Happy New Year from All of Us at YAO! Check Out Our Vitality Program, Detox Recipes, Specials on Labs, + More

This year at YAO we’re looking at ways to inhale and embrace Vitality in ways that are super easy to implement.  We are very excited to have you join us on this journey!

We understand that the holiday season can wreak havoc on your gut health. To help get you back on track, we have two great recipes that can help you along a very gentle detox. Chinese Medicine does not align with the very stringent detox cleanses of Western Medicine including Western herbalism, These harsh and very strict cleanses can actually cause damage.  The recipes we have provided here can help move any stagnation through your system without setting off any inflammatory or immune responses.

We’re going to start with our Bone Broth Recipe as it will be the base for your Congee or your Kitchari recipes. We have been using the Instant Pot to cook the bone broth.  Bone broth has so many wonderful nutrients.  You can sip on this throughout the day. It has lots of collagen that’s both great for gut health as well as health joints and skin.  It also contains a high amount of protein and can function as an easy snack that you sip on throughout the day.

Bone broth is wonderful when you have been recovering from a hospital stay or are home sick. It’s the perfect base for the following recipes as well!

Daniel’s Bone Broth – Hospital Stock

INGREDIENTS

• 4 chicken bone in thighs skin on
• 1/2 gallon water
• Cilantro stems – off one bunch
• 5 med to small carrots
• 1 piece of ginger sliced skin on
• 1 Cinnamon stick
• 1 bunch green onions with whites removed
• 1 handful of yellow cherry tomatoes ( left from garden)
• 1 heirloom tomato (or other tomato if heirloom is out of season)
• 2 tsp coriander seeds
• 2 tsp white or black pepper corn
• Pinch of salt
• 2 TBSP of Cider Vinegar

DIRECTIONS

1. Place all ingredients inside your pressure cooker. Pressure cook the ingredients for 1 full hour. When complete, let the pressure cooker de-pressurize or force depressurization.
2. Strain liquid from solids using a wire colander/cheescloth or whatever you’ve got around the house that will separate the solids from the liquid.
3. Remove the meat from the bones. Margaret likes to use kitchen dish gloves to do this chore as the meat can often be very very hot. Put the meat in a separate bowl or off to the side.
4. For a high protein version of this broth, add back into the liquid 1/3 – 1/2 of the strained broth with the meat and place in blender or Vitamin and blend completely.
5. Use either the plain broth or the high protein broth for your Congee or Kitchari. OR simply keep the broth to sip on throughout the day. It’s wonderful for your body and very easy to digest. You can flavor with salt or turmeric.

Margaret & Daniel’s Easy & Delicious Congee Recipe

Congee is one of those wonderful things that is super easy to make using a rice cooker that has a porridge setting. If you are using the congee as a cleanse, do not add nuts, scallions or the hot pepper sauce if you know yourself to possibly be sensitive. Keep it super simple.

USING RICE COOKER

The rice cooker recipe has a wonderfully easy way to make a smaller batch.  The stove top recipe is a much larger recipe and you will need to amend to make it smaller.

INGREDIENTS

• Hospital broth Approximately 2-3 cups
• 1 Cup broken rice (or jasmine rice)
• 1-2  inch piece of ginger peeled and minced (or peeled and grated)
• 1/4 lb Ground Turkey leg meat or 1/4 lb ground chicken (you can also use any other kind of meat.  Feel free to use left over roasted chicken that you shred up or fish or beef or port…what have you. Best to have a meat that is not too heavily seasoned when you are using this congee as a cleanse)
• Salt to taste
• White pepper to taste
• One handful of cilantro chopped
• One bunch of green onions/scallions – white parts removed and thinly slice the green onions into small pieces
• 1/4 Cup chopped roasted peanuts
• Garlic infused olive oil to drizzle
• Spicy pepper sauce – your favorite Sriracha or Tabasco type red pepper sauce

DIRECTIONS

1. Use your rice cooker’s measuring cup to measure off 1 cup of broken rice or jasmine rice and put it into the rice cooker pot.
2. Rinse the rice in the rice cooker pot with water about 4-5 times until water runs clear. You can run your fingers across the rice grains to assist in removing the dust.
3. Peel & grate/mince the ginger and put in the pot with the washed rice
4. Fill rice cooker pot with hospital broth up to the line that says 1 under the porridge section
5. Turn the rice cooker on while it is on the porridge setting
6. While the porridge is cooking, brown and separate the ground turkey leg meat or chicken in a small frying pan. You can put a small amount of coconut oil, garlic infused olive oil  in the pan and then brown the meat and break it apart into small bits. When it is fully cooked through set this aside.
7. When porridge cycle is complete in the rice cooker, open the cooker up and add in the meat. Stir it in.
8. The porridge will likely be quite thick. I spend a lot of time thinning it out. I usually boil some water in my tea pot and then add a bit at a time or thin out with more hospital broth. You don’t want it to be too runny, but neither do you want it to be too thick either. Once it is thinned to a consistency that you like, you may add salt  & white pepper to taste.
9. Pour into bowl and add cilantro, scallions, chopped peanuts, drizzled olive oil and your favorite red pepper sauce to taste.

