Winter is here—prime season for hearty meals. Still struggling with your appetite? No worries—the porridges we recommend will surely whet your appetite. First, keep it light; second, ensure it's nutritious. Most importantly, it should be healthy and appetite-boosting. Next, we introduce nourishing porridges perfect for winter.
Winter Stomach-Nourishing Porridge Series
1. Vegetable & Beef Porridge
Ingredients: 40g lean beef, 1/2 bowl cooked rice, 1 bunch spinach, 1/2 cup broth, 1/5 each potato, carrot, onion, salt to taste.
Method: Prepare lean beef by mincing it;Stew spinach, carrot, onion, and potato until tender, then mash; combine rice, vegetables, and minced beef in a pot, bring to a boil, and season with salt.
2. Egg Porridge
Ingredients: 1 egg, 1/5 carrot, 1 bunch spinach, 1/2 bowl cooked rice, 1/2 cup broth, a pinch of salt.
Method: Simmer and finely chop the carrot and spinach; combine rice, broth, chopped carrot, and spinach in a pot to cook; once boiling, add beaten egg mixture while stirring, season with salt.
3. Cheese Bread Porridge
Ingredients: 1 slice of bread, 2/3 cup milk, 1/2 teaspoon grated cheese.
Method: Trim crusts from bread and tear into small pieces; simmer torn bread in milk over low heat until thickened, then sprinkle with grated cheese.Cake may substitute for bread to make cake porridge.
1. Sweet Soy Milk Porridge
Wash 50g rice and cook with 500g fresh soy milk into porridge. Add a small amount of white sugar. Serve warm for breakfast or dinner. Soybeans aid digestion, promote intestinal health, and moisturize the skin. Soy milk offers richer nutrition and easier digestion.
Beyond moisturizing the skin, this porridge effectively treats chronic cough due to physical weakness and constipation.
2. Sweet Potato Porridge
Wash and dice 100g sweet potato. Simmer with 150g japonica rice and sufficient water into porridge. Serve for breakfast or dinner.
Sweet potatoes are a commonly consumed nutritious vegetable. The Compendium of Materia Medica records that sweet potatoes can "tonify the middle, harmonize blood, and nourish the five viscera." Traditional Chinese medicine holds that the spleen is the source of qi and blood generation, transforming food into nourishment that moisturizes facial skin and promotes a radiant complexion.
This porridge harnesses sweet potato's ability to strengthen the spleen and stomach while harmonizing qi and blood to achieve skin-moisturizing and complexion-enhancing effects.
3. Oatmeal Porridge
Steam 50g of oats with an appropriate amount of water to make porridge. Serve for breakfast or dinner.
Oats, also known as naked oats, have a sweet and neutral nature. As a high-protein food, they offer significant nutritional value for replenishing deficiencies and strengthening the spleen.Regular consumption significantly maintains skin elasticity and inhibits age spot formation.
4. Pork Spine Porridge
Wash 50g pork spine, cut into small pieces, stir-fry briefly in oil. Simmer with 50g japonica rice and water until porridge-like. Season lightly with salt. Consume on an empty stomach morning and evening.
As recorded in Su Xi Cheng's Dietary Spectrum, pork replenishes kidney fluids, nourishes stomach juices, moistens liver yin, softens skin, promotes urination and bowel movements, alleviates thirst, and restores vitality. Pork spine meat is characterized by its white color and tender texture, rich in vitamins C, B1, B2, and other nutrients beneficial for skin health.
Beyond benefiting those with physical weakness and poor complexion, regular consumption of this porridge by healthy individuals helps prevent and reduce wrinkles.
5. Walnut Porridge Take 5 walnuts, remove the kernels and lightly crush them. Cook with 100g of japonica rice into porridge. Stir in a small amount of brown sugar and consume on an empty stomach in the morning and evening.
As recorded in the Song Dynasty's "Famous Formulas from the Seaside": This porridge nourishes bones, strengthens lungs, and fortifies the spleen, thereby enriching qi and blood, moistening dryness, generating fluids, and promoting radiant skin, robust physique, and lustrous black hair. Regular consumption not only moisturizes the skin but also aids in expelling stones. However, it is unsuitable for those with loose stools.
Recipe
1. Walnut Kernel Porridge
Ingredients: 50g walnut kernels, 160g rice. Benefits: Nourishes kidneys, strengthens brain function, promotes urination.
Usage: Suitable for insomnia, forgetfulness, kidney deficiency-related lower back pain, urinary tract stones, incomplete urination, and cloudy urine. Healthy individuals may consume to enhance memory.Long-term consumption promotes longevity and disease prevention.
Preparation: Rinse rice and walnut kernels, cook together until tender.
Usage: Serve as breakfast or dinner snack.
2. Millet and Longan Porridge
Ingredients: 1kg millet, 15g longan flesh, 50g japonica rice.
Benefits: Nourishes heart and kidneys, strengthens waist and knees.
Indications: Suitable for deficiency of heart and kidney essence and blood, palpitations, insomnia, and weakness in the lower back and knees.
Preparation: ① Remove husks from millet and rinse thoroughly. ② Rinse hard rice thoroughly, place in an aluminum pot with millet and longan flesh. Add sufficient water, bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer until cooked. Stir in sugar until dissolved.
Dosage: Consume as breakfast or dinner.
Contraindications: Avoid consuming with almonds, as it may cause vomiting and diarrhea.
Millet is sweet, salty, and cool in nature. It enters the Kidney, Spleen, Stomach, Lung, and Kidney meridians. Its efficacy is documented in ancient texts.The Compendium of Materia Medica states: "Consuming this porridge nourishes the lower dantian, replenishes deficiencies, and opens the stomach and intestines." Thus, winter corn and longan porridge serves to tonify the heart and kidneys while strengthening the waist and knees. 3. Sesame and Sugar Porridge Recipe: 500g sesame seeds, sugar to taste. Effects: Replenishes yin blood, nourishes liver and kidneys, darkens hair, and fortifies essence.
Applications: Suitable for daily tonification to resist premature aging, dry cough due to lung dryness, dry skin, premature graying from liver-kidney yin deficiency, and elderly constipation.
Preparation: Sort and clean sesame seeds. Roast in an iron pot over low heat until fragrant, then cool. Grind into powder and store in an earthenware jar.
Dosage: For consumption, place two tablespoons in a bowl, add appropriate amount of white sugar, and pour boiling water over it.
Laba Congee. Among winter health congees, Laba Congee is the most renowned. Originating from the Laba Festival, it is a congee simmered with numerous ingredients, hence also called the Seven Treasures Five Flavors Congee.During winter, consuming Laba Congee not only aids pregnant women in iron supplementation and supports digestion for the elderly but also helps women replenish blood. The congee must be simmered long enough to become soft; otherwise, it may burden the digestive systems of those with sensitive stomachs. Ingredients like red beans and Job's tears take longer to cook and can be prepared first. Using a pressure cooker is also recommended, as it better preserves nutrients.
Sweet Potato Porridge. Sweet potatoes boast exceptional nutritional value with minimal pesticide contamination, recognized as a potent cancer-fighting food. A winter pot of sweet potato porridge offers both nourishment and satisfying fullness.
Millet, Rice, and Barley Porridge. Millet excels at calming the mind and soothing the stomach. Combined with rice and barley, it creates a richly nutritious blend.
Vegetable Porridge. Chop up bok choy or spinach leaves in winter and add them to cornmeal porridge while cooking. This is especially good for babies and the elderly. It provides vitamins while warming the stomach.