Summer is a Yang season filled with expansion, growth and creativity, food preparation should incorporate cooling foods such as lettuce, apple and lemon to help maintain a healthy balance.
Apples are high in fiber and various antioxidants, they also contain good amounts of C and B complex vitamins. Eat the skin or you’ll miss out on the phytonutrients and polyphenols. Endive delivers potassium, fiber, vitamins B, C and K as well as calcium. Lemon juice is rich in vitamin C and antioxidants and offers many incredible health benefits ranging from aiding digestion and detoxification to rejuvenating your skin and body.
From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, apples are a Yin and Qi tonic that promote vital energy and help dispel toxins. Endive, in addition to its cooling temperature, will help to counteract heat. Lemons will promote blood and Qi circulation as well as resolve phlegm.
Adapting Ingredients for Your Constitution
A cheese from Spain that I love is Manchego which is made from sheep’s milk, however sheep’s milk is considered to be warming, so to better align with cooling I went with the Mahon which is similar in flavor and texture but is made from cow’s milk and cow’s milk is neutral in temperature.
This is a good example of how you can easily adapt your recipe to your constitution simply by making a substitution here and there.
| Apple | Cooling, Yin Tonic, Counteracts Heat, Removes Toxins |
| Spanish Mahon Cheese (Cows Milk) | Neutral Temp, Yin and Qi Tonic |
| Belgian Endive | Cooling, Counteracts Heat and Damp Heat |
| Lemon | Cooling, Counteracts Heat, Promotes Qi Circulation |
| Olive Oil | Neutral Temp |
| Salt | Cooling, Counteracts Heat, Removes Toxins |
Two Apples and Endive with Spanish Mahon for Cooling
Serving size
About 5
Prep Time / Cook Time
10 minutes / 0 minutes
Ingredients
- 1-2 Apples each, Granny Smith and Pink Lady
- 6 Ounces Spanish Mahon or Similar Cheese
- 1-2 each Belgian Endive
- 2-3 Ounces Virgin Olive Oil
- Juice of 1-2 lemons
- Salt in flake style to taste
Directions
Cut the Apples (skin on) on a mandolin if you have one otherwise you can hand cut into a matchstick style somewhere around 1/8-1/4 inch sides and 2 inch lengths or a bit longer. Hand cut the Mahon into similar matchstick shapes and the same for the endive. Toss apple, endive and cheese with the lemon juice and olive oil and lightly season with flake style salt as available.
Dining with Culinary Artist Travis Metzger is an unforgettable experience. You can taste the passion, creativity and culinary expertise in each of Travis’s one-of-kind recipes. Most would agree that Traditional Chinese Medicine herbs in their original form taste less than delectable, but Travis has proven that TCM for today can taste great with DAO Labs. Travis develops unique flavors for each DAO formula to complement the proprietary blend of herbs and their health benefits. After extensive training at the New England Culinary Institute, Travis ran some of the finest restaurants across the country before starting his own in Minneapolis. To survive the stresses and physical challenges of the kitchen heat, Travis focused on combining natural ingredients for healthy AND delicious eating and juicing.
