Whole grain and bean congee rice porridge - easy on your gut and healthy!

Having a tough time digesting whole grains and beans? Congee might be your answer. Let's go beyond the usual white rice congee and mix in with some whole grains and beans for a healthier twist. In this video, we're going to explore these lesser-known congee variations, transforming your comfort dish into a nutritional powerhouse. Together, we will discover how these simple additions can turn your everyday congee into something really special, Hi everyone, I'm Shirley, a Chinese medicine practitioner and a Western pharmacist from Australia. Currently living in the UK, welcome back to Chinese Herbal Pantry, where we explore how to use food as medicine to enhance your overall well-being based on the wisdom of traditional Chinese medicine. Following the recent mini-virus success of my congee video and reading all your comments, positive experiences and many touching stories, I feel even more confident in its healing effect. I also want to thank every one of you who watch and share the video to your family and loved ones. Your support means the world to me and welcome to this community. If you haven't seen the congee video yet, you can find it here where I introduce congee and demonstrate how to make the plain versions. However, there is a common misunderstanding the notion that Chinese congee exclusively feature white rice only. Despite the prevalence of white rice congee in many restaurants or even YouTube videos, I did a quick search. Most of them are the white rice congees on YouTube here, but it doesn't truly capture the true essence of congee culture. On the topic of concern about the blood sugar spike with the white rice congee, the good news is you don't have to worry as I am going to show you today how to add whole grains to your congee which have a lesser risk of spiking blood sugar. We will also discuss why congee might be a great option if you have had trouble digesting whole grains and beans as many people do this day. I will guide you through choosing the right ingredient for your congee based on Chinese medicine perspective. We will also explore different cooking methods including the standard cooking and the instant pot cooking. Returning to the ancient medical texts, Huang Di Nei Jing, the Yellow Emperor of Internal Medicine, one line stand out. This ancient wisdom encourages incorporating five types of grains for nourishment, five types of fruits and nuts for support, five types of meat proteins for strength, and five types of vegetables and spices for supplementation. If we do that, and if the qi and flavor of the food are in harmony, it will nourish our qi and essence for optimum health. Penned over 2,000 years ago, this text possibly serves as one of the earliest records of understanding the benefits of a balanced and diverse diet. How incredible it is, right? Even in the ancient times, there was a profound awareness of the importance and composition of a balanced and a diverse diet. Therefore, as you now know, white rice is not the only grain Chinese people eat. Multigrains are actually often incorporated into our congee along with beans, nuts, seeds, and Chinese herbs, enhancing its health benefits. This type of congee used to be ceremonial and is called Laba congee. Its history can be traced back to the Han dynasty when common people make it to worship the Buddha and the gods during the Laba festivals. It is a festival commemorate Shakyamuni's Buddha enlightenment. Later, this type of congee became known as Ba bao means egg treasure. Zhou means the congee. Yangshen means nurturing health and life, representing a healthy lifestyle and a diet based on traditional Chinese theories. Let's quickly review what the western nutritionist says about the grains and the beans. Whole grains contain three parts, the bran, germ, and the endosperm. As you can see, while the endosperm holds carbohydrates, protein, and a small amount of B vitamins and minerals, most of the nutrients such as the fiber, large amount of vitamin Bs and E, minerals, antioxidants are all stored in the bran and the germ. However, refined grains, including white rice, have the bran and the germ removed during the milling process, reducing nutrients compared to the original grains like the brown rice. Therefore, we gain more nutrients by choosing whole grains over refined grains. Now let's talk about beans and pulses. The term pulse, not the pals that we use in Chinese medicine, the pulse refer to the dry edible seed within the pot of legumes. Beans are often one of the most commonly seen types of pulses. Other types of pulses include peas and lentils. Pulses are packed with healthy nutrients such as vitamin B, complex carbohydrate, folic acid, iron, and more. They are also dense in protein, double or triple that of the wheat or the rice. Now, understanding the nutritional values of the whole grains and the pulses in the Western nutrition, which focus on nutrients counting like the calories, the macro and the micronutrients, but Chinese medicine nutrition takes a holistic approach. So we use Chinese medicine principles to fine tune and personalize our dietary choices. Assuming that you are generally healthy without major health condition, this approach helps us in selecting the grains and the beans suitable for ourselves at the right time during the appropriate season and for specific reasons or health benefits. However, if you have a health condition, please always double check and consult a dietician. This is very important. Let's take an example. Chinese medicine consider thermal properties, cooling, warming, or neutral. So we will choose the cooling grains in hot weather