I like to often add a dollop of homemade guacamole or even diced avocado.  Again, if you are doing this as a detox, keep it quite simple: NO SCALLIONS, NO NUTS, NO PEPPER SAUCE. Cilantro, olive oil salt and pepper will suffice.

OVER THE STOVE

INGREDIENTS

• All of the hospital broth in hospital broth recipe – Approximately 8-10 Cups
• 1 Cup of Broken Rice or jasmine rice
• 3-4 inches peeled and grated ginger
• 1/2 lb Ground Turkey leg meat or 1/2 lb ground chicken (you can also use any other kind of meat.  Feel free to use left over roasted chicken that you shred up or fish or beef or port…what have you. Best to have a meat that is not too heavily seasoned when you are using this congee as a cleanse)
• Salt to taste
• White pepper to taste
• One handful of cilantro chopped
• One bunch of green onions/scallions – white parts removed and thinly slice the green onions into small pieces
• 1/4 Cup chopped roasted peanuts
• Garlic infused olive oil to drizzle
• Spicy pepper sauce – your favorite Sriracha or Tabasco type red pepper sauce

DIRECTIONS

Margaret’s Kitchari Recipe

Kitchari is an amazing recipe to simply reset the entire digestive system.  Again, you can add some toppings if you are not using this as a detox; however, if you are using it to reset, just keep it simple. Kitchari has been used for centuries as a staple meal when people are ill or are wanting to detox and reset. At YAO, we feel very strongly that an intense fast or traditional western model of detoxing actually can have the potential to harm the body if not done correctly. The Kitchari cleanse can be done over a 3-5 day period. You will ONLY eat Kitchari, but you can eat as much or as little as you wish.

I had a HORRIBLE and I mean HORRIBLE arm pit rash about 2 years ago and it lasted an entire year practically. In the end, the Kitchari recipe as well as a big life change are what removed the stress from my life to allow the healing, but the Kitchari really truly helped immensely. I recently remembered it and used it for my daughter who was experiencing a similar deficiency as diagnosed by Dr. Daniel and at 14 years old, she was able to really notice big benefit from sticking to this for a 3 day period.

INSTANT POT RECIPE

Though the recipe is simple, if you really want to make this SUPER easy on your digestive system, you need to begin preparation about 2 days in advance. The first day you will be soaking the mung beans/lentils to remove phytic acid. Phytic acid is the source of phosphorus for legumes. Unfortunately, this phytic acid binds to potential nutrients in the human body blocking their absorption and also blocks enzymes in assisting proper nutrient break down.  It’s SUPER important especially if we are going to use this recipe as a detox (which would be something very easy for us to digest) that we remove the phytic acid.  Additionally, we can also remove the lectins if we allow the mung beas/lentils a day to sprout.

If you are using this as a detox and will be having it over several days, you will need to begin soaking the next batch of mung beans/lentils a day or two apart from the first in order to have plenty available to cook and eat throughout your cleanse. So be mindful of replenishing your supply so that you can keep eating this for the duration of a 3-5 day period.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Cup Basmati Rice soaked for 15-20 mins
• 1/2 Cup Mung Beans or if you can’t find them green french lentils soaked for 24 hours & Sprouted (See soaking and sprouting process below)
• 2 TBSP Coconut Oil Or Fractionated Coconut Oil
• 1.5 Tsp Cumin Seeds
• 1 Bay Leaf
• 6 Cups of Water or Hospital Broth
• 1.5 tsp Salt
• 1 tsp turmeric

DIRECTIONS

Soaking & Sprouting the Mung Beans/Green Lentils (removing phytic acid and lectins)

1. Rinse the mung beans or green lentils and place in a glass or metal bowl covered in water with 1 TBSP Apple Cider Vinegar if you have it. Cover with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel and set aside for 24 hours on your counter
2. After 24 hours drain the beans/lentils.
3. Leave the beans/lentils in the same bowl and leave them quite damp. It’s ok if you have a tiny bit of lingering water in the bottom that you are unable to drain in the bowl. Cover the bowl and leave on kitchen counter. This begins the sprouting process. Within 12 hours you will likely see the beans begin to sprout. After 12 hours toss the beans/lentils around in the bowl and cover again.
4. After another 12 hours they should fully be sprouting. If they are not…keep them going until you begin to see little sprouts.

Cooking the Kitchari in the Instant Pot

1. Turn on your Instant Pot’s browning/saute function and add in the oil
2. Once it begins to heat, add in the cumin and bay leave and brown them
3. Add in the rice and the sprouted mung beans/lentils, water, salt and turmeric
4. Close the pot  (lid and pressure valve) and press the beans/legumes setting – about 20 minutes on the pressure cooker
5. When done, either wait for the pressure to decompress or if you know how to assist your pot in depressurizing, do so.
6. Once de-pressurized, open the pot and stir

If you are using as a detox, eat very simply. If you are ok to add in a few bells and whistles, you may do like the Congee and add cilantro, garlic infused olive oil, red hot sauce and the like.  Enjoy this very tasty and simple meal.