Broad bean detox ahead of the rainy season, with a three-minute recipe

Episode 7 of Shiawase wa Tabete Nete Mate: detox ahead of the rainy season

Have you seen the latest episode?
This time I want to talk about detox through yakuzen, with the coming rainy season in mind.

The drama gave us broad bean rice and, I think, broad bean tempura.
Broad beans are in fact a detox ingredient well worth eating from spring into the rainy season.

Three yakuzen points today

1. Dividing the year into five seasons
2. Start preparing for the next season
3. What broad beans do in yakuzen, plus a lazy three-minute recipe

1. Yakuzen divides the year into five seasons

Japan works on four seasons, spring, summer, autumn and winter, but yakuzen thinks in five: spring, the rainy season, summer, autumn and winter.
There is a finer division into 24 solar terms as well, but that can wait for another time.

Settling the body with ingredients suited to the character of each of these five seasons is the basis of yakuzen.

2. Get ready for the rainy season

In yakuzen, what matters is not waiting until something is off, but keeping it from going off in the first place.
This is called yojo, nourishing life.

By the dictionary, it means the habits and actions that keep you well and head off illness.
In other words, using ingredients in season to prepare for the turn of the season is what yakuzen does.

With the rainy season coming, why not look after yourself deliciously with broad beans?

3. What broad beans do in yakuzen, and a three-minute recipe

Here is what broad beans do.

• Ease heaviness in the body
• Clear swelling
• Support a poor appetite

Which is exactly right for the off-days that come between spring and the rainy season.

Salt-boiled broad beans (three-minute cooking)

Ingredients
- Broad beans (shelled)
- Salt

Method

1. Cut a slit in the dark seam at the end of each bean
2. Salt a pan of boiling water and boil for one to two minutes
3. Drain, sprinkle with salt while hot, and that is it

That is all. Simple is best.
Settling the body deliciously without the fuss is the ASAKO yakuzen style, as I like to call it.

For what it is worth, most of what is on my own table is just grilled or just boiled.
(I am lazy and not much of a cook, so go easy on me.)

Let us settle things easily and deliciously again today.

See all vegetables and their benefits