Welcome to this third week of the medicinal cooking collective challenge! This week we are cooking for the Stomach and Spleen with the Earth element. In Chinese 5 element theory, the earth element is associated with colour Yellow, and a sweet taste. It is also associated with thought and clear thinking. According to this theory, yellow food is good for your digestive system and spleen and yellow is a common colour in food. You can eat things like sweet or baby corn, yellow sweet potato, oats, pumpkin, butternut squash, yellow pepper, soybeans, bean curd, ginger, orange, star fruit, lemon, pineapple, papaya, peanut, walnut, honey, and more.

I think this weeks challenge will be a fun one as we can cook with so many of our favourite ingredients. Since I am currently in India i will no doubt use some Turmeric in my dish, which is a very special spice that is like yellow ink and gives so many health benefits. I look forward to seeing what ingredients and dishes you come up with this week! Its been really enjoyable reading your recipes, and I have already tried a few out, and they were Very good! Our food, as always, is our best preventative medicine, and there are many ingredients to choose from that can help our stomach, spleen and digestion.

Please use anything in the following list to cook with, or surprise us with your imagination!
All sweet and starchy foods, root vegetables and very sweet soft fruits. Other Earth foods are millet, barley, rye, natural sugar, corn, oats, slow cooked onion, watermelon, cantaloupe, sweet apples, sweet cherries, dates, grapes, peaches, carrots, cabbage, potato, sweet potato, bananas and plantains, yam, okra, taro, beets, button and chantarelle mushrooms and other fungus, winter and summer squash, cucumbers, almond, coconut and other tropical fruits like papayas, cherimoyas and mangoes are all earth foods. So are the pulses - lentils and dried peas, peanuts alongs with syrupy sweets - honey, maple syrup, corn syrup, agave syrup, molasses, rice syrup and barley syrup, pumpkin, butternut squash, yellow peppers.

It is up to you if you focus on the colour Yellow, the Sweet Taste, or the Medicinal Herbs and Spices that you know of that can assist the stomach and spleen. The ideal dish would incorporate all of these, for example a nice sweet banana lassi accompanied by a very yellow and savory meal. Of course dessert can be as sweet as you like on this one! It is also up to you if you make one dish or a two or even three course meal. I think I know what I will cook, as its one of my old favorites! I can't wait to see what you have in store for us! Please do comment to let know if you plan to take part this week!

Posting Guidelines

This meal should contain ingredients that are known to help the stomach or digestion. There can be different ailments of the stomach, and your dish can be for any type of stomach issue you like, for example a dish that is high in fibre which supports a healthy stomach lining. A non vegetarian option of bone broth is also known to help recover a stomach lining and can make a good medicine as well as soup! A low fat meal can help with obesity. Your knowledge and imagination is the limit, there are no rules, only guidelines!

1. The predominant colour of the meal should be yellow and there should be a sweet element to it. You can also use any ingredients that support the healthy functioning of the stomach and spleen.

2. Please post using the tag #medicinal-cooking so that it is easy to find your post.

3. Please try out the recipes yourself and include photos of your dish(es) and how you made it.

4. Please explain in your post how this meal is beneficial to the Stomach & Spleen.

5. This challenge is open to everyone. There are no rules regarding ingredients, including the use of (ethically sourced) meat or fish, although we encourage vegan ideas as they are usually the best for medicinal cooking!

6. Please post before or on Friday 27th July. If you miss this you may not be added to my recipe post, although I often add posts that are a bit late.

Please do comment if you have any questions!

Check our previous week's here

The Medicinal Cooking Collective: The Heart / Fire Element - Recipe Collection #1

https://steemit.com/medicinal-cooking/@eco-alex/the-medicinal-cooking-collective-the-heart-fire-element-recipe-collection-1

The Medicinal Cooking Collective: The Liver / Wood Element - Recipe Collection #2

https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/the-medicinal-cooking-collective-recipe-book-2-the-liver---wood-element---

More About The Five Elements

We are cooking each week to support one of the five elements. According to the Ancient Chinese, all things in the world can be divided into five vibrational families and the elements of Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal. In the body, these Five Elements represent the five major organs - The kidneys, the Liver, the Heart, the Spleen/Stomach/Pancreas and the Lungs - all of which are necessary for survival. Usually one of these organs is stronger than the others giving extra energy to that organ and helping people to behave in certain ways and clearly influences personality and lifestyle choices - things like food preferences, fun, fashion, decorating, sleeping, playing, etc. And, one of the organs is usually slightly deficient and needs building up. When you are strong in one element, you usually need to build up the other elements to find balance.

The five elements are

fire (火)
metal (金)
wood (木)
water (水)
earth (土)

When our organs are in balance with each other we can experience good health. Our organs can be supported by eating foods that nourish and bring balance to the body. You can see in the chart below how the elements correspond to the organs of the body, what emotions they are related to, as well as the colour and tates that can be eaten to bring them into balance.

In Chinese medicine and cooking, it’s believed that if you are weak or ill in certain parts of your body or organs, you should consume certain colors/elements of food to help you feel better and improve your health. For example, if you have health problems with your kidney, you should eat more food that’s black/water in color, such as wood ear, seaweed, and black sesame.

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