I got a cold just before Christmas, two days of sore throat and 2-3 days of runny nose. I had to wear a white face mask on to stop the flu virus from spreading.
Common cold and flu are very common illnesses during all four seasons of the year but winter is definitely the worst time of the year. Thinking about blocked nose, teary eyes, sneeze, sore throat, cough, headaches, chill, high temperature – it’s better to prevent ourselves from getting all those nasty symptoms.

Chisense food therapy for cold and flu, gouqi, chinese wolfberry

So, how can we stop ourselves getting flu and cold?
How can we protect ourselves from the flu and cold?
How to prevent the cold and flu?
In traditional Chinese medicine, there are so many ways to protect yourself from catching a cold or curing your cold if you already had one – acupuncture, herbal medicine remedy, cupping, tuina and massage… these are brilliant treatments for releasing the cold virus, calm our body, but when you are ill, you don’t want to go out, do you? I always remember that my granny put me in bed and brought me some hot spicy or vinegar drinks when I was ill, and then I went to sleep with twice as many layers of duvet as usual. I released a lot of sweat and I woke to find my symptoms had magically gone down.
Certainly good rest and liquefied meals are the best for recovery from light colds and are a good additional therapy for severe flu and cold.
What are those recipes for cold and flu?
Here you are – I have collected 40 easy home-made recipes from Chinese resources to share with everyone:

  1. Garlic and ginger with Brown sugar: 15g sliced garlic and 15 sliced ginger, boiled in 250ml water, add dark brown sugar, drink it then go to bed for a rest.
  2. Ginger Spring onion and brown sugar tea: 5 slices sliced ginger, 5 stalks of spring onion white, 30g dark brown sugar, 500ml water – boil all together and drink while hot.
  3. Ginger and white turnip soup: 25g ginger shredded, 50g white turnip sliced 500ml water, bring them to boil for 15 minutes then add dark brown sugar. Drink the soup, at least 200ml , 1-2 times a day.
  4. Cocoa ginger tea: 50g shredded fresh ginger, pour into 1000ml Cocoa and heat them together until boiling. Drink as hot as possible, at least 100ml each time, many times a day.
  5. Ginger brown sugar tea: a cup of 10g sliced ginger and 15g dark brown sugar, pour boiling water into the cup and drink it as tea.
  6. Ginger garlic spring onion soup: boiling 1 chopped garlic clove, 3 slices of ginger, 1 chopped spring onion, some basil and a pinch of cinnamon in 3 cups of water for 5 minutes. Drink it as hot as possible and go to bed, cover up and be ready for lots of sweat!
  7. Ginger red date tea: boil some sliced ginger and 10 red dates together for 5 minutes and drink as hot as possible. Cover up to get sweat flowing.
  8. Ginger coriander spring onion soup: 9g sliced ginger, 15 stalks chopped spring onion, 15g chopped coriander, put into boiling water and cook for 10 minutes then drink the juice, twice a day, continuing for 2-3 days.
  9. Ginger onion rice soup: 15g mashed ginger, 5 mashed spring onion roots, 100g rice (ideally sticky rice). Put all into boiling water to boil for 20 minutes until porridge-like then eat it all.Chisense food therapy for cold and flu, gouqi, chinese cabbage recipe
  10. Vinegar flavour spicy Chinese cabbage:
    400g sliced Chinese Cabbage
    some Zanthoxylum seeds (very common Chinese cuisine seasoning, skip this if you don’t have it)

    1 chopped spring onion
    2g thinly shredded ginger (add more if you love it)
    3 tsp cooking oil
    rice vinegar or favourite one—I use apple cider vinegar
    some sugar
    Heat up oil in a frying pan or a wok, add Zanthoxylum seeds, once oil becomes dark,   pour spring onion and ginger in and stir for a few seconds then put Chinese cabbage in, stir again, add vinegar, put sugar in, stir evenly until cabbage looks soft enough for your preference.

