Beauty Soup

Everyone has heard of beauty sleep, but what about beauty soup?  Just as getting enough sleep to help the body heal and be refreshed imparts a healthy glow to your skin, eating certain foods can help your skin look its best.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, food is medicine and many traditional Chinese herbs are eaten as regular foods in the everyday Chinese diet.  Chi Xiao Dou, or adzuki beans, and Yi Yi Ren, aka Job’s Tears or coix seeds, are Chinese herbs that are two such food herbs.  According to Chinese Herbal Medicine:  Materia Medica (3^rd ed., Bensky et al.), adzuki beans reduce fire toxicity and Job’s Tears cool heat and tonify the Spleen.  In plain English, this translates to improving skin conditions and benefiting digestion to help the body better detoxify.

You can buy organic adzuki beans at supermarkets such as Whole Foods or natural food stores and find Job’s Tears at Asian supermarkets like 99 Ranch Market.  The following is a simple sweet soup recipe that can be eaten as a snack or dessert that is delicious as well as has beautifying properties that can help keep your skin looking its best when taken regularly.

Sweet Adzuki Bean and Job’s Tear Soup

1 cup dried adzuki beans

½ cup Job’s Tears

Water

Rock sugar to taste or other sweetener (I have used organic stevia for a low-glycemic sweetener)

After picking out any small stones or debris, soak the dried adzuki beans in clean cold water for 8 hours or overnight.  Place the beans and Job’s Tears with enough water with an inch to cover and bring to a boil.  Turn down the heat after boiling and simmer for approximately an hour or until the beans and Job’s tears are to the desired cooked consistency.  Add chosen sweetener and enjoy.