An old recipe for rabbit stew begins, “First catch your rabbit.” A vegetarian equivalent for leek soup might be, “First take a leek.” This could have been the title of my vegetarian cookbook. The cunning pun is appropriate to the winter as it evokes the function of the organs of the Water Element, namely the bladder and kidneys.
Leeks are a warming food and provide an aromatic undertone for a winter soup. Other warming ingredients are the black beans, coriander, pumpkin, red pepper and curry paste. This soup brings all five flavours as well as the five colours into the pot. Tamari brings the salty flavour, lime juice provides the sour, celery leaves are bitter, the pumpkin, carrot, potatoes, sweet potato and red pepper offer sweetness, and the curry paste’s pungent flavour completes the set.
Ingredients
1.5 litres of filtered water 2 leeks including tops 200g butternut pumpkin 300g potatoes 200g sweet potato 1 fennel bulb (cut out the hard base) 1 large carrot 2 sticks of celery with leaves Extra celery leaf tops Half a red bell pepper, finely sliced Handful of coriander, chopped 200ml coconut cream 400 g can of black beans, drained 1 tbsp tamari or to taste 2-3 tsp green curry paste Juice of a lime Salt and pepper to taste Optional: add the hot foods of garlic and ginger to really increase the warmth
Method
• First take the leeks, cut off the green tops, place tops in a large stockpot and add the water. Boil for 30 minutes, then mash. Remove the tops, straining the liquid from the mash. Discard the leek tops to the compost. • Finely slice the white parts of the leeks. Chop the pumpkin, potatoes, sweet potato, fennel, carrot and celery into 1-2 cm pieces (finely slice the celery leaves). Place in the pot, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. • Take half of the vegetables, puree in a blender and return to the pot. • Add the red pepper, coriander, coconut cream, black beans, tamari, curry paste, lime juice, salt and pepper • Add extra water for required consistency • Cook for a further 30 minutes • Serve alone or with Japanese soba noodles, crusty bread or crackers
Enjoy!
I’ll be back in August when we in the southern hemisphere will be in the spring energy of the Wood Element. There, we’ll look at foods to support the organs of liver and gall bladder.
As a child I learned the importance of good food from my parents. While we didn’t have spare cash for holidays, flash clothes, or even schoolbooks, good food was always the highest priority, and I never suffered from going hungry. As a latchkey teenager, it became my responsibility to prepare dinner when my mother was working, and I built up a list of simple recipes, mostly one-pot meals in the trusty Sunbeam frypan. Things like spaghetti bolognaise, Mexican rice and curry. This early training engendered a love of a facility for cooking. And eating!
When I encountered the Five Element model of Chinese medicine, it was natural to bring this paradigm into the kitchen. In 1991 I joined a training in the Five Elements known as the Sophia Program of the Traditional Acupuncture Institute in Maryland, USA. This showed me a way of living that is in harmony with the seasons of nature. Each year since then I have chosen a theme to act as a framework for keeping in touch with the changing energies of the seasons and their corresponding Elements. My blogs over the past 11 years have reflected these choices.
Last month, after I’d penned the final in the series on the pathogenic factors and was casting about for a subject for the coming year, a friend gave me a lovely gift of Zoey Xinyi Gong’s new book, “The Five Elements Cookbook” which inspired the theme for the coming year.
What follows here is an introduction to the theme. Later articles will address each Element in its own season, showing how we can utilise Five Element principles to inform our cooking and eating choices to be in harmony with this fundamental rhythm.
Eating fresh, nourishing, tasty food that is artfully presented is one of the joys of living a human life. It stimulates the appetite, appeals to the senses and nourishes body and soul. It needs not only to taste good but smell good and look good. These qualities are reflected in some of the key resonances of the Five Elements.
The five flavours and their respective Elements are salty (Water), sour (Wood), bitter (Fire), sweet (Earth), and pungent (Metal). Not all dishes will have all five flavours, but a meal should include all representations for balance.
A balance of the five colours is similarly important. A variety of blue/black, green, red, yellow and white colours is appealing. Again, while not all colours need appear in a dish, some variety is important. Imagine how visually unappealing would be a meal of chicken, cauliflower and potato all smothered in a white sauce. Some salad greens or a spoon of a red condiment, for example, would temper the whiteness.
The Five Element model also provides us with information on how to choose foods that are in harmony with the season. It is natural that we are drawn to cool foods in hot weather and warm foods in cold weather. But we can also make choices as to colour and flavour to support the energy of the season. For example, eating more green and sour foods in spring; more yellow and sweet foods in the late summer.
A fun use of the five flavours in cooking is the principle that the flavour of one Element controls the flavour of its grandson Element. Thus salt (Water) will control bitter (Fire); bitter will control pungent (Metal); pungent will control sour (Wood); sour will control sweet (Earth); and sweet will control salty. If you’ve made a dish that is too salty, try adding something sweet to balance the flavours. Too sweet? Add something sour. It can be fun to play with this. For more detail on this, see previous blog A Taste of Earth.
The five flavours can also be used medicinally to treat certain conditions. Each flavour benefits its corresponding yin organ: salt benefits the kidneys, sour benefits the liver, bitter benefits the heart, sweet benefits the spleen and pungent benefits the lung.
However, overindulgence of these flavours will not only injure the corresponding organ, but also the tissues associated with the grandson Element. For example, too much salt damages the blood vessels, as we know from western dietary models. Too much sweet damages the bones
Another resonance to consider is that of the climatic factors which we explored over the last year: Cold (Water), Wind (Wood), Heat (Fire), Damp (Earth) and Dryness (Metal). When there is weakness in an Element, the corresponding climatic factor can invade the body and become a pathogenic factor. We tend to be susceptible to the climate of the season, but we can succumb to any in any season. When this happens, we can turn to food to help combat the invaders.
This knowledge is ancient, well tried over millennia. The Huang Di Nei Jing, or Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, was compiled about 2,300 years ago, and reflects countless prior centuries of understanding. This classic is replete with references to food and its use in medicine, and I will be drawing from that ancient text over the coming year. I will also include recipes that can support us in the season we are traversing.
Look out soon for the first tasty instalment in our southern hemispheric season of winter.
