The benefits of jujube
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What jujube does
What this vegetable does
It is held to replenish the Spleen and Stomach, nourish the blood and settle the mind.
How to eat it
Add it to tea, soup or simmered dishes and enjoy its sweetness as you take it.
A yakuzen note
An ingredient that nourishes blood while it replenishes qi, held to settle both mind and body.
Jujube is a sweet, warm fruit held to help the Spleen and Stomach work and to nourish the blood. It is often used where there is unease of the mind, poor sleep or a dull complexion. Taken in simmered dishes, soups or as jujube tea, you get its sweetness and its goodness in full. Dried, it keeps well, which makes it an excellent everyday yakuzen ingredient.
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The types of jujube and how to choose them
If you want to enjoy what jujube does, it helps to know what it is, its types and how to choose it. Dried it turns sticky and sweet, a fruit familiar from yakuzen soups and teas.
A yakuzen standard, also called taiso
Jujube is the fruit of a tree in the buckthorn family, known in kampo as taiso and used in yakuzen for centuries. Fresh jujube ripens in autumn, but it barely reaches the shops in Japan, and what is sold is mostly dried. Dried jujube comes largely from China, Ningxia among other places, and from Korea, and is available all year. Fresh jujube has the crisp bite of a green apple, but dried it turns sticky and sweet like a prune, and keeps far longer. On a Japanese table it is this dried jujube that is normally used.
Red jujube, black jujube and the other types
Jujube comes in several types, differing in flavour according to how it is processed.
| kinds | What stands out |
|---|---|
| Red jujube (dried) | The standard. Red-brown, with a sticky natural sweetness |
| Black jujube | Steamed and then dried. Deeper and richer |
| Slices and chips | Thinly sliced, or dried into chips. Easy for tea and for cooking |
Red jujube to eat as it is or to cook with, black jujube for a richer flavour, slices for tea and for quick use: you can choose by what you are doing.
How to choose them and how to handle the stone
When picking out dried jujube, these are the things to look for if you want good quality.
- A deep red-brown, plump even where it is wrinkled
- No mould, no insect damage, no spoiling
- Berries even in size
There is a hard stone in the middle of a jujube. The flesh can be eaten as it is, but the stone is hard and is not eaten. For soups and teas the fruit is sometimes added stone and all, but for baking and for dishes where you chop it, a lengthways cut to take the stone out makes it easier to handle. Stoneless jujube is also sold, so you can choose by use.
How to eat jujube
Jujube is a standard ingredient in yakuzen soups and teas. Here are the usual ways to use its natural sweetness.
In soups, congee and yakuzen hotpot
Jujube needs no soaking: add it as it is and simmer, and a gentle sweetness melts into the soup. The main ways to use it are these.
- Samgyetang and yakuzen soups: simmered with chicken, for sweetness and body
- Hotpot: as a note of colour and natural sweetness
- Chinese congee and rice cooked with seasonings: a faint sweetness and a red note of colour
Jujube is usually simmered together with goji berries and lotus seeds, and the red, white and brown make a rich picture. If the stones bother you, take them out before adding the fruit.
As jujube tea, candied jujube and in baking
In Korea, jujube simmered into a tea, daechucha, is a familiar drink. Pour hot water over sliced jujube, or simmer it gently, and you have a drink with a gentle sweetness. Candied in sugar or honey, it is handy to serve with tea or alongside yoghurt. Chopped and worked into pound cake or cookie dough, it adds natural sweetness and a moist crumb. If making tea from ingredients like jujube interests you, see Wellness tea OEM is worth a look.
How to keep jujube, which takes up moisture easily
Dried jujube is sweet and takes up damp easily. Once the bag is open, move it to an airtight container or a zip bag and keep it somewhere cool and dark, away from damp and insects. In warm weather, or if you want to keep it a long time, the fridge holds its quality better. Damp makes the fruit stick together and dulls the flavour, so a desiccant alongside is reassuring. Since you use only a little at a time, decanting it into a smaller container keeps damp out each time you open it.
Alongside this, ones often used with it in yakuzen soups and desserts, The benefits of goji berry or The benefits of lotus seed as a guide when planning a menu.
Available dried all year round, jujube is a useful ingredient that lends natural sweetness to samgyetang, yakuzen soups, jujube tea and baking alike. Mind the stone and keep the damp out and it earns its place in the cupboard, ready for all sorts of uses. Bring that gentle sweetness to the everyday table.
