A mother who has just given birth needs the best nutrition for her quick and complete recovery. One of the most common drinks recommended for mothers during confinement is red dates and longan tea.
This tea is also consumed by women during menstruation as it helps to nourish and improve their immune system.
In traditional medicine, red dates are known for their medicinal benefits. During confinement, many new mothers may be overwhelmed with caring and nursing their newborn.
Longan is prized for its calming properties. It is also known as a sleep enhancer.
Do you know that longan is also used as an anti-depressant in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine)? Due to its calming properties, longan is added into red dates tea for the general being of a mother in confinement.
Sun-dried longan is pretty sweet hence they are boiled together with red dates to get naturally sweet tea. This tea is best consumed hot or warm during confinement. You may even add ginger if you like.
Red dates longan tea is a very simple recipe that requires only 2 ingredients that you can easily buy at your nearest grocer. You don’t even need to go to the traditional Chinese medicinal halls for them.
I have two sons and I drank this red dates longan tea during both my confinement periods. I do believe this tea helps to maintain a healthy amount of breastmilk too.
If you have a pressure cooker, you can cut the boiling time into half making it even easier to prepare this traditional tea for confinement.
Red Dates Longan Tea
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker
Ingredients
- 120 g red dates
- 50 g dried longan
- 1.5 l water
Instructions
- Wash and soak red dates for at least 30 minutes.
- Discard soaking water.
- Wash dried longan quickly. Do not soak.
- Pour 1.5L water into a pot.
- Add red dates and longan.
- Pressure boil for 20 minutes.
- If your pressure cooker has a 'SOUP' function, you may use this function.
- Once the red dates longan tea is ready, scoop into flasks and drink it hot or warm throughout the day.
- This red dates longan tea is naturally sweet hence no extra sugar is needed.
