Congee (also known as jook) is a Traditional Chinese Medicine recipe often eaten for breakfast since it is warm and easy to digest- a perfect meal for nourishing the body.
Congee is also eaten during illness or recovery from illness because it’s so easy to digest. It’s perfect when you are having any digestive discomfort and can be really helpful in recovery from food poisoning or the flu.
All you need is a cup of rice! It’s so simple.
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Rice (white or brown)
- 8 Cups Water (or bone or vegetable broth)
Cook rice and water in a covered saucepan on low heat. Simmer on very low heat for about 2-3 hours until rice is completely broken down and is a creamy, custardy consistency. Stir occasionally to prevent rice from sticking. A crockpot can be used. As desired, season with soy sauce/tamari/shoyu/miso, sesame oil, sea salt, pepper, or garnish with chopped green onions. My favorite way to eat congee is to add a chopped sweet potato and fresh slices of ginger and green onion to the rice about an hour into cooking, and once done, scoop into a bowl and top with a cooked egg, tamari, and toasted nori.
Variations
- add stock: use chicken, beef, pork or vegetable stock in place of the water
- other grains: use soaked quinoa, amaranth, millet or other grains or combinations
- ginger congee: cook with fresh ginger to treat cold and deficiency diarrhea and indigestion
- aduki bean: cook with aduki beans to increase urination to treat fluid retention
- leek or onion: cook with leek or onion to warm the digestive system to treat chronic diarrhea
- carrot: cook with carrots to ease flatulence
- liver: cook with chopped organic liver to treat liver deficiency