Three Black Soup (Black Soybean, Black Sesame and Black Dates)

Why people make this soup

Urticaria — commonly known as hives — is a common skin allergic reaction that is not contagious. The acute form typically appears after exposure to a triggering substance: a particular food, medication, insect sting, pet dander, latex, or chemical. But the picture becomes more complicated with chronic urticaria, where the immune system becomes dysregulated and begins reacting to a wider and more unpredictable range of triggers — or even attacking the body’s own cells. Stress and sleep deprivation are also recognised as factors that can lower the threshold for flares.

From a traditional Chinese food-therapy perspective, recurring hives often reflect underlying qi and blood deficiency, meaning the immune system lacks the stable foundation it needs to maintain a measured response. The approach Nourilo recommends is not to suppress the reaction from outside, but to gradually strengthen the internal terrain — and for this, he turns to three of the most nourishing “black” foods in the Chinese food tradition.

While acute hives can sometimes be helped by external washes — camphor wood chips (zhang mu sui) simmered in water, or honeysuckle flower (tu yin hua) decoction — this Three Black Soup is best used for ongoing, between-flare-up strengthening, ideally over several weeks.