Tired? Fatigued? Low libido? Low back pain? Weak knees? Wake up in the middle of the night? Recently weak after surgery?
These are just a few symptoms of weakened kidney function. In Chinese Medicine there are many more symptoms related to this and aging alone is one of the ways that kidneys weaken. There is alot to gain from supplementing your kidneys with a really good tonic including reversing the symptoms listed below.

Well, I have the secret here, and its going to look a bit different to most people. The ‘color’ of the kidney is black, so there is no wonder all the ingredients are basically black. I asure you not only is this recipe an excellent tonic, but is very delicious!

Presenting the Ultimate Kidney Tonic, Ultimate Antioxidant Black Chicken Soup!
Here is what you need:
1 Whole Black Chicken- called Silky Chicken or Silkie Chicken (found at Asian grocery stores for sure)
1.5-2cups Black Beans - Huge amount of protien, good for kidneys
Kombu Seaweed - minerals and alkaline
Rice noodles or Bean Threads - wheat free noodles, clears body heat
Tamari (premium soy sauce) - adds fermented food to diet
1 can Vegetable Stock - vegetables
1/8 cup olive oil
4 tbl minced garlic
Sea Salt
Pepper
Large Crockpot

Herbs:
30g He Shou Wu- Kidney and blood builder
30g Shu Di Huang - Rehmannia Prepared - Kidney and blood builder
20g Gou Qi Zi - Goji berries - antioxidant, blood builder
20g Huang Qi - Astragalus (this is not a normal ingredient, but since it is approaching fall time, I wanted to add this for Immunity boosting properties)
10g Shan Zha - Hawthorn Berry - helps the properties of the soup move through normally
10g Chen Pi - Citrus Peel - allows all the building properties not cause constipation.

I am going to show you the long way to make this. I prefer the taste of soups that sit and simmer in crockpots for the 4-6 hour time frame. I will list some short-cuts at the end.

First thing is first. You MUST soak your beans over night. Place the beans in the crockpot container and cover with water well over the height of the beans. Add about 1oz of kombu seaweed. This removes all of the bad things from the beans and allows them to soak up all the goodness from the seaweed. By the next day your beans are ready and the seaweed wont taste like seaweed anymore!

The next morning empty the water from the beans and briefly wash them and add them back to the pot and cover with water again (keep the seaweed too!). Put this on high and let that go for an hour, while you let the chicken sit out. This is the time to decide how daring you can be :).

About the chicken-

The Black (Silky Silkie) Chicken is a bird that is TOTALLY BLACK! although its feathers are bright white! This chicken is incredibly good for your kidneys and blood. The meat has a bit more darker look to it, but taste BETTER than chicken. The chicken will probably come from somewhere like New Zealand. This means you are not only getting a better chicken, but the chicken was raised naturally! No antibiotics and other crap from regular chicken!
Silky Black Chicken is very high in antioxidants and carnosine. This shows bio-medically that this chicken is not only better than regular chicken but supports strong muscles, rich blood, and anti-oxidants. Again this is not new to cultures like the Chinese or Japanese, but we can see now how the ‘black’ food group can really help us out!
The chicken is going to come with the head, neck and legs/feet attached. You need to figure out what you want to keep. If you don’t like any of it I would recommend that you cook the whole chicken and when we get to the part to cut the bird up remove them then. The head can definitely be tossed but the feet are really tasty and add more bone and ligament for the soup to absorb.

Now that its been an hour, turn the crockpot to low. Add the whole chicken in there and more water to almost cover. Let this now sit for 3hours.

Now, remove the chicken and put it on a cutting board. It will need to cool for a couple minutes (try not to loose any liquid from inside the bird).
Remove the seaweed from the pot and place it in a strainer.
Heat up a wok and place your olive oil in. Heat the oil and add all the garlic. Once you start to smell the strong aroma add the seaweed. Crisp the seaweed a little bit (5-7 min) and add the seaweed AND all of the oil and garlic to the crockpot.
Cut the chicken up into 2 thighs, 2 legs, 2 feet, 2 breasts, 2 wings, 1 neck. Remove what you feel like removing and add everything back to the crockpot.
Add all the herbs now. The Goji berries can be placed directly into the pot, but the other herbs should be added in a way that they can be removed at the end. The Goji Berries will stay in the soup!
Add the vegetable stock and recover to sit for another hour. The vegetable stock is used for flavoring as we aren’t using a vegetables.

After the hour has passed your an hour away from it being done! At this point add about 1/8 cup of Tamari, and some salt and pepper. Your going to have to keep tasting and play with the salt and pepper to your tasting. Now your going to add the noodles. I added 2 of the 3 bundles that came in the package. The noodles will pick up the color and flavor of the soup and in the end, they will tune black too :). Let that all marinate for an hour.

