This easy to make recipe is natural, healthy and Paleo and it’s easy – only takes 10 minutes to prepare, you can buy all the ingredients at your local supermarket and it’s extremely healthy according to the ancient wisdom of Chinese Medicine.
Overall, this recipie is a tonic which nourishes Blood and tonifies the Spleen Qi. Because it uses Marrow meat/ bones, it can tonify the Kidney Essence (Jing) as well.
WHAT YOU NEED:
Crockpot (slow cooker)
Chopping board, knife
1 Soup Pack of Vegies (1 turnip, 1 parsnip, a few carrots, a handful of sticks of cellery, 1 onion) – look for these packs in your supermarket vege section, it’s a no-brainer way to make this recipie.
1 pack of Osso Bucco – this is the spine of the cow. The more blood nourishing you want this recipie choose the more marrow/spiny looking (ones with bigger bones)
METHOD:
1) Simply roughly cut the vegies into pieces, slice onion and place about half of them in the slow cooker.
2) Put the slow cooker on HIGH if you have 4-6 hrs to make it or on LOW if you have all day or all night to make it.
3) Add the osso buco on top of the vegies. There is no need to cut it up. Put the rest of the vegies on top of the meat.
4) cover with water so the water is covering all of the vegies. Put the lid on and let it cook away for the next 4 – 8 hours.
If you have longer, you can turn the slow cooker onto low about half way through and let it simmer. With this recipie you can do many variations. The longer you simmer the bones at the low heat, it will increase the Kidney Jing (Essence) tonic effects the recipie.
SEASONING:
Add Pepper (if your Paleo, you wouldnt want any salt, so Pepper and some fresh garden herbs can be experimented with). Chinese Herbs I like to cook with are
CHINESE MEDICINE ADDITIONS:
ADD Si Wu Tang – for Blood deficiency
ADD Si Jun Zi Tang – For Qi or Energy deficiency
Both these Formulas above are simple, 4-herb combos that are easily available from your local oriental grocery store. If you ask them for it they should be able to help you find it. Chinese herbs should be added to the recipie from the start and then scooped out before serving. They are sticky-woody natured and don’t need to be eaten. You can put them in a muslin bag so its easy to decant them out of the recipie if you find it hard to get them out of the soup.
Your Chinese Medicine practitioner should tell you your diagnosis so you can adjust the recipie according to your diet needs.
FOOD ADDITIONS:
1) Add Barley for a more hearty meal and long-lasting meal (it will feed more people). Barley is good for nourishing the Spleen energy but also treats Dampness (if your tongue coating is thick then you have some kind of dampness in your digestion).
2) For Dampness with Spleen E, add Barley or Millet and Si Jun Zi Tang (not Si Wu Tang)