The lately changeable weather leads to more and more people catching cold. As the old saying goes, “Diet cures more than the doctor”. Eating healthily is the most natural way for us to fight the coldness, to strengthen immune system and keep us away from a cold. Here comes 2 healthy drinks that worth a try.

Ginger Tea

Ingredients: boiled water 250g; ginger 25g; brown sugar 30g.

Detail making method:

Put the diced gingers into a teapot with boiled water and brown sugar, and stew for 5 minutes before drinking. Manuka honey from New Zealand is a preferable substitute for brown sugar, because it is good for relieving respiratory diseases, removing heat from the lung and dissolving phlegm, as well as nourishing the lung and relieving cough. (Tips: It would be better to add in honey when the water temperature is cooled down to 60 degrees Celsius in case of damaging its nutrients)

Besides, you may add leaves of purple perilla into the ginger tea when eating hairy crabs. It helps to relieve exterior syndrome and dispel coldness, promoting the circulation of Qi and harmonizing stomach. Women in period drinking ginger tea can not only get rid of cold but also comfort their bellies.

Chicken Soup with Shiitake Mushrooms and Chinese Red Dates

Ingredients: 10 Shiitake mushrooms, 10 Chinese red dates well-soaked with water

Detail making method:

First chunk half of a chicken and peel off fat and skin; cook the chicken for a while with boiled water to drain the blood, and put them into a stockpot, adding appropriate amount of water, ginger and cooking wine, and then stew them for 1-1.5 hours; add the prepared shiitake mushrooms and Chinese red dates and keep stewing for 50 minutes, and finally add some salt before enjoying it.

To stew is to cook food by simmering or boiling slowly, facilitating the nutrients of food dissolving in soup effectively. To stew food with ginger for several hours with mild fire, the unique flavor of ginger will completely melt in the soup along with its function of relieving chill and warming body.

It is strongly advised that cold water cannot be added in during cooking. That is because the heating meat will contract when it is confronted with cold water, interrupting the dissolving of protein which helps to make the soup more delicious. Salt can also not be added in too early since they will solidify the protein, darken the soup and make it less full-bodied.