  11. Vinegar flavour spicy potato shreds:
    Thinly shredded potato, left in a bowl of water for 10 minutes, soaking it to remove starch – this step is important for a crispy and silky potato taste. Take the shredded potato out of water and drain it. The rest of the steps are the same as the above recipe – use potato instead of Chinese cabbage.
  12. Vinegar flavour spicy bean sprout, the same steps as Vinegar flavour spicy Chinese cabbage but quickly finish cooking once the bean sprouts are in.
  13. Spring onion and garlic soup: 10 spring onions, cut to pieces, 3 garlic cloves, 50g rice, pour them into water and bring to boil. Each time eat 150ml, twice a day.
  14. Spring onion milk drink: 1 spring onion cut into pieces, 250ml milk, boil them together then cool down, mix them before drinking. 100ml taken each time before sleep.
  15. Garlic: 1 clove fresh garlic, chew it until tasteless and threw it away. You will feel better after 3-4 cloves garlic.
  16. Garlic honey tea: mixing one unite mashed garlic and one unite honey, drink with warm water, 4-6 times a day.
  17. Vinegar steam: heat up a pot in a very high temperature, then pour 10ml vinegar in it, you can get vinegar steam over all the room. A few minutes later, repeat it again and again. This can clear the virus in the air and smelling and breathing the vinegar steam can help clearing blocked nose and good for cough recovering.
  18. Red wine steamed egg: boil 25ml red wine, once alcohol vapour has cleared from the boiled wine, break an egg into the wine and stir the mixture up. Pour hot water into mixture to dilute, then drink it while it is hot.
  19. Cucumber and Tofu soup: 250g sliced cucumber, 500g sliced tofu, boil them with water, drink a cup each time, twice a day. Suitable for children’s wind cold flu.
  20. Spring onion Chinese cabbage soup: 3 stalk roots of Chinese cabbage, 3 stalks spring onion, 500ml water, boil all together then add sugar to drink.
  21. Whit turnip tea: 250g sliced white turnip, 3 cups of water, boil until 2 cups of water are left then add sugar for drinking.
  22. White turnip and Chinese cabbage soup: 500g cabbage leaves, slice; 120g white turnip, slice; boil all together with 800ml water until half the water evaporates then add dark brown sugar. It is 200ml twice a day. Continue this remedy for 4 days. Alternatively, use Chisense food therapy for cold and flu, gouqi, white turnip recipeother cooling, soothing fruits and vegetables such as: pear or sweet orange, water melon juice, burdock root, cilantro, dandelion, mint, chrysanthemum tea
  23. Citrus zest and cube sugar: pour boiling water into a cup with 50g fresh orange zest and some crystal sugar in it, drink like a tea.
  24. Apple honey drink: 5 apples, peel the skin, chop them into cubes, boil them together with 1 litre of water, simmering 5 minutes after boiled, then add a bit of lemon juice and honey, mix all the ingredients up.
  25. Water melon tomato juice: get mixed juice from peeled tomato and water melon, twice a day drink as juice.
  26. Chinese pear soup:  1 skin peel from Chinese crystal pear, chop it and boil it together with crystal sugar in water for 15 minutes. Drink it as tea. Suitable for wind heat flu with cough symptom.
  27. Chrysanthemum Goqi tea: 60g chrysanthemum, 60g Goqi (Chinese wolf berry), marinate them with rice wine for 10-20 days, then add honey in. Drink it twice a day 20ml each time. Suitable for wind heat flu with headaches.
  28. Mulberry leaf chrysanthemum tea: a cup of 15g mulberry leaf, 10g chrysanthemum, pour boiling water into the cup, drink as tea. Twice a day.
  29. Mint rice soup: 100g rice (ideally sticky rice), 10g mint, put them into boiling water and cook for 10 minutes, then eat it all. Suits wind heat flu with red eyes, headaches, sore throat symptoms.
  30. Olive reed root soup: 4 salted olives, 30g reed root, boil together with 1000ml water until 500ml left, drink it as hot.
  31. Mungbean and Chinese cabbage root soup: 4 Chinese cabbage roots, some mungbeans, clean all thoroughly and boil them together with 50g crystal sugar in water. Suits wind heat flu with cough symptom.
  32. Egg soup: 1 egg, 30g crystal sugar, mix them together and blend them evenly in a bowl. Pour boiling water into the bowl and eat it.
  33. Egg and sesame oil soup: 50g sesame oil, 1 fresh egg, break egg into heated hot oil, pour boiled water into egg and oil mixture, eat it all, twice a day.
  34. Honeysuckle hawthorn honey tea: 30g honeysuckle, 10g hawthorn, 250g honey, add water to boil them together for about 10 minutes. Then pour the juice out.  Add more water into the pot and boil the ingredients again, take juice out again and mix it with previous juice together, and separate them into 2 parts, drink one each time.
  35. Coriander soya bean soup: 30g coriander, 50g soya bean, 1500ml water – boil all ingredients together until half the liquid has gone. Add a bit of salt before consuming.
  36. Water spinach soup: 100g chopped water spinach, 50g red beans, 50g sticky rice, soak red beans in water for 2 hours and boil red beans and rice with plenty of water until ingredients are soft enough to eat, add water spinach to complete. Reduces fever, diminishes swelling, detoxifies and dispels excessive heat from blood.
  37. Mungbean rice soup: 50g mung beans, 100g rice (ideally sticky rice), some crystal sugar, boil all ingredients with water until beans soften. Eat it as a meal.
  38. Balsam pear and lotus leaf with pork lean meat soup: 30g sliced balsam pear, 1 sliced lotus leaf, 50g sliced pork lean meat, boil all ingredients together, simmer them for an hour once boiled.  Drink the soup and eat the meat. Good for releasing dampness and toxins. Best for flu and cold caused by weakened body.

    39. Chisense food therapy for cold and flu, gouqi, balsam pear recipe

  39. Ginger duck egg soup:  50g shredded skinless ginger, 2 duck eggs, 20ml rice win, 200ml water, gently beat the duck eggs together with all other ingredients and pour the mixture into pot to cook, once it is boiled, then can start to serve. Once a day, eat it all. Continue for 3 days. Suitable for the cold and flu caused by weakened body.
  40. Ginger onion rice vinegar soup: 30g sticky rice, 10g sliced ginger, 6g spring onion white, 20ml rice vinegar,  put rice and ginger into a earthenware pot and cover with water then boil until the rice softens, add spring onion white to the pot and carry on boiling until soup looks like porridge, then add rice vinegar to complete. Stir evenly and eat it while it is hot. Supplements Qi (body energy, Chi), releases tension and removes cold chi from body.

Note: wind cold and wind heat are not the same. Make sure which type of cold and flu you have before choosing a recipe.
Key:  1-19 for Wind Cold type;  20-36 for Wind Heat type; 37-40 for Damp Heat Cold.