Capillary Wormwood, Adzuki Bean and Mung Bean Soup

Why people make this soup

There were recent reports of children catching hand-foot-and-mouth disease — a viral illness most common in children aged about two to five, often with fever, runny nose, poor appetite, refusal to eat, cough or loose stools. In the traditional view, capillary wormwood (mian yin chen) clears damp-heat and is associated with supporting immunity. When the weather is all over the place — sunny, then rainy, then a big blow — bacteria and viruses get lively, and Nourilo likes to make a gentle wormwood soup at times like these. Wormwood isn’t strongly medicinal in taste, so paired with adzuki and mung beans children don’t mind it, which makes it a nice supportive soup during hand-foot-and-mouth season.