Walnut and black sesame soy milk with steamed buns
Toasted walnuts and black sesame blended into unsweetened soy milk and heated until creamy, served with fluffy steamed buns — nutty, warming and ready in fifteen minutes.
- 25 min
- Serves 2
- Blend
- Easy
Why it suits you: Yang-deficient people feel the cold and often have weak lower backs and knees. As yang begins to draw inwards at Liqiu, and air conditioning keeps chilling you, it's time to start warming kidney yang. Walnuts warm the kidneys, black sesame nourishes the liver and kidneys and warm soy milk replenishes; with a bun, it's filling and warming without the dryness of fried food.
Method
Prep 10 min · Cook 15 min- 1Toast the walnuts and sesame seeds in a dry pan over a low heat for 3–4 minutes until fragrant, then cool.
- 2Blend the walnuts and sesame with half the soy milk until smooth.
- 3Pour into a pan with the remaining soy milk and the sugar and bring gently to the boil, stirring constantly so it doesn't catch. Add a tiny pinch of salt.
- 4Steam the buns for 8 minutes until soft and serve with the hot soy milk.
Cautions
- Walnuts and sesame are rich in oil, so have less with diarrhoea or lots of phlegm; avoid if you are allergic to nuts.
Chef's tips
- Toasting the walnuts and sesame first makes the flavour far richer; without a blender, use ready-made black sesame powder and ground walnuts.
The TCM view
Walnut is sweet and warm, tonifying the kidneys, warming the lungs and moistening the intestines — the Bencao Gangmu says it 'boosts qi, nourishes blood, moistens dryness and resolves phlegm'. Black sesame is sweet and neutral, nourishing the liver, kidneys and blood; soybean is sweet and neutral, strengthening the spleen; wheat flour is sweet and warm, supporting the spleen. Warming yet moistening, it suits the 'gathering in' of early autumn.
