Calming & Hormone Balancing Lavender Rice Pudding
Essential Takeaways:
- If you are prone to mood swings, stress, and anxiety around your cycle, this subtly sweet and aromatic lavender rice pudding recipe will help to balance hormones and calm your mind and body for an easier period.
- Created with Elix TCM advisor and chef Zoey Gong, this recipe was crafted with a holistic food therapy approach rooted in Chinese medicinal cuisine.
- Let us know if you recreate this recipe by tagging us @elixhealing and @zoeyxinyigong on instagram!
Feeling stressed, anxious, or having trouble sleeping? That’s nothing this deliciously creamy, warming, and aromatic lavender rice pudding recipe can’t solve. Especially if you are prone to cycle related anxiety and mood swings around your period, try enjoying this as a breakfast bowl or evening snack with your Cycle Balance formula to help calm your mood and ease those uncomfortable menstrual symptoms.
One of the most well known herbs for relieving anxiety and stress is lavender, and this is no different in Traditional Chinese Medicine. For thousands of years, this deliciously floral herb has been used for its sweet and comforting aroma to calm the nervous system, promote healthy Qi (vital energy) circulation, and fight fevers & infections. For this recipe, Zoey added purple sweet potato to help improve digestion—which can also be affected by our fluctuating hormones each month—and vanilla bean for an even more comforting flavor. Try topping with your favorite fruits or jam for added sweetness and nutrients.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) Benefits:
- Improves digestion and fights seasonal dryness.
- Calms the spirit, encouraging better sleep, and a more balanced mood.
Calming & Hormone Balancing Lavender Rice Pudding
Ingredients:
- 4 cups rice milk or non-dairy milk of choice
- 1 tablespoon dried lavender
- ½ cup short-grain rice
- 1 tablespoon raw cane sugar or maple syrup
- ½ vanilla bean, seeded and scraped or a splash of vanilla extract
- ½ cup cooked purple sweet potato
- pinch of sea salt
- Elix Cycle Balance Tincture
- Fresh berries, lavender, or jam for garnish
Method:
- In a small pot, add 2 cups of milk and dried lavender. Boil for 5 minutes with lid covered. Steep for another 10 minutes and then discard the lavender. Add in the other 2 cups of milk.
- Rinse the rice under running water until the water turns clear. Add rice to the pot. Add sweetener, vanilla bean and pod, purple sweet potato, and salt.
- Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the milk is absorbed and rice is very soft, about 25 minutes. You may need to add more milk if you feel your pudding is too thick and the rice is still uncooked.
- Remove the vanilla bean. Mix in Elix Cycle Balance Tincture. Garnish with fresh berries, lavender, or jam.
Ease cycle related anxiety, stress, mood swings, and more with your own personalized Cycle Balance formula. Take our Health Assessment to discover yours and start healing from within.
This article was reviewed by Zoey Gong.
Zoey Gong is a Traditional Chinese Medicine nutritionist, food therapist, and chef. Her recipes have been featured in various publications, including the cover of Food & Wine magazine in the February 2023 issue. She’s the author of The Five Elements Cookbook: A Guide to Traditional Chinese Medicine with Recipes for Everyday Healing, where she guides readers in the basics of TCM through encyclopedic entries on common ingredients and 50 nourishing recipes.