How about food that actually replenishes what you lose through sweating on a hot day so that you can keep sweating?! Let's not forget, deodorant fan or no, sweat is the thing that keeps us from overheating on a warm day and passing out while impressing your friends with your new Frisbee technique. Sweat, and air conditioners, iced drinks and popsicles, but mostly sweat. Did you know humans can sweat 2-4 liters an hour?!? That's 8-16 cups! Before you get grossed out, sweat is mostly water. Phew! But, sweat is also composed of many minerals essential to proper nutrition. Yikes! How do we get those back? We've worked so hard to get them in there, what with our kale salad and high quality multi-vitamins. The air conditioner's not going to do it. Drinking water alone isn't going to do it. It's a job for Sam Gye Tang!
Welcome this lovely soup, Sam Gye Tang, into your life to recharge your internal air conditioner, boost your filtration systems, and give your body all it needs to sweat the hot out and keep the nutrition in.
This magical soup is so powerful that it actually boosts your digestive power so that you absorb MORE from your food not only while you're eating it, but for days afterward.
Ok, really, SOUP? We thought soup came from a can. Soup is something you eat when you're sick. Soup is a bunch of gnarly pre-digested square cut veggies and something else we couldn't figure out but ate anyway.
Well friends, take a gander at this soup.
Here are the ingredients:
1 whole small chicken or game hen (free range and well loved)
1/2 cup sweet rice (the sticky delicious kind)
3-6 red jujube dates (NOT mejool dates, Jujube dates can be found at your herb shop like The Vital Compass or Asian grocer)
1-2 whole white ginseng root (also found at your grocer or herb shop)
3-6 (or more to taste) cloves of garlic
1-2 sliced green onions
Water or Bone Broth for extra nutrients.
Simple, right? Right! This particular mix of ingredients gives your digestion everything it needs to gracefully welcome nutrients into your body. The ginseng is the powerhouse here. Used for centuries for all sorts of fatigue, digestive trouble and deficiency, it works here to increase absorption in your belly. Herb nerd like me? Check out this great article on Ginseng from ITM. The dates nourish your digestion and especially your blood, the green onions vent heat, the rice nourishes your digestion and increases absorption. The chicken, in addition to providing a complete protein, stabilizing your blood sugars, draws the yang energy into your organs allowing excess heat to vent out. Last but not least, the broth or water gives you the water back you've given up sweating! Brilliant, we were looking for that! If you're vegetarian or vegan, you could substitute tofu, but as tofu is a yin food rather than a yang one, you may be best to leave it out all together.
Ok, so you're home from Frisbee, you've picked up your ingredients on your bike ride home, are sweating more than ever, and ready to make your soup!
In a small bowl, soak your rice for 20 minutes. Find your smallest soup pot. Wash and pat dry your chicken friend, making sure to clean out the insides. Place all ingredients inside the chicken (like a tiny thanksgiving!) and place your bird in your pot. Fill with water or bone broth, and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Skim any fat that comes to the surface and top off your water or broth. Cook for another 20 minutes or until the chicken pulls apart easily. Serve to yourself and your loved ones with table salt and/or kimchi.
Yes, kimchi! Did I not mention this lovely recipe comes from an ancient tradition of eating this very soup on the hottest of days in Korea? I guess not! I was introduced to Sam Gye Tang during my year in South Korea, where the hottest days are celebrated with the restaurants that specialize in making this delicacy filling to the brim with the citizens of South Korea and every expat they can convince to eat soup on a hot day. Once upon a time, I was one of the lucky expats. Now, I get to share it with you. Enjoy!
Alison Loercher, L.A.c, M.a.O.m.
Co-founder: The Vital Compass Cooperative herbal medicinary and traditional medicine clinic.
