Morning Sickness

Recipes below are typical medicinal foods from an Chinese medicine perspective for anyone who needs nourishment. They are easily digested and well tolerated so may be ideal ways for women with morning sickness to get the nutrients they need.

Bone stock/broth

Classic Asian examples of nutritious bone broths or stocks to rebuild a recovering mother are chicken or beef and seaweed. The stock can be used as a base ingredient for making other dishes or a simple soup snack and should be eaten over several days. Follow directions for Beef broth in the Postnatal seaweed soup substituting beef bones for other bones if desired. A vegetarian option is also outlined with dried Chinese mushrooms (such as xiānggū or the Japanese shiitake).

Preparation for cooking bone broth - feiseui (flying through water) or parboiling meat and poultry is thought to be very important before adding other ingredients to soup. The process involves putting the raw bones/meat in boiling water with a few slices of ginger and boiling for 5-10minutes until the foamy coagulation rises to the top, discard the water then rinse the bones/meat thoroughly (Chen, 2009). Some would also soak the bones in water for about 30 minutes prior to boiling (Chang 2011). As a child I was told that the foam that rises to the top of the pot are the toxicities that come out of the meat/bones and it was skimmed off the top.

Postnatal Seaweed Soup :

Beef broth

300-500g oxtail or shank beef bones

Water to fill a large stock pot

Bring water and prepared bones to the boil. Simmer for 2-3 hours. Let broth cool and skim fat. Bones can be used 2-3 times to make broth. Remove any meat before boiling a second time.

Vegetarian broth

4 dried Shiitake mushrooms

one handful dried kelp (kelp/kombu is available in strips and 1-3 would be enough depending on size)

half an onion.

Rinse dried mushrooms and kelp then soak in fresh water for 2 hours. Add onion and bring to boil. Boil for 10 minutes. Remove mushrooms, kelp, and onion from broth.

Seaweed soup using prepared broth

2 cups of rinsed and drained seaweed (take handful of dried kombu, cover with water and soak for 15-30 minutes - some types of seaweed such as wakame and karengo need only 2-3 minutes soaking). Rinse, drain and chop into noodles or bite-size pieces if needed.

Bring seaweed and 5-6 cups soup stock to the boil. If you used meat bones, add the cooked meat to soup. Boil for about 15 minutes over medium heat.

Add 1-2 teaspoon soy sauce or salt. A few drops of toasted sesame oil and small pinch of white pepper can also be added for taste if desired.

Simple beef seaweed soup

Cut beef, such as brisket, into small pieces.

Add sesame oil to pot and cook meat on medium heat.

Add seaweed that has been soaked and drained.

Slowly add 5-6 cups of water or broth and bring to a boil. Garnish with toasted sesame oil, salt/soy sauce and fresh herbs e.g. chives, spring onion, coriander, parsley as desired.

Seasonings may not be suitable for those with any nausea or vomiting, often bland is better and more tolerable. This recipe has been adapted from Korean Postpartum Seaweed Soup (Chang, 2011).

**Pacific harvest has a good range of seaweeds with some such as korengo, kelp and agar being sourced from New Zealand.

Miso Soup

Below is a recipe with flavouring however sometimes simple is best with nausea and vomiting during pregnancy. A simple version could be to heat some broth, put some miso in your bowl/cup and mix it with 2-4 tablespoons of the broth so it is no longer clumpy then add hot broth. Easy, hydrating, nutritious!

Soak 1 Tablespoon seaweed (wakame is the green seaweed often seen with miso but any quick cooking seaweed is good) for 2 minutes. Bring to the boil 2.5 cups of broth stock add wakame and any other vegetables or tofu you may want to add (cut small) then simmer for about 5 minutes. In a bowl mix 4 Tablespoons of the hot stock water to the miso paste and mix until all lumps are dissolved. Pour the miso mix back into the pot and stir then garnish with chives or spring onion.

**Avoid boiling miso as this can destroy the fermented microorganisms that are beneficial.

(Adapted from Basic Miso Soup, Pg 67 - Wang, Sheir & Ono, 2010)

Rice Congee – Jook A simple and nourishing medicinal food with many possible variations to suit every taste. It can be made into a savoury or sweet dish. The basic recipe...

1⁄2 cup rice

4-5 cups of water or broth stock (water amount varies depending on whether you like a watery, soupy jook or a thick, creamy, porridgy jook).

Bring to the boil then lower heat and simmer on low heat until rice has broken down and mixture becomes the consistency of porridge (if you want a thick jook). A good hour to four is usually adequate time for this unless using brown rice which may take a bit longer (generally brown rice jook is a bit more watery as it’s not as glutenous).

Examples of savoury jook: Shitake mushroom (pre-soaked and finely sliced/diced) with chicken slices; Seafood of your choice and fresh ginger; Aduki bean and beetroot; Seaweed, shitake mushroom and Chinese red date;
Garnish with spring onion/chives/parsley/coriander, a dash of soy sauce, a few drops of toasted sesame oil and pinch of white pepper if desired.

Examples of sweet jook: Chinese red date (or normal date), longan fruit, fresh ginger Fig and almond; Coconut and citrus peel; Apricot and ginger; For extra protein add some amaranth or quinoa.
To garnish choose from - honey, bee pollen, tahini, seeds (chia/toasted sesame/flax/ sunflower), milk, fresh fruit.

Other recipes to try for morning sickness

• Boil 15-20g of grapefruit peel and drink as tea.

• Fry 250g of sweet rice with 30ml of fresh ginger juice until the rice breaks, grind into a powder and take 10-20g in warm water 2 times a day.

• Bring 60ml of rice vinegar to the boil, add 30g of sugar and stir until dissolved, break an egg into the boiling vinegar. Once egg is cooked drink.

  (Lu, 2005)

References

Chang, M. (2011, May16). Asian American mothers and postpartum food traditions: Korean seaweed soup recipe. Retrieved from http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog/archive/2011/05/asian-american-mothers-and-postpartum-food-traditions-korean-seaweed-soup-recip
Chen, T. M. (2009). A tradition of soup : flavors from China’s Pearl River Delta. North Atlantic Books.
Lu, H. C. (2005). Chinese natural cures : traditional methods for remedy and prevention. Black Dog & Leventhal.
Wang, Y., Sheir, W., & Ono, M. (2010). Ancient wisdom, modern kitchen : recipes from the East for health, healing, and long life. Da Capo Lifelong.