The Five Elements Cookbook: A Guide to Traditional Chinese Medicine with Recipes for Everyday Healing

A stunning and accessible guide to cooking with Traditional Chinese Medicine, featuring over 50 nourishing recipes to eat for healing every day by TCM chef and registered dietitian Zoey Xinyi Gong.

Chef and registered dietitian Zoey Xinyi Gong offers an incredibly fresh, elegant, and authentic approach to food therapy and a truly accessible guide to cooking with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), a thousands-year-old practice for holistic wellness.

Named after a foundational theory of what balance and optimal health looks like, The Five Elements Cookbook is a stunning introduction to the beginner concepts of TCM and offers a photographic guide to the most commonly used medicinal ingredients (American ginseng, turmeric, reishi, and more), their healing properties, and how to use them seamlessly in your cooking―whether in a warm tea, restorative bone broth, a sweet smoothie, or your favorite dinner.

Each of the over 50 delicious, healing recipes ingeniously incorporates a food-as-medicine ingredient, with consideration for seasonality, digestion, and body constitution, and specific concerns, like menstrual pains, nausea, anxiety, blood circulation, respiratory health, and more. For those with dietary restrictions, each recipe also includes a key for vegan, nut free, dairy free, gluten free, plus the TCM energetics and uses. Recipes span all day and every meal, plus beverages and desserts:

• Sesame Goji Granola
• Pumpkin and Lotus Seed Hummus with Crudité
• Reishi Mushroom Miso Soup
• Steamed Whole Fish with Herbal Soy Sauce
• Warming Lamb Noodle Soup
• Saffron Mulled Wine

With beautiful photographs throughout, this soothing, practical holistic cookbook is perfect for those looking to eat for healing, nourishment, and joy.

Born in Shanghai, China, ZOEY XINYI GONG is a registered dietitian (R.D.) and Traditional Chinese Medicine chef. She is dedicated to modernizing Traditional Chinese Medicine and making it a relevant and practical lifestyle for all, and serving as a bridge between Eastern and Western perspectives of wellness. She is the cofounder of the Red Pavilion, a creative venue in Brooklyn featuring medicinal cooking classes, chef’s table, and more. She's been covered by the New York Times, NBC, Serious Eats, Bon Appetit and more. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.