Cooling Off In The Tucson Summer

And it feels so tempting to just lie down and try to sweat it out. Just, maximum siesta at all times, nap the day away and stay up all night.

But life happens, and we have to work, and take care of others, and exist in the bright, oven-baked world.

So what to do about that? Well, you can always eat or drink about it.

What to drink about it?

A little tea primer! In Eastern Medicine, tea is considered along a spectrum:

• warm: black tea

• neutral: oolong tea

• cooling: green, pu’er, or white tea

For every season, thus, a tea: in winter, you can warm yourself up with a strong black tea. In autumn, you might stick with oolong, because while it is neutral, it still has enough warming properties to balance the cool, dry season. And in summer, you have your pick of teas which will actively help your body to feel cooler, even when you drink them warm! The Scented Leaf, down the road from my office, has a great selection of all of the above.

What to eat about it?

There are many foods that can help us cool off—melons, for example, are in season, with plenty of varieties to choose from (lemondrop is our household favorite…we even have several plants growing from seeds from the melons we’ve finished).

But a real queen of cooling foods is the humble mung bean. It’s even used in desserts in Asia, for that express purpose, but I want to share a recipe that my wife Bonnie created, inspired by her favorite Palestinian fellahin dish that my Mom used to always make for her:

Mung Bean Mujadara
1 cup mung beans
2 cups rice
2 onions, peeled and sliced
3 cups water
1 tsp cumin powder
1/4 cup olive oil
Salt + black pepper to preference

1. Combine mung beans, water, salt, and pepper. Cook over medium heat for about 7 minutes, or until mung beans are half-cooked.
2. Add rice and cumin. Cook until water is absorbed and rice is tender.
3. Fry onions in oil until they are dark brown and caramelized, for five minutes. Just kidding, we all know that takes forever.
4. Drain the onions and reserve the oil to pour over the rice and bean mixture, and mix well.
5. Serve the onions atop the rice and bean mixture. Yogurt and/or chopped tomato/cucumber salad are excellent complements to mix in.

Hope you’re able to make it through the summer alright! Acupuncture and herbal medicine are also great ways to balance the body’s response to the heat—call or text me at 520-609-8488 to schedule an appointment, or schedule online!