Now your all done! Remove the herbs and turn the crockpot off. The soup is going to be 1million degrees so leave the lid off and let cool. Dish up the soup making sure to get some chicken, plenty of broth, beans and noodles in your bowl! Be careful there are still bones in the soup!

If your impatient and don’t see appreciate the taste of a beautifully simmered soup here is what you can do. After you soak the beans make 1 large pot of boiling water and a smaller pot of boiling water. Boil the beans in the water for about 30-45 minutes until tender. Parboil the chicken for about 10 minutes. Cut the chicken and add both together using the bean water in a crockpot. Add everything else talked about and simmer for an hour. You should be ready to go.

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Geri asks me: “Hi, I have been constantly sick for years, catching everything going. Immune system shot. Started Miso soup 3-5 days a week and didn’t get sick for months. But, gained 15lbs. Dr. advised i stop it, and lost 6 pounds within a week.
Would the miso have any benefit to me if i drank just 2 tablespoons a day instead of small bowl? Small amounts of vitamins and medications suit me, and am always told take the least of anything due to reactions.
What do you think?
Thanks very much. Geri “

So, lets see if we can’t help Geri and others raise their immune system in a healthy way. Hopefully we can do it in a way where no one is going to have a reaction!

I would like to start with the Miso Soup. Good job on picking up the miso and sticking to it. Well, gaining 15 lbs in a few months isn’t a medical problem so I don’t know why your doctor would intervene in this when you clearly made a good change and have not gotten sick! Seaweed and the minerals in miso soup are truly miracle workers in themselves. Seaweed is very alkaline which works to balance your body’s pH. Its a fact that people with higher acidic pH levels are more prone to getting sick. Seaweeds also balance your thyroid and metabolism as well. A problem I am seeing is the amount of salt in the miso soup! My suspicions here seem to be confirmed based on the fact that you lost 6 pounds in a week by not eating the miso soup. The saying goes like this “where sodium goes, water follows”. You have clearly built up quite a bit of water weight and your body has been able tore-balance itself when you stopped taking in the miso. You have taxed your kidneys a bit at this point in filtering the sodium out, but now you should be okay.

At this point lets talk about increasing immunity. In Chinese Medicine people don’t ‘catch a cold’. We believe that we are exposed to pathogens (germs) all the time. These external pathogens want to invade us all the time. It depends on the person and their defense system (wei qi or immunity) if they get sick or not.  This old Chinese Medicine way of looking at this has been proven by Western Science. In recent studies on ‘common cold’ or ‘rhino virus’ patients were planed with the rhino virus directly in thenostril . About 60% of the patients got sick. This study was used in very different ways, but as far as Chinese Medicine is concerned- What Happened to the Other 40%? Simply they had defense high enough to dispel the virus!

There are many herbs when used together to supplement the system they can raise your immunity! However, alone there is one that stands atop these called Astragalus or Huang Qi.  Huang Qi is well documented for this task and is recommend for everyone. This is a typical herb used through the Fall and Winter season. I would also note that Echinacea is also used to raise white blood cell count, but this herb should be used in no more than 10 day increments.

Immunity is best done by eating soups and such. Foods like Congee or Kicharee offer foods and herbs that are already cooked down. This allows your body to easily digest and assimilate the nutrients and foods. This really gives your body a break from working so hard on the foods we take in all the time. Also, making a soup or other food like this allows you to add herbs. Herbs for medicinal purposes need to be decocted down. Being in a crockpot and slow cooking for a few hours, you are also decocting these herbs!

Here is a recipe I would like you to switch to:
http://blogofherbs.com/herbs/energy-weight-maintenance-congee-recipe

This Congee recipe has many great herbs and is very uplifting to your energy and immune system. I want you to pay special attention to use the herbs Huang Qi and Dang Gui. If you can’t or aren’t able to source the other herbs that is fine! Huang Qi and Dang Gui together is going to supplement your body and immune system.

For ongoing immunity supplementing you can take pills for this as well! Lung Tonics, Yin Tonics, Immunity Tonics and such are essential here.
Dimmak Herbs sells a formula called ‘Immunity’. These pills contain Ginseng, Huang Qi, Dang Gui, Goji (Gou Qi Zi) Berries, Licorice Root, and about 5 other herbs that synergistically are used to raise your immunity to these external pathogens!

I think between alternating these other foods and maybe eating Miso once a week should be great. Also note the usage of seaweeds in the Congee recipe, add more if you like!

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I have gotten many emails about recipes for Congee and Kicharee. Although the generic recipes are posted here: http://blogofherbs.com/recepies/food-for-life-and-health-kicharee , http://blogofherbs.com/recepies/appetite-for-health-heres-a-recipe-congee .
Many people don’t want to figure out how to make recipes by adding in their own ingredients. Well, here is my favorite Congee recipe although I do make my Congee very similar to Kicharee. The difference to me is that I make congee with a little sweetness and dates/berries and Kicharee with vegetables and such.