and the warming grains in cold weather. Cooling grains can elevate heat signs like restlessness or difficulty falling asleep. Warming grain will give you the warm and the energy that we need during the cold weather. So to achieve this personalized approach, understanding the fundamental of Chinese medicine is crucial. And this is precisely also why I started my course and my membership. You can find details in the description box below. In my previous congee video, I emphasized its role in promoting gut health according to Chinese medicine. In this context, it is the gluey top layer during the long-term cooking of the rice with a large amount of water is referred as Zhou is congee, You is oil. Of course, for that, it's not about the oil that we use in our normal cooking. This term You, it's to describe the consistency, which is thick and gluey. In Chinese medicine, it is this layer of Zhou You that we believe can form a coating to protect our stomach lining and also to support the gut health. While I have attempted to find corresponding or relevant Western study to support this belief, my search has been quite inconclusive. If you have come across any relevant study, please share them in the comment box. To elevate digestive issues associated with whole grains and beans, incorporating them into congee is a traditional practice in Chinese medicine. Ideally, we must cook them until they are fairly broken down, revealing the characteristics of Zhou You. This cooking method, especially when consuming whole grains and beans in congee form, may be more digestible compared to the Western-style recipe. Some of the recipes that I have seen is to include your whole grains or beans in salads or sometimes to mix it with meat. Mixing your beans and whole grains with salad, which is cold, and then meat itself, it's quite hard to digest. So when you do that, it might be making it even more difficult for your digestion. Soups, stews or casserole will be a good option to include your whole grains and beans. And now you learn about congee, so that will be another option for you. If you have tried all those other types of recipes and you still have trouble digesting your whole grains and beans or pulses, then maybe it's a great idea to try congee and see how you go with it. Another advantage of whole grains and beans congee is that it involves a very small amount of these ingredients with a large amount of water, making it an excellent starting point for those who are new to incorporating these elements in your diet. Okay, now let me walk you through the selections of ingredients for this nourishing congee for myself in London early of December. Note that everything that I say, of course, is based on Chinese medicine, including the organ system that I mentioned is not the Western medicine one. And don't worry about taking notes. I have created a chart with all the common grains and beans based on Chinese medicine for you. So please go to this link to get it to your inbox. The first ingredient that I add is the brown rice. Brown rice in traditional Chinese medicine is slightly warming. It has similar Chinese medicine function with the white rice, which is to support our Chinese medicine spleen and stomach, tonify our qi, and also relieve restlessness. The choice of brown rice is because we want the whole grains for more nutrients. And next is the black rice. Black rice is warming, not only support the spleen, but also tonify the Chinese medicine kidney and the liver while also nourishing our Chinese medicine blood. The choice of black rice is strategic with the London's cooling temperature and approaching winter, incorporating this dark color rice aligns with the traditional Chinese medicine wisdom of supporting the kidney during winter time. And especially, this is my first winter in London, so I'm probably not used to the cold. Also, if you want to learn more about how to eat for optimum health for different seasons, you can check out my playlist, whichever end, for additional insights. In line with the same theory of birth, I also add another black color ingredient, which is the black soybean. It is neutral and it supports Chinese medicine kidney. It can clear wind, clear toxins, and reduce swelling. The other beans, also a pulse, is the mung beans. Mung beans, these little beans are cooling. According to Chinese medicine, they clear out any excess internal heat, clear the toxin, also help with thirst. So you may wonder, London is getting cold now, why do I add a cooling ingredient? Traditional Chinese medicine is all about finding the right balance for each individual. And usually during winter time, it is naturally our body crave for more heavy food or more warming food like stew, casseroles, and also more pungent and spicy food. In addition of that, our room or house usually are quite well heated during this time. So it is only natural our body will start to accumulate more heat internally. And this is the time a small dose of cooling food will help to support and to relieve that. Next, I have an ingredient that we easily find in any western grocery store, which is the pea. Pea is neutral, it supports Chinese medicine spleen and stomach, it clears toxins. And adding this pea also adds another layer of freshness. There are other ingredients that might be suitable for myself for this recipe, but I don't have it at home at the moment. But I thought I'm going to give you some more extra tips. So one thing I could consider is millet. And especially for people who have trouble digesting whole grains and beans, especially in the early time, millet will be a good thing to consider because it's small, easy to cook, easy to break down, and more