When the pavement is sizzling, the heat is scorching, and you’re ready to head to the beach – it’s summertime. And what more do you want during these hot times than a nice, big slice of watermelon. Bursting with lightly sweet fruity water, it quenches thirst like nothing else. Our inner taste lab is spot-on as melons are well known to help with heat stroke and dehydration conditions. In Chinese medicine, both the flesh and the peel are used for this purpose (the peel is powdered or in tea form). So what else can we eat to maintain our cool, keep us fresh and friendly? Let’s see.

Foods to clear summery heat and regenerate fluids

Grains: barley, quinoa, corn
Beans: mung (beans, sprouts or silver thread, translucent noodles), soy sprouts, lentils, hyacinth bean
Veggies: broccoli, cauliflower, cucumber, jicama, white mushrooms, zucchini, summer squash
Fruit : melon, papaya, pineapple, lemon & lime

Heat clearing Recipes

Barley tea – make green tea with equal parts gently toasted barley
Bean thread noodle stir-fry with pineapple, red pepper, zucchini, tofu, peanut, lime juice & cilantro leaf
Kanten fruit desert – agar-agar seaweed briefly cooked in liquid (with fruit or fruit juice) and allowed to set – light & delicious.

For a real treat try this recipe:

Pineapple chia seed pudding
2 cups pineapple pulp (1 medium size pineapple)
1/3 cup coconut milk
1 teaspoon ginger juice
2 teaspoons cardamom
½ lime, juiced
½ cup chia seeds
1½ teaspoons coconut flower sugar

Cut the pineapple in pieces and place them in the blender. Blend until smooth. Add the coconut milk, ginger & lime juice, cardamom and coconut flower sugar. Blend again. Transfer into a container with a lid and add the chia seeds, beating with a wisk to avoid clumping. Close well and place in the fridge overnight or up to 24 hours. The Chia seeds will swell many times their volume, so make sure the container is large enough. The mixture should be very thick & smooth.

Note: the ginger & cardamom help our digestion of the increased quantity of Cool, Damp foods & fluids we are likely to consume during hot spells.