Rice-cooker pumpkin, red date & lean pork rice
A one-pot rice-cooker dinner: sweet, soft pumpkin and tender pork seasoned only with salt and ginger — gentle and low-allergen.
- 1 hr
- Serves 3
- Boil
- Easy
Why it suits you: The Sensitive (allergic) type is prone to sniffles and itchy skin, often worse with the big day–night temperature swings of Autumn Equinox. Pumpkin, red dates and lean pork are gentle, low-allergen foods that build spleen and lung qi, seasoned simply with salt and ginger — no soy sauce.
Method
Prep 15 min · Cook 45 min- 1Rinse the rice and put it in the rice cooker with water to your usual line minus 2 tbsp (the pumpkin releases water), then start the rice setting.
- 2Slice the pork and marinate with salt, ginger, cornflour and oil for 10 minutes. Peel the pumpkin and cut into 2 cm cubes.
- 3After about 15 minutes, when the surface water has gone and small steam holes appear, quickly lay the pumpkin, pork and dates on top, close the lid and let it finish.
- 4When it clicks off, leave it covered for 10 minutes, then scatter the spring onion and fluff gently. Meanwhile cut the cabbage into lengths and blanch for 3 minutes to serve alongside.
Chef's tips
- To use brown rice, soak it for 1 hour first or use the rice cooker's brown-rice setting.
The TCM view
Pumpkin is sweet and warm and builds qi; red dates are sweet and warm and support digestion and blood; lean pork is sweet, salty and neutral and moistens; napa cabbage is sweet and neutral. Strengthening the spleen to support the lungs — 'banking up earth to nourish metal' — reinforces defensive qi without drying.
