[Updated 2025] Easy yakuzen recipes from everyday ingredients, and how to work them into your life

Have you come across the word yakuzen? In fact, eating the vegetables and fruit already around us to suit your constitution and how you feel can settle both body and mind.

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Yakuzen, put simply, is food that settles the body. It is built on the thinking of Chinese medicine. It may bring to mind special ingredients, but you can in fact make proper yakuzen dishes with everyday vegetables from the supermarket.

Chinese medicine has an idea called mibyo senbo, heading off illness before it takes hold. It means caring for yourself before you fall ill, and it sits at the foundation of yakuzen. I broke my own health through overwork, and it was then that I first met yakuzen and was moved by the idea of settling the body through what ingredients do.

I remember thinking, from the heart, that if I had known sooner I could have looked after myself before things went wrong.

That thought is what drives the services and the advocacy work I now do, settling body and mind through yakuzen.

Today I want to share yakuzen recipes anyone can make easily.

The basics of yakuzen, and approaching it by constitution

Yakuzen looks at ingredients and at the body from several angles.

One of them is the idea that ingredients either warm the body or cool it. This is called yin and yang. Ginger and garlic, for instance, warm the body, while cucumber and tomato cool it.

What matters is bringing these in, in balance, to suit your constitution and how you feel now. When you notice the cold or that circulation has slowed, reach for warming ingredients. When flushing or a hot feeling is on your mind, make a point of cooling ones.

The theory may sound hard, but in practice it is surprisingly simple.

Another important idea in yakuzen is the five zang organs. Liver, Heart, Spleen, Lung and Kidney each carry a function of the body, and each has ingredients that correspond to it. For tired eyes and stiff shoulders, for instance, green ingredients that act on the Liver are said to be good.

Yakuzen has more than 2,000 years of history behind it, wisdom drawn from long experience. Modern nutrition science says bean sprouts are 95% water and hold almost nothing, while yakuzen prizes them as an ingredient that cools heat. That is how yakuzen looks at things: by how an ingredient acts on the body.

Three easy yakuzen recipes with everyday vegetables

Here are yakuzen recipes you can easily make at home. None uses special ingredients; they work with everyday vegetables from the supermarket.

1. Ginger and onion soup, for recovering from tiredness

Ginger and onion warm the body and warm a tired one from the inside. It is good if you feel the cold, or when a cold is coming on.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• Ginger: 1 knob, shredded
• Onion: half, thinly sliced
• Carrot: half, in quarter-rounds
• Chicken stock powder: 1 tsp
• Water: 2 cups
• Salt and pepper: a little

Method

• 1. Put the water and chicken stock powder in a pan and heat.
• 2. Once boiling, add the ginger, onion and carrot and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
• 3. Season with salt and pepper and it is done.

This soup is easy to make and takes few ingredients, yet it warms you right through. I often make it for dinner after a tiring day at work.

2. Lightly pickled cucumber and celery, for swelling

If swelling is on your mind, or summer has worn you down, lightly pickled cucumber and celery, both cooling, are the ones.

Ingredients

• Cucumber: 1, sliced into rounds
• Celery: half a stick, sliced thinly on the diagonal
• Salt: half a tsp
• Lemon juice: 1 tsp

Method

• 1. Slice the cucumber and celery, toss with salt and leave for about 10 minutes.
• 2. Squeeze out the water lightly, dress with the lemon juice and it is done.

It tastes clean and fresh, and suits a hot summer as a side dish. On days when swelling is on your mind, do try it.

You can make light pickles in a plastic bag, but if you want to put them straight in the fridge and then on the table, a container like the Noda Horo Rectangle Deep M enamel storage container makes life easier. It doubles as a box for dishes made ahead.

3. Stir-fried mushrooms and kabocha, for building resilience

When you want to build resilience, or at the turn of the season from autumn into winter, stir-fried mushrooms and kabocha squash are the ones.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• Kabocha squash: an eighth, cut into bite-sized pieces
• Shiitake: 4, stems removed, thinly sliced
• Maitake: half a pack, pulled apart
• Olive oil: 1 tbsp
• Salt: a little
• Black pepper: a little

Method

• 1. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the kabocha over a medium heat.
• 2. Once the kabocha has colour, add the mushrooms and keep frying.
• 3. When everything is cooked through, season with salt and black pepper and it is done.

The sweetness of the kabocha and the savour of the mushrooms come together beautifully. Mushrooms hold compounds that build resilience, so they are worth reaching for at the turn of the season, when colds come easily.

Tips and advice for bringing yakuzen into daily life

Starting yakuzen takes no special knowledge or ingredients. What matters is knowing your constitution and bringing it into everyday meals a little at a time. Here are a few points for doing that.

First, it matters not to eat the same ingredients over and over. Your constitution and how you feel change from day to day, so what you eat has to change too. Making a point of seasonal ingredients matters as well; they are rich in exactly what the season calls for.

Understanding what each ingredient does matters too. Spring onion and ginger, for instance, warm the body and work well for colds and for feeling the cold. Mint and jujube help clear stress.

When I started yakuzen I overthought it and nearly gave up. Once I switched to not aiming at perfection and doing what I could, a little at a time, I found I could keep it up without strain.

Why not drop your shoulders too, and bring yakuzen into your life with some enjoyment in it?

What to watch for when starting yakuzen

There are a few things to watch for when you start.

First, eating too much of something that does not suit your constitution or your symptoms can work against you. Someone who feels the cold eating large amounts of strongly cooling ingredients may find things get worse.

Yakuzen is also not something to expect instant results from; it shows over the long run. Rather than expecting a dramatic change in a short time, bring it into everyday meals without strain.

And if you have a serious illness or serious symptoms, always see a doctor. Yakuzen is one form of dietary care and is no substitute for medical treatment.

A book for widening your repertoire

Keeping it up is easier if you widen what you can cook a little at a time, so you are not always using the same ingredients. If you are choosing on the number of recipes, The World's Best Easy Yakuzen Meals from the popular restaurant Zen no Zen is easy to use, arranged so you can look up the dish you want to make. How to choose by purpose is set out in Books for yakuzen beginners, and how to choose.

Healthy eating that settles body and mind, through yakuzen

Yakuzen is a practical way of eating that brings the wisdom of Chinese medicine into how we eat now. Nothing special has to be prepared: choose and cook everyday supermarket vegetables properly, through a yakuzen lens, and everyday meals become better to eat and better for you.

Choosing ingredients to suit your constitution, how you feel and the season heads off pre-illness and keeps the body well. Since I met yakuzen, how I think about food has changed a great deal. Eating is not simply taking in nutrients; it is an important act that settles body and mind. That is what I have come to feel.

Take the easy recipes and the ingredient choices by constitution here as a starting point and bring yakuzen into your daily life. You should feel the change in body and mind. Healthy eating is not built in a day. Bring in the wisdom of yakuzen a little at a time, from today, and spend your days well in body and mind.

If you want to know more about yakuzen, do have a look at the Yasai Yakuzen site as well. It is full of yakuzen wisdom built on everyday vegetables.

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