Yakuzen is closer than you think: supermarket ingredients and what they do, explained simply

Does yakuzen sound to you like difficult cooking with special kampo ingredients? In fact, you can make proper yakuzen dishes with everyday ingredients from the supermarket you already shop at.

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This article covers the basics of vegetable yakuzen, made with supermarket ingredients, and how to choose ingredients that do you good. Nothing special has to be prepared. Let us look together at how to make your everyday meals healthier.

What is vegetable yakuzen? A way of eating that settles the body with everyday ingredients

Vegetable yakuzen is a way of eating that draws on yakuzen thinking, grounded in Chinese medicine, and uses the power of everyday vegetables and fruit to settle body and mind according to your constitution, how you feel and the season. What marks it out above all is that you can make proper yakuzen dishes with supermarket vegetables, without special kampo ingredients.

I met yakuzen when overwork and stress led a doctor to order me to stop and I took leave. Looking for the cause, I met Chinese-medicine yakuzen and was struck by the idea of settling the body through what ingredients do.

Out of the thought that I wished I had known sooner, I now use my own experience to spread ways anyone can bring yakuzen in easily.

Yakuzen may sound hard, but the vegetables we eat every day, chosen through a yakuzen lens and cooked properly, make everyday meals healthier. The basis of vegetable yakuzen is settling the body from the inside. Nothing special has to be prepared, so anyone can start easily.

The basics of yakuzen ingredients you can find at the supermarket, and what they do

Everyday supermarket ingredients have yakuzen qualities of their own. Chinese medicine sorts ingredients by the five natures, hot, warm, neutral, cool and cold, and by the five flavours, sour, bitter, sweet, pungent and salty, and considers what each does to the body.

Ingredients that warm the body (warm and hot)

If you feel the cold, warming ingredients are the ones. Typical ones are spring onion, ginger, garlic and shiso. These belong to the pungent-warm exterior-releasing group, which clears the wind-cold sitting on the surface of the body, raises the body's temperature and encourages sweating.

Ginger in particular is strong at warming the interior, warming the body from the inside, and helps if you feel the cold. Research has in fact confirmed that eating ginger raises body temperature.

If feeling the cold or swelling is on your mind, making a point of these ingredients warms you from within and improves circulation.

Ingredients that cool the body (cool and cold)

For anyone with heat trapped in the body, cooling ingredients are the ones. Cucumber, tomato, lettuce and winter melon are typical.

When red spots appear or the skin is inflamed, tomato and cucumber, which clear heat, are good to eat. They clear excess heat from the body.

When summer has worn you down and you have no appetite, dishes with these cooling ingredients are gentle on the stomach and easy to eat.

Ingredients that moisten the body

If dryness is on your mind, moistening ingredients are the ones. Lotus root, asparagus, honey and banana are typical.

If your skin feels dry or your throat gets dry easily, making a point of these supports moisture from the inside. They are worth reaching for in winter and whenever the air is dry.

Yakuzen ingredients by constitution

Chinese medicine sorts constitutions into qi deficiency, blood deficiency, yin deficiency, yang deficiency, phlegm-damp, blood stasis, qi depression and others. Choosing ingredients that suit your own constitution settles how you feel more effectively.

Start by checking your own constitution

For the qi deficiency constitution, if you tire easily

People of the qi deficiency constitution tend to tire easily and catch colds easily. They lack energy, may have a quiet voice and get out of breath readily.

Ingredients that replenish qi are the ones here. Japanese yam, kabocha squash, carrot, sweet potato and chicken are typical. They top up the body's energy and build resilience.

Japanese yam in particular helps digestion and absorption and settles the stomach and intestines, which suits anyone with a poor appetite.

For the blood deficiency constitution, with rough skin or poor sleep

People of the blood deficiency constitution tend to feel vaguely off, with rough skin, feeling the cold and poor sleep. A pale complexion and brittle nails are also typical.

Ingredients that replenish blood are the ones here. Spinach, liver, black soybeans, black sesame and jujube are typical. They replenish the blood and support the health of skin and hair.

The jujube is the fruit of a deciduous shrub of the nightshade family native to East Asia, and a familiar ingredient in yakuzen. It is nourishing and strengthening, and supports the Liver and Kidney. Lately it has drawn attention as a superfood.

For the yin deficiency constitution, with flushing or dryness

People of the yin deficiency constitution show signs of being short on moisture: flushing, dryness and trouble falling asleep. Flushing easily and hot palms and soles are also typical.

Ingredients that nourish yin are the ones here. White wood ear, tofu, banana, honey and egg are typical. They replenish the body's moisture and cool excess heat.