Ok here is a list of what you need:
1/4 cup Adzuki Beans
1/4 cup Red Beans
1/4 cup Mung Beans
2.5 cups Brown Rice
1/2 cup Bob’s Red Mill 7grain hot cereal
1/2 cup Bob’s Red Mill Flax Seed
1/4 cup Bob’s Red Mill Wheat Germ
1 cup Organic Brown Sugar
40g Raisins
Pinch Kombuchu Sea Weed
1tsp Sea Salt
Herbs I-
20g Ginseng/ Ren Shen
20g Astragalus/ Huang Qi
10g Cassia Stick/ Rou Gui
10g Cascara Sagrada
Herbs II-
25g Goji Berries/ Lychii Berry/ Gou Qi Zi
30g Jujube Dates/ Da Zao
2g Dried Ginger/ Gan Jiang
20g Longan Berry/ Dragon Eyes/ Long Yan Rou
10g Cassia Stick/ Rou Gui
10g Rhubarb/ Da Huang

Ok, right now its night time so put all your beans in a large bowl with a large pinch of Kombuchu Seaweed. Cover with fresh water, cover and leave it alone until tomorrow.

Now that its tomorrow and approximately 6 hours you want this to be done and you are able to tend to the Congee in 4 hours, lets get started!
Strain our your beans and throw them in your super large Crockpot. Wash your rice under some water and put that in the Crockpot and cover with water. Fill it up to about 3/4 the way full and set to High for about 20-30 minutes and then set to Low Heat (this isn’t necessary). Let that cook for about 4 hours total stirring a few times to make sure the bottom isn’t cooking by itself.
Now, about the Herbs I and II. Herbs I need to be decocted so they are separated out. You can do this step anytime you like before its time to get back to the Congee after the 4 hours. Here is how you handle that:
Add 4 cups of water to a SS pot. Bring to boil and add herbs. Simmer for 30 minutes or until the water is reduced by half. Strain off herbs and save the liquid…
Back to the Congee, has it been 4 hours already? Great, lets first stir our pot and check the texture. Assuming everything is good lets move on.
Add decocted mixture of Herbs I in the pot, Add the HerbsII pile, raisins, and sugar. Now start stirring and slowly add your Bob’s powders in the pot to ensure no clumping.
I’m pretty sure I didn’t miss anything but everything should be in there by now. Top the crockpot off with water and cook this for another 2 hours or so stirring occasionally.

Now that everything is done pack up in Tupperware all your not going to eat now. The Congee shouldn’t be very sweet as is and it should be pretty good. You may sweeten it up a bit if you like. You may also add a little milk for breakfast eating.
This recipe is good for energy, energy regulation, bowel regulation, weight loss, weight management, immune system and brain/function through the day (alertness).

Enjoy Responsibly!

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My favorite healthy food is Congee. Congee is basically a porridge made of white rice cooked over several hours. Dispite what you think or what you have read white rice is quite good for you. The important part of white rice in this recipe is to have a soup that is as easy to digest as possible. Many things can be added to the simple medium of congee, its like a casserole add anything you want to it. Here is the basic recipe:

Add 2 cups white rice to 18 cups water in a crockpot and let slow cook for about 7 hours.  

If you are not sick in anyway, then brown rice may be substituted. Now for the additives-
Mung Beans- I always recommend these be in Congee as they are good for the entire body in any condition. Add 1/2 cup pre-soaked beans.
Immunity/Longevity/Health/Vitality: I recommend this combination be added to congee always as it is general health building and a tonic! 6g Ginseng, 12g Codonopsis/Dang Shen, 9g Dang Gui, 9g Goji Berries/Gou Qi Zi/Lychii Berries, 9g Huang Qi/Astragalus, 10-20 JuJube Dates/Da Zao, and 4g Ginger. That will make a very nice base for your congee!
Adzuki Beans: Use these beans for bladder or kidney problems including water retention. These are sometimes called small red beans.
Add barley, wheat germ, fennel, brewers yeast or anything else to get vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber!
Add any vegetable you like for vitamins, minerals, and their individual properties.

This is traditionally taken as a breakfast. Organic brown sugar may be added after the cooking process for extra energetic properties in the morning. If you are frail, weak, or sick you may take the congee through the day for several days until you feel better. You will be surprised how well you feel after you eat the congee and how easy it is to keep down. For degenerative diseases and after times of chemotherapy Add 9g of Chen Pi/Citrus Peel to the formula and take as all your meals for 7days (or as long as you can make it!)
This recipe will make a generous amount of congee for you and your family, so enjoy!

Feel free to ask any questions or get help on a congee recipe.

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