Rice Porridge Congee: Secret Food for Gut Health & How to Make It

Have you ever wondered about the secret to maintaining a healthy gut and overall well-being? Today we're about to unveil a culinary treasure that's been cherished across Asia for centuries and sometimes even served as medicine in many parts of Asia. If you've been looking for a dish that can boost your gut health, it's easy and cheap to make and frankly doesn't require any particular cooking skills, you are in the right place. Hi everyone, I'm Shirley, a Chinese medicine practitioner and a Western pharmacist from Australia currently living in the UK. Welcome back to Chinese Herbal Pantry where we explore how to use food as medicine to enhance your overall well-being based on the wisdom of traditional Chinese medicine. In today's video, we are diving into the world of congee, rice porridge, a humble comfort food enjoyed by many in Asia for thousands of years. In fact, many cultures have their own version of rice porridge. Why does this simple dish never go out of style? What is it so special about it? We will briefly explore its rich history in Asia, cultural significance and its incredible health benefits according to traditional Chinese medicine. After I explain this, we will cook the plain congee together. Stay with me until the end, I will also share bonus tips on dietary advice from traditional Chinese medicine perspective for people who have weak digestions. I feel that the combination of insight can actually help to improve your gut health and overall well-being. So exactly what is congee? It is more than just a warm bowl of rice porridge, it is a hidden gem celebrated across Asia known as zhou in Mandarin, jok in Cantonese. Congee comes in many different consistencies and many different forms from white rice congee commonly found in many Asian households or Chinese restaurants to multi-grain concoctions, some even infused with Chinese herbs which are lesser known in the West. There are also sweet versions of rice congee. Growing up in Chinese medicine family, I have always been aware of the significance of congee and its frequent use as medicinal porridge. After becoming a Chinese medicine practitioner myself, I frequently incorporate rice congee as the foundation for prescribing Chinese herbs to individuals with weak digestions. This approach enhances the absorptions of both the herbs and the nutrients from other foods that my patients consume. According to traditional Chinese medicine, congee is neutral in its thermal property, it can boost our qi and support our digestions. The high water content in congee help with hydrations and it is easily digestible and also gentle on our stomach, making it suitable for children, the elderly and individuals with weaker digestions or just general weakness. Rice porridge often uses chicken stock or bone broth which bring the collagen to the table, essential for the healing of our GI tract. In classical traditional Chinese medicine text, the therapeutic properties of rice congee are well documented and can be traced back to Huangdi Neijing, the inner canon of the Yellow Emperor. This ancient Chinese medical text, regarded as the fundamental source for Chinese medicine for over two thousands of years, already referenced the benefits of congee. Furthermore, we found specific herbal prescriptions that suggest cooking medicinal Chinese herbs with rice congee in the famous Shang Han Lun, known in English as the treatise on cold damage disease. This book is authored by Zhang Zhongxing, a very renowned TCM doctor in the Han dynasty. The historical text is one of the oldest complete clinical textbooks in the world and it is still reworked by many TCM practitioners today, including myself. I love his prescription because we found that the herbal prescriptions in the book actually continue to be effective for modern illnesses. The multiple mentions of congee in this classical text make it particularly significant in the world of traditional Chinese medicines. In another famous Chinese medicine book, Ben Chao Gang Mu, known in English as the Compendium of Materia Medica, it is an encyclopedic gathering of medicine and Chinese herbology compiled and edited by Li Shizhen during the Ming dynasty. He also mentioned at least 50 different types of congee for different health benefits when cooked with various food ingredients or medicinal herbs. The power of congee lies in its ability to complement and enhance absorptions of other food ingredients, especially for those with suboptimal gut health. Generally speaking, a diet rich in easily digestible food and also contain a variety of digestible fibre or resistant starch like brown rice, rice or whole grain promote a flourishing gut microbiome. Rice congee, due to its endless possibility, you can often choose the types of rice variety or grains that are most suitable for your own unique needs. In a world where gluten sensitivity is common, rice congee also offer a gentle and easily digestible alternative. Although I can't find very specific modern study or clinical trials to provide conclusive evidence about rice congee effect on our gut health or microbiome, centuries of recorded wisdom support its use. Even without modern clinical trial, you can give it a try and observe the potential benefits