Lotus leaf and mung bean congee with steamed sweetcorn
Mung beans and rice simmered into a creamy congee, scented with a lotus leaf at the end and served with steamed sweetcorn — cooling, damp-clearing and filling.
- 55 min
- Serves 3
- Simmer
- Easy
Why it suits you: Damp-heat types tend to have oily skin, a bitter taste and dark urine, and Major Heat's steaming humidity brings thirst, irritability and breakouts, often with a bitter mouth on waking. Mung beans clear heat and summer-heat and promote urination, lotus leaf clears summer-heat and resolves damp, and sweetcorn supports the spleen and drains damp. Fragrant and unsweetened, it's filling and cooling.
Method
Prep 10 min · Cook 45 min- 1Rinse the mung beans and soak overnight; wash the lotus leaf and cut into large pieces.
- 2Bring the beans, rice and water to the boil, then simmer gently for 40 minutes until creamy, stirring now and then so it doesn't stick.
- 3Five minutes before the end, lay the lotus leaf on the congee and cover until it turns pale green and fragrant. Remove the leaf and add a pinch of salt.
- 4Meanwhile, steam the sweetcorn for 12 minutes and serve with the congee.
Cautions
- Mung beans are cold, so eat less if your digestion is weak, during your period or while taking warming herbal tonics.
Chef's tips
- Soak the beans in a thermal cooker overnight and they need just 15 minutes' cooking in the morning; dried lotus leaves are sold at dried-goods and herbal shops.
The TCM view
Mung bean is sweet and cold, clearing heat, resolving toxins, relieving summer-heat and draining water — the southern Chinese first choice in summer. Lotus leaf is bitter and neutral, clearing summer-heat, resolving damp and lifting clear yang; sweetcorn is sweet and neutral, regulating the middle and promoting urination; and rice protects the stomach, softening the beans' coldness. Together they clear summer-heat and damp without harming the stomach.
