6 No-fuss Recipes to Get Glowing Skin for the Festive Season

How does one define skin quality? Smoothness? Complexion? Elastic? Hydration?

While beauty standards in various cultures can be like day and night, we can all agree that staying beautiful is hard work.

In modern society, men and women feel more pressure to present themselves in specific ways due to social media influence and reality TV culture.

How Skin Quality Links to Different Parts of Our Body

External factors such as UV light, pollution, weather, and even the types of skincare you use will affect the quality of your skin. In traditional Chinese medicine, it doesn’t amount to how much makeup a person puts on. The key to staying youthful and beautiful is always to examine what is happening inside the body. The holistic approach believes that whatever is going on internally, it will appear externally: on your skin.

Hence it is essential to keep our internal system working correctly.

Beauty Comes from Within

For example, when the lungs contain insufficient fluid, the skin and hair cannot get enough nourishment, which creates a chain reaction of nutrient deficiency in other organs. Nutrients absorbed by the spleen and stomach will then transfer to the lungs before reaching our skin and hair.

The other vital factor to healthy skin is what you put in the body. Chinese medicine focuses on maintaining the balance of qi, blood, and internal organs. When your inner balance is off, food therapy should be part of your daily self-care regimen to restore the qi in your internal system and organs.

Five Yin Organs and Six Yang Organs

In traditional Chinese medicine, the human lung governs skin and hair. It interlinks with the “five yin organs and six yang organs” as a unit. Five yin organs represent the heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys. Six yang organs signify the stomach, large intestines, small intestines, urinary bladder, gallbladder, and san jiao (triple burner). Sanjiao does not have a western equivalent name. However, it consists of three parts, anything above the diaphragm, upper abdomen, and lower abdomen.

So if you have a lot of heat in your heart, liver, spleen, stomach, and lungs will be affected before it affects your skin.

Food Therapy for Beautiful and Radiant Skin

If you want glowing and radiant skin before the party season, here are six quick-to-make recipes you can make any time at home.

1. Walnut Gogi Congee (Porridge)

What you need:
30g (1.06 oz) of walnuts, 30g (1.06 oz) of goji berries, 150g (5.29 oz) of glutinous rice, 15g (0.53 oz) of shredded ginger, 60g (2.12 oz) of sugar

Function: Good for invigorating qi and spleen, toning kidneys, keep skin moisturized and youthful.

Direction:
Put walnuts, goji berries, and shredded ginger into a pot.
Add enough water.
Cook with medium heat, and bring it to a boil.
Turn to low heat. Add rice and sugar.
Cook on low heat until it is in a porridge consistency.
Then it is ready to serve.

2. Yam and goji congee (porridge)

What you need:
100g (3.53 oz) of round grain rice, 50g (1.76 oz) of fresh yam, 15g (0.53 oz) of goji berries, 10g (0.35 oz) of rock sugar, 1500ml (3.17 pints) of cold water

Function: This congee is most familiar as a beauty food therapy due to its efficacy.

Direction:
Clean and soak the rice in cold water for half an hour.
Then remove the water and set aside.
Peel and clean the fresh yam. Cut it into small dice. Set aside
Soak goji berries in warm water. Set aside.
Add 1500ml (3.17 pints) of water to the pot. Add rice, and bring it to a boil.`
Add yam to low heat for about 20 minutes until it becomes porridge consistency.
Cook with rock sugar and goji berries on low heat for another ten minutes.
Ready to serve.

3. Barley porridge

What you need: 150g (5.29 oz) of barley rice, 50g (1.76 oz) of lotus seeds, five red dates, 15g (0.53 oz) of rock sugar, 1000ml (2.11 pints) of cold water

Function: Brighten and nourish skin, removing freckles, senile warts, and butterfly rash.

Direction:
Wash and soak the barley in cold water for three hours. Remove water and set aside.
Remove lotus seeds from lotus hearts. Wash and remove the pits from the dates. Set aside.
Add water and barley, and cook it on high heat.
Place lotus seeds and red dates. Cook until they are soft.
Add rock sugar and cook until it becomes porridge consistency before serving.

On a high flame, add lotus seeds and red dates, cook together until cooked through, add rock sugar, boil until it is porridge-like, and then eat.

4. Lily and Pig’s foot stew

What you need: A pig’s foot, 150g (5.29 oz) of lily bulbs, 15g (0.53 oz) of spring onion/ scallion, 100g (3.53 oz) of ginger slices, Seasoning

Function: clear internal heat and relieve cough, nourish yin and the lungs. Calm the nervous system and diuresis. Anti-wrinkle.

Direction:
Clean the pig’s foot thoroughly.
Chop into small pieces. Set aside.
Put water, pig foot, scallion, and ginger in a pot.
When it is half cooked, turn it to low heat, and put add the lily bulb.
Cook until the meat is soft and pulls apart easily.
Season to taste.

5. Lotus seeds and lily porridge

What you need: 50g (1.76 oz) of barley, 25g of lotus seeds, 25g (0.88 oz) of a dried lily bulb, 100g (3.53 oz)  of white rice, and rock sugar to taste

Function:
Brighten skin and complexion, lighten dark spots and scars, treat flat warts, acne, and freckles,
improve dryness.

Direction:
Clean the barley, lily, rice, and lotus seeds separately. Set aside.
Soak the barley in warm water for two hours, then drain. Soak the lily in warm water for 15 minutes.
In a pot, pour water and add the barley. Bring it to a boil.
Then cook it for another 10 minutes on low heat.
Add rice and cook for 20 minutes.
Add lily and lotus seeds until it thickens.
Add rock sugar to taste.

6. Longan and Dong Quai/female ginseng porridge

What you need: 30g (1.06 oz) of longan flesh, 20g (0.71 oz) of female ginseng (Dong Quai), 30g (1.06 oz) of red dates, 250g (8.82 oz) of glutinous rice, 60g (2.12 oz) of brown sugar

Function: replenish qi and blood. Moisturize skin.

Direction:
Place dong Quai in a pot with water. Cook on medium heat and bring it to a boil.
Remove the Dong Quai. Save the medicinal water aside.
Clean glutinous rice. Place it in a pot, add water and the dong Quai juice you previously cooked, with longan and red dates.
Cook on high heat until it becomes porridge consistency.
Add brown sugar and turn off the heat.
Cover the pot with a lid and let it sit for five minutes.
Ready to serve.