for yourself. After all, it is just water and rice. It is very safe food to incorporate into your diet. It is essentially a blank canvas to which you can use any rice variety. It doesn't have to be white rice and add any food ingredients that you enjoy and that are healthy for your own unique health situations. Please do not completely change your diet to eat congee exclusively. We all know that a healthy diet is a balanced and a diverse one. Instead, you can incorporate congee in your meals, for example, on days when your digestion isn't quite right, after consuming heavy meals, during cold or dry weather, needing more hydration, or when you are feeling a little bit under the weather. Those are the ideal time to try congee. So now, let's dive into how to make the simplest form of rice congee, the plain version. Once you master the basis of rice congee, you can explore different recipes. In the future, I may share some simple medicinal congee that have been recorded in the medical text that I just mentioned. I'm going to use the white rice. It's a white rice congee. Let's first talk about the proportion of water and rice. Generally speaking, depending on the consistency that you prefer, so one cup of white rice, you can go from six to seven cups, which gives you a thicker consistency. I personally like my congee a little bit more watery, so I can go up to 10 to even 12 cups. And the other main reason is also depending on the heat or the fire of your stove. What it is, is in traditionally, especially in Cantonese culture, the base of the congee is very, very important. So we want to do it in such a consistency that whatever you're happy with. Some people, they like to still see the whole of the rice. Some people like that the rice is kind of almost all blended up with the water. So it's entirely up to you. I find that different regions of Asia do have their own preferences. And I just put a couple of small things to enhance the flavor. Otherwise, it's a plain one. You don't have to have everything that I have. That's just what I do in my household. This is the dry scallop. It's a very more Cantonese style of cooking. So dry scallop has a bit of umami taste or the seafood taste. And I do like to have it in there. This one, you do need to soak it in water. Sometimes I prefer a little bit hot water, so the flavor will come out. And I will wash it first, and then you soak it. So I'm going to leave it there for a while. And then I will usually have ginger in there. According to traditional Chinese medicine, ginger is to warm our interior. We say also to help to clear the wind cold. There are two ways to do it. Some people, they add their ginger at the very end. But me personally, I like to go in first. So I would prefer my whole pot to infuse with the ginger flavor, rather than adding it to the end. But it's up to you, whatever you want. So I'm going to start slicing. Maybe just about three slices. Doesn't have to be a lot. And then at the end, you can have garnishes. So the garnishes that I add today is the coriander and also the spring onion. It's up to you. Some people, they could eat it with fermented food, which is great for the gut health too. So you can add any fermented food that you like. I think Japanese, they like to add some fermented plum. And then Korean, they probably would eat it with some kimchi. So Chinese, we have our own pickled vegetables to add in. So if you like. But I find that pickled vegetables, unless you make it yourself, what you can find in the grocery, I find that they probably have a lot of chemicals anyway. Okay. So this is the one cup of white rice. So I'm going to wash it a couple of times. I notice people, sometimes they like to rub their rice. I don't normally do that, but it's entirely up to you again. As I mentioned before, with the rice today, we're going to use the white rice. If you are diabetes or for any other health conditions, you prefer other rice variety, that's fine. Just do your brown rice or any other rice variety that you like. So the rice is washed now. And I'm going to start boiling the water. It's easier that way. So it's already have five cups in there. So this is another five cups. So you can use any cookware at home, stainless steel. I have the cast iron here. This is the cast iron with the ceramic lining. But just in case in the future, when you want to cook your congee with medicinal Chinese herbs, don't use cast iron unless the inner lining is ceramic. Otherwise iron might interact with the Chinese herbs. So we're going to let it boil. I like to boil it first before I add the rice. Okay. So the water is obviously boiling. Let me just control it better. So now we will add the rice and I'll add my ginger. Okay. And this is optional, absolutely optional, but this is the dried scallop. It's already soaked for a while. I break it open a little bit because before I put in, it's already clean. The water is good too. So I just pop the water in. So you will still have the flavor in. Okay. Turn the heat back up and wait for it to boil again. In this stage, make sure you don't, with the lid, don't fully seal it. Just kind of leave it ajar like this because otherwise when you start boiling, it will spill. So now we're waiting for it to boil. So now, because it's already boiling, the next