chicken stock and spices. Cook everything for 30 minutes until vegetables are soft then pour everything into your blender – be careful here you don’t want ingredients to explode out of your blender. I have a ninja and it works great but not so great with blenders. Once soup is puréed pour back into your pot and add coconut milk, heat gently and serve with some fresh cilantro on top or pumpkin seeds.
