As an American, I grew up eating boxed cereal with milk for breakfast: Frosted Flakes, CAP’N Crunch, Froot Loops, and Cocoa Puffs were my staples.
No wonder I was suffering from chronic allergies and poor digestive health!
Those breakfast cereals would have been great for me if I were a cartoon character, but I was, and still am, a human.
Learning to prepare a completely different type of breakfast helped save my digestive system and supported my health.
Instead of beginning my day with cold cereal and milk, I began eating warm congee.
You may be wondering, “What the heck is Congee?”
Congee is a gruel made by boiling rice in water until the grains break down, forming a creamy porridge-like consistency. It’s a popular Asian breakfast but can be enjoyed at any time of the day.
I love congee because it’s easy to digest, warming and deeply nourishing. Plus, it’s a great way to use up leftover grain from dinner the night before.
If I’ve got brown or white rice in the fridge, it’s either going to become Peanutty Fried Rice with Vegetables or Congee.
Congee is very easy to prepare, and totally delish.
I promise!
You can use any other grain as well (rice, millet, barley, quinoa, wheat, etc.).
I like using leftover rice because the porridge consistency gets really creamy.
You can also season the rice porridge with a variety of sweet or savory ingredients.
I prefer mostly savory, like miso, but you can use any ingredients you like.
Remember to repurpose your leftover rice and enjoy the congee!
- 1 cup leftover cooked rice (white or brown)
- 4 cups chicken stock (can sub veggie stock, fish stock or water)
- 2 tsp. sesame oil (or olive oil)
- 1 onion, peeled and sliced into thin crescents
- 1 tbsp. ginger root, peeled and sliced into thin matchsticks
- 4 oz extra firm tofu, cubed
- 5-6 oz enoki mushrooms (trimmed)
- ½ red pepper, seeded and sliced thin
- 2 tbsp. white miso
- 6-7 oz tuna (jarred)
- ¼ cup cilantro
- Kimchi
- Bring rice and stock to a boil.
- Cover, and reduce heat to low.
- Cook rice 40 minutes.
- In a separate frying pan, add sesame oil, onion and ginger, and saute until wilted.
- At the 40 minute mark for the rice porridge, add the cooked onions and ginger, tofu, mushrooms and pepper into the pot and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to simmer, dilute the miso in a small amount of liquid from the porridge, and add that into the pot.
- Cook on low for an additional 3-4 minutes.
- Ladle porridge into a bowl and garnish with tuna, kimchi and cilantro.
Andrea Beaman is an internationally renowned Holistic Health Coach, Natural Foods Chef, Speaker, Herbalist and best-selling author. Named one of the top 100 Most Influential Health and Fitness Experts, she is also a recipient of the Natural Gourmet Institute’s Award for Excellence in Health-Supportive Education and a Health Leadership award from The Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Since 1999, Andrea has been teaching people how to harness the body’s own preventative and healing powers using food, herbal remedies and alternative medicine.
Some recipes and articles on this site may contain affiliate links to products we trust and love. The money received helps keep this website and all of its healthful and delicious content FREE to the public.
