The Cold-Banishing Seven Spring Herbs
Happy New Year! I hope this year will be a great one for you all.
This year’s first post will be about a healthy dish that’s good for your stomach.
In Japan on January 7th, we have a tradition of eating rice porridge made with “seven spring herbs.” These seven herbs are Japanese parsley, shepherd’s purse, Jersey cudweed, chickweed, henbit, turnip, and daikon radish. When I was younger, I had the names of all these seven herbs memorized.
From the end of the old year to the beginning of the New Year, there are year-end get-togethers, traditional New Year’s events, and New Year’s parties. Especially for corporate employees, your stomach must work overtime with so many events back to back. For that reason, I thought that eating this porridge was a custom to rest your soul and stomach to prevent from catching a cold…
However, when I did a little research about the tradition, there seemed to be different stories told, but this is one of the theories of the origin: The tradition came from the Chinese belief of getting rid of negative vibes that cause unfortunate events by eating the seven herbs in a soup on January 7th, the day that was considered the start of the New Year. Over time, the custom had changed to the belief of preventing any sickness for the whole year by eating the porridge.
These days, the seven herbs are conveniently sold in sets in supermarkets, making it easier to make the rice porridge. Other than the daikon radish and turnip, it’s impossible to distinguish what each of the vegetables are!
For an even healthier meal, I used brown rice. Although it didn’t look very delicious, I was able to make porridge that was healthy and warming for my stomach.
There is a saying, “Your body is your assets.” Apparently, there are no rules that state that the porridge has to include these certain seven herbs, so how about making a dish to bring yourself good health throughout the year by using those leafy vegetables in your fridge?