Spring Equinox · Tea break · Yang Deficiency
Black glutinous rice and longan sweet soup
Black glutinous rice simmered until it bursts and turns creamy, with dried longan and brown sugar: a warming purple-black bowl.
- 1 hr 10 min
- Serves 3
- Simmer
- Easy
WarmingWarms and tonifiesNourishes blood and calms
Why it suits you: Yang-deficient types still feel the chill in the mornings and evenings around the Spring Equinox, with cold hands, feet and lower back. Sweet, warm black glutinous rice warms the spleen and stomach, longan warms the heart and spleen, and brown sugar and ginger warm you from within.
Method
Prep 10 min · Cook 60 min- 1Rinse the rice and put it in a pot with its soaking water, topped up with fresh water, and the ginger.
- 2Bring to the boil, then simmer for 50 minutes, stirring the bottom now and then, until the grains burst and the soup thickens.
- 3Add the longan and brown sugar and simmer for 10 more minutes.
Cautions
- Glutinous rice is heavy; half a bowl is enough if you bloat or digest slowly.
Chef's tips
- The purple soaking water adds colour, so cook the rice in it rather than pouring it away.
The TCM view
Black glutinous rice is sweet and warm, supporting qi and warming the spleen and stomach. Longan is sweet and warm and nourishes the heart, spleen and blood; brown sugar warms and moves blood and ginger disperses cold. Together they warm and tonify.
