warm food does not have to be heavy -- making a hotpot

Chinese medicine advises fibroid sufferers to not eat cold food, as that energetically serves to chill the uterus and hurt circulation in that area. And indeed at this time of year, warming food is in order! However, a lot of warm food is rather heavy, and as much as I like bean stews and soups filled with root vegetables, sometimes I want something lighter.

For this reason, I have started to serve an Asian-style hotpot once every week or two. It's a nice social kind of meal and my husband seems to enjoy it. It's warm and soothing without weighing you down, and it can be made chock full of fibroid-fighting ingredients. Here's my recipe:

Fibroid- Fighting Hotpot

This meal should be prepared at the table. A large fondue pot works well -- I have this one
and it's perfect.

Squeeze one lemon for each person who will be eating. Put the juice of each lemon in a small bowl, add a few dashes of Thai fish sauce and put at each place setting. This will be used for dipping the cooked protein and veggies.

Fill the fondue pot 2/3 full of water. Add the following:

1. 1 lemon half, post-squeezing, cut into small shreds
2. a handful of goji berries
3. a few dried shiitake mushrooms
4. two handfuls of wood ear mushrooms(purported to help shrink fibroids, plus they are crunchy and yummy)
5. 1 piece of kelp
6. 1 slice of ginger
7. A dash of fish sauce

If you are TTC and are post-ovulation, omit the wood ear mushrooms, kelp, and ginger.

Choose a protein, such as calmari or shrimp, or lean turkey, chicken, pork, beef or tofu. Only the calamari or shrimp work strictly on the fibroid-shrinking diet, although sometimes I cheat and with this dish you can limit the meat consumption to a small amount. Pile the amount you will need on a plate and put on the table. Note: at Whole Foods they sell very nice raw calamari tubes in the fish department; be careful not to overcook them.

Choose one or more vegetables from this list:

1. Napa cabbage
2. Baby bok choy
3. Daikon radish
4. carrot
5. spinach
6. watercress
7. green onion or Welsh onion (Negi)
8. green peapods
9. Mizuna
10. Chrysanthemum leaves (Shungiku)

The last two one would need to get at an Asian market. Chop as needed and arrange attractively on a plate.

Sit down in front of the boiling broth and put in a bit of the protein and a bit of the meat. Let them cook, and fish each goodie out as soon as it's done, dip it into the lemon juice fish sauce mixture, and eat. Each person should have an empty bowl in which to rest things just taken out of the broth before dipping, or after dipping.

When all the goodies have been cooked and eaten, throw some rice noodles in the pot and cook them, then ladle the resulting noodle soup into the bowls, add the rest of the lemon juice fish sauce mixture, and eat.


The above recipe is my own creation. I got inspired when reading about Japanese nabe (hotpots) in The Hip Chick's Guide to Macrobiotics: A Philosophy for Achieving a Radiant Mind and a Fabulous Body, which is an excellent book.

Why not experiment and make up your own?