easily to digest. And millet is cooling according to traditional Chinese medicine. Its Chinese medicine function is to tonify our qi, to support the Chinese medicine spleen and kidney, and also to clear heat and detox. So if you don't have the mung beans at home, but you have the millet at home, so you could add millet instead of mung bean for this recipe. Another pea that I would consider probably is the black-eyed pea. Black-eyed pea is neutral, it supports Chinese medicine kidney and spleen, it clears dampness and clears heat at the same time. So it might be great for me in London because in Australia, our autumn and winter tends to be on the drier side. So compared to London, it's quite damp. For me, I'm not used to it. Adding an ingredient that can clear the dampness will be good for me in my situations. So now that you understand why I create this recipe for myself, let's start cooking. All right, so now we're going to start cooking. The important thing is, as you've already seen how I already washed my rice a couple of times, I think it's important to give it a good wash, rinse and wash. And then for the bean, I actually already soaked them since last night. Mung bean is quite hard to soften in the water, so it's important you pre-soak it for at least a few hours. The other is the black soybean. I also have pre-soaked it. So for this recipe, it's for two to three people. So now the water is already boiling. So we're going to add the rice. So the rice in total, the rice here, it was about half a cup of the brown rice and only a quarter a cup of the black. So this is only the plain version. I know everyone has a very different preference for their food, so you could add meat broth or vegetables broth. But for demonstration purpose, I'm just going to do a plain one for today. Okay, I already mentioned the mung beans already pre-soaked. So I'm just going to add a very small mung, about two teaspoons. And black soybean, I'm going to add about three tablespoons as well. And with the peas, I can add it to the end because I think the grains and the bean here will take a little while to cook. In total, by the time you add it all up, about one cup plus the bean. So the water, I would say at least 10 cup or so, just so that you have the enough water for the bean. Because it's the bean, it will take a lot longer than just the standard congee that I make in the previous video. So I would say this one, you will need at least one hour or even one and a half. So now it's all boiling. You should turn it down a little. As you can see, because of the black rice and the black soybean, already make the color of the congee a bit darker. And then stir consistently. Add water during the process because I find that the bean and the whole grain do absorb more water. OK, so now we're going to do an instant pot version. We will compare the time required to cook as well as the texture that come out, especially bean because it's very hard to on a regular pot. So I think instant pot will be a better choice. But let's compare after this. I'm going to start cooking now. So we're going to use the same, exactly the same ingredients, the same combination of the whole grains as well as the bean. This is the rice, the brown rice and the black rice. OK, now let's do a tasting. Let me start with the instant pot one. I love the flavor because the black rice have a tinge of sweetness in there and I have the pea. So even though it's plain broth, I find it's already quite tasty. So let's try and then I'll compare and tell you the difference. So this is the center cooking that I cooked for almost three hours. Interesting. Although this one, just by the look of it, it looks similar. I mean, we still can see the difference, but even tasting it, I can taste the difference. So this, after the sautéing for 30 minutes, it does break down, but the water texture is still kind of clear. But this, the three hours cooking to slowly break down the beans, it really makes a difference where the soup or the rice, where the water is very smooth, it's quite thick. So do give a different texture profile. I would say if you are usually quite weak in your digestion, might still good to start with this and see whether it makes any difference. But I kind of do enjoy this bowl a little bit more. Today is a fun experiment. So we try the instant pot and the standard cooking. If you don't have time, we are all very busy people this day. And then if you do the standard cooking, you need a lot of time to constantly checking to making sure the fire and the water are right. That is time consuming. Then go for the instant pot and see just by trying that if you enjoy it and it doesn't cause any trouble. I mean, as in, if you originally have indigestive issues when you consume any whole grains and beans with other recipes and you try congee with the instant pot, it's working great. That's fantastic. So I think that's the most important thing. Okay, I think this is quite a long video. Nonetheless, I hope I covered everything that you need to know by cooking, eating, enjoying your multi grains and bean congee. And also I have shown you some simple tips on how to incorporate them according to Chinese medicine nutrition. I hope you enjoy this video. Learn something. If you do, don't forget to subscribe if you haven't and make sure you share with your friends and family if you think this video will be useful for them as well. And also click the notifications bell so next time when I have a new video release, so you get the notification so you will not miss anything. Okay, then that's all from me. Once again, thank you so much again for all your support and love and I'll see you at the next video. Bye.