Cool the Inner Fire: A Healing Soup for Yin Deficiency

Kit Li

Do you feel hot and thirsty all the time, even though you drink lots of water? Or feel fatigued after sweating a lot?

Recently, a very active 49 year-old friend complained of feeling easily tired, even though he eats well and exercises regularly. However, his primary concern is persistent thirst, despite drinking around 1.5 to 2 litres of water daily.

From a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective, this is known as Yin-deficiency. Regardless of age or gender, many of us experience some level of yin deficiency. But what is yin deficiency? It refers to an excess of internal heat in the body. This heat dries up body fluids, leading to symptoms like hot flushes, thirst, dry skin, irritability, and even fatigue.

I suggested him to make a cooling and yin-nourishing soup made with winter melon for heat-clearing and yin-replenishing properties, making it ideal for hot summer days when sweating more. It helps reduce the dryness and internal heat that often follow excessive sweating.

Winter Melon Soup with Dried Scallops, Dried Shrimps, and Diced Pork

Ingredients:

Winter melon                         500g

Dried scallops                         4–5 pieces

Dried shrimps                        4–5 pieces

Dried shiitake mushrooms     7–8 pieces

Lean pork                              200g

Ginger                                    2 slices 

Water 1000ml

Making this soup doesn’t take much time, what really takes time is soaking the dried shiitake mushrooms.

Cooking Method:

1. Soak the shiitake mushrooms (with stems removed), dried scallops, and dried shrimps for several hours until softened.

2. Put all the ingredients into a pressure cooker and set it to 'Soup' mode for 30 minutes.

And it's ready! I hope you enjoy this nourishing and refreshing soup.

References:

Winter Melon: Neutral and slightly cool in nature, sweet in taste and acts on our Lungs, Bladder, Large Intestine and Small Intestine, also helps with detoxifying, clearing out mucus and phlegm and promotes digestion.

Dried Shiitake Mushrooms: Tonify Qi and Blood, it also helps to strengthen the stomach, relieve toxicity, promote healing and resolve phlegm.

Dried Scallops: Sweet, salt, slightly warm. Nourish yin, tonify blood, replenish the kidney, regulate the spleen and stomach. Poor appetite, kidney deficiency with frequent urination, diabetes. Cook it for eating, 10~25 g. https://www.webmd.com/diet/scallops-health-benefits

Dried Shrimp: Tonify qi and yang. It also helps to regulate blood circulation, eliminate cold and resolve phlegm. In general the ancient Chinese medical texts cite that it enters the stomach spleen, kidney, and liver.  https://www.nutritionvalue.org/Shrimp%2C_dried_26319170_nutritional_value.html

Ginger: Promotes Qi circulation, disperses cold, expels wind and resolves phlegm. If you often feel cold, ginger is a recommended ingredient to add.