Hormone Balancing Chinese Red Bean Soup for Period Cramps

I first turned to Chinese medicine for help with my horrible monthly cramps that would leave me with cold sweats from the pain. Over-the-counter pain medication was there when I really needed it, but I was truly searching for a long term solution. After seriously adopting and committing to acupuncture and diet changes that my Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner advised me with, I slowly started seeing results. This is one of the recipes I ate pretty regularly leading up to my time of the month and during it. It’s packed with potassium, magnesium, iron and anti-inflammatory properties, which all helped to ease the pain.

If you ever need to find some of these more specialty, herbal ingredients, check out my Amazon store page where I’ve linked most of what I use.

Here’s how to make it:

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup dried adzuki beans (red beans) or 1/2 cup of cooked adzuki beans

• 3-4 pieces of dried lily bulb

• 1 piece of dried tangerine peel

• 1 block of Chinese Black Sugar

• 2 cups water

• 1 tsp goji berries

• 1 tsp osmanthus flowers (optional)

• 1 tbsp tapioca boba pearls

Instructions:

• Soak the lily bulb and raw adzuki beans overnight

• On the next day, add the soaked beans and lily bulb into a pot with the tangerine peel

• Pour in 2 cups of clean water and bring everything to a boil

• Cook for 30 mins, and see if the beans are soft to the touch and lily bulb can easily be cut by the edge of a spoon

• If it’s not soft enough yet, cook for another 10-15 mins

• Once the ingredients are cooked, add in sweetener of choice (I like to use Chinese black sugar)

• Mash the beans a bit to help thicken the soup, then add in goji berries to cook for 10 mins

• Separately, cook the tapioca boba pearls according to package instructions

• Once the red bean soup is done, take off the heat and scatter on some osmanthus flowers for garnish

• Mix in the tapioca and enjoy!