step is actually to turn it down the heat to a little bit. Give it a little stir. So in terms of how to control the heat is you need to see whether there is a little bit bubble like coming up like this. Just a little bit scent will be about right. When it's like start boiling, that's too much. When it is no bubble bubbling, that's too low. So it's about this sort of simmering effect. Okay. So I'm going to leave it for about 35 to 45 minutes. You can check the consistency again, the way that you like it. And then I do personally like to stir it every now and then, because otherwise I find that it will stick to the bottom. I know some people do suggest that don't touch it if you don't want it to stick, but I find that I burn it a couple of times. So I stir it a little bit. So just let it simmer for about 35 to 45 minutes and stir every 10 minutes or so. Okay. So I think it's almost ready now. During that time, I do stir it every 5, 10 minutes or so. As you can see here, all the rice already broken down to like tiny pieces. There was one stage that when the rice is still kind of whole, there's some type of cuisine they do eat that they call si fan, where you still see the whole rice, but this rice already all broken down. Usually I like this sort of consistency. You can cook a bit longer if you like to, to make it even thicker, but I like it all like this. So maybe we can leave it for another 5, 10 minutes and then we'll be ready to eat. Okay. So now this is a bowl of plain rice with a bit of ginger and a small amount of dry scallops in there. After you finish cooking it, now it's the time to garnish. So it's entirely up to you. As I say before, the ginger, I prefer to put it in, but even so at the end, you can cut some fresh ginger in the small little strips and then just garnish it on top. And those are the spring onion and the coriander I previously already prepared. So put it on top or the other way to do it, you already wash your coriander. You can just pick the leaf and put it in. Okay. I don't usually garnish the whole pot. It's up to the individual. So you can just put a little bit of salt. I also have a bit of soy sauce here, just a couple of drops. And I like white pepper. I mean, if you want to have black pepper, that's fine. And I also really like sesame oil. So I just put a similarly a few drops of sesame oil. And there you go, a beautiful bowl of congee. So we will mix it and eat it. As I mentioned before, if you like pickled vegetables, if you like fermented vegetables, it's a great time to also add it in just to enhance the flavor a little bit. Okay, let's start eating now. So firstly, of course, I'll stir it properly. Let's try it now. Because the congee is plain congee. So the flavor of the spring onion, the flavor of the ginger, and the flavor of all the garnishes that I put in coriander, they all show up quite nicely. And it gives a freshness to the rice congee. Traditionally in Asia, a lot of people like to eat it for their breakfast. So I think that's bring me to the two bonus tips that I previously told you I want to share with you. So the two special tips for people who have weak digestion. On top of trying to consume more rice congee, TCM also advises to eat more cooked and warm food over raw and cold food. On top of that, it's by all means possible. Traditional Chinese medicine also doesn't like leftover food. Traditionally, traditional Chinese medicine believes that wind and dampness enter into leftover food or overnight food. I'm sorry for all this TCM jargon, wind and dampness, what does it really mean? But for those who are familiar with TCM, you probably know what I'm talking about. For now, I'm sorry I didn't have the time to explain it in YouTube, or at least for this video, I can do it in another video. But the interesting thing is, I finally found some recent studies that can help me to connect to this ancient wisdom. Many recent studies actually have shown that leftover food may have more histamine. This can cause problems for people who already have So that's let us know which we have believed in TCM for quite a while now. In summary, apart from other advices from your doctors or nutritionists, if you could do these three things. Number one, eat more rice congee. Number two, eat more cooked and warm food. Number three, avoid leftover food if it's possible. All these advice, I feel that it's quite safe for most people, especially those who have weak digestion. And it's not too hard to do, and you do not need any special herbal ingredients or additional skills or tools. So I hope the above can help you feel better with your digestion. If you do experience any benefit from it, or if you have any questions, I would love to hear your feedback, or you can leave your question in the comment below. I feel that if more people know about these simple things to do, try and start to experience the benefit of either the I would be happiest to be able to bring this to you, or especially for those who are not very familiar with TCM. So that's all for me today. I'll enjoy my bowl of rice congee. Anyway, I'll see you in the next time. If you like this video, share with your friends, give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel. So in the future, I'll share more of the rice congee recipe with you all. Bye!