White wood ear is sometimes called an edible beauty serum and is known for what it does for the skin. Adding it to a soup or a sweet dish is an easy way to bring it in.

Choosing yakuzen ingredients for the season

In yakuzen it also matters to choose ingredients as the seasons change, because what the body needs and what it has to adjust differ through the year. Look at the seasonal shelf at the supermarket and you will notice that it naturally holds what suits the body.

Spring yakuzen ingredients

Spring is the Liver's season. Ingredients that clear what built up over winter and lift the metabolism are the ones. Spring vegetables such as nanohana, shungiku, celery and new-season onion help the Liver work and get things circulating.

Nanohana in particular helps the Liver and eases spring tiredness. A soup of new-season onion and sakura shrimp also suits spring care well.

Summer yakuzen ingredients

Summer is the Heart's season. Ingredients that head off the drain the heat puts on you and balance fluids and nourishment are the ones. Cooling ingredients such as cucumber, tomato, watermelon and winter melon cool heat in the body and support your fluid intake.

Bitter melon is the best ingredient for heading off summer fatigue. Its bitterness gets the stomach and intestines working and whets the appetite. Bitter melon and pork porridge is a particularly good dish for summer care.

What about when the summer heat leaves you with no appetite?

That is exactly when a clean-tasting dish, such as a hot-and-sour style soup with tomato and winter melon, is gentle on the body.

Autumn yakuzen ingredients

Autumn is the Lung's season. Ingredients that protect the body from dryness and replenish moisture are the ones. The flavours of autumn, sweet potato, chestnut, mushrooms and pear, moisten the Lung and build resilience.

Pear in particular is sometimes called a natural cough remedy, and eases a dry or inflamed throat. In the dry season of autumn, a hot pear drink is worth trying.

Winter yakuzen ingredients

Winter is the Kidney's season. Ingredients that warm the body and store energy are the ones. Warming ingredients such as leek, ginger, garlic and kabocha squash warm the body from the inside and keep the cold off.

Japanese yam yakuzen porridge with goji berries is the ideal nourishing dish for winter. Japanese yam helps digestion and absorption, and goji berries support the Kidney and build resilience.

Easy recipes with yakuzen ingredients from the supermarket

Practice matters as much as theory. Here are easy yakuzen recipes using supermarket ingredients.

Ginger and herring rice

Ginger is the classic warming ingredient, and herring replenishes qi, warms the middle, replenishes blood and gets blood moving. The pairing suits anyone bothered by feeling the cold or by swelling.

It is simple. Put two cups of rice, 40 to 50 g of grated ginger, one tin of herring in sweet soy sauce with its liquid, a tablespoon of sake, a teaspoon of salt and half a teaspoon of soy sauce into the rice cooker and cook. Once done, break up the herring and mix it all through.

This one dish warms you from the belly out, and winter's cold holds no fear. It is good for dinner the night before an exam or an important day at work.

Samgyetang-style yakuzen soup

A yakuzen take on samgyetang, the Korean nourishing dish. A ginger-forward broth, generously filled with Japanese chicken, bamboo shoot, daikon and spring onion.

The contrast between soft daikon and crisp bamboo shoot makes this soup a pleasure, and adding ginseng as a hidden note makes it more properly yakuzen.

It works well for recovering from tiredness and building resilience, so it suits the turn of the season when colds come easily, or any time your strength is low.

When you want to go a step further into what ingredients mean

Supermarket ingredients alone are plenty to practise with, but when you want to follow up why this particular ingredient, a book that explains through qi, blood and fluids and the five phases, such as Kampo Seikatsu o Tanoshimu Kyokasho: understand the reasons and settle better, by Daisuke Sakurai, is the short route. We compare how to choose in Books for yakuzen beginners, and how to choose.

Yakuzen wisdom for daily life

Yakuzen is nothing special; you can practise it by adding a little knowledge to everyday meals. We hope you can see that everyday supermarket ingredients have a range of yakuzen properties of their own.

Choosing ingredients to suit your constitution, the season and how you feel that day makes your eating healthier and keeps body and mind in balance. Nothing special has to be prepared; a small shift in what you notice on your usual shop is enough.

Why not shop a little more deliberately from today? Choose ingredients that suit your constitution and cook to suit the season, and everyday meals become healthier and more enjoyable.

With vegetable yakuzen, the wisdom of Chinese medicine brought into daily life today, may you find days of health that shine from the inside.

If you want to know more about yakuzen and about the approach that suits your constitution, do have a look at the Yasai Yakuzen site. It is full of useful things, from the constitution check to seasonal recipes.

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