how to keep your skin + gut balanced even when you're indulging 🍲✨

No matter what we’re celebrating, whether it’s the start of summer or the Knicks finally winning, there’s always a reason to indulge a little. And I’m not here to tell you not to! I’m here to tell you how to keep your skin + gut balanced while you do.

Welcome back to the second recipe in “eat good, feel good, look good,” where the meals aren’t a cleanse, not a meal plan, not a restrictive list of foods you’re supposed to eat. Just real, good food that’s genuinely doing something for your skin and gut, so you can enjoy those nights you’re celebrating.

Here’s why this recipe works to keep things balanced, even after a few nights of overindulging…The first is the cabbage and daikon. This mille feuille nabe is layered with thin sheets of cabbage and pork belly, and the cabbage is doing a lot of the heavy work for your gut with all that fiber. Daikon rounds it out and is known in Chinese medicine to support digestion too, to help your body work through the celebratory drinks and noms.

The second is how everything’s being cooked. Because all the ingredients are sliced thin and layered, your body is getting a more balanced ratio of vegetable to protein in every single bite, even though it doesn’t taste “health"y”. It’s a hot pot that feels like a celebration and is still investing in your skin and gut while you eat it.

Here’s how to make it…

Ingredients:

Serves 2-3 (shop my kitchen)

• 1/2 head of cabbage, thinly sliced

• 1/2 lb pork belly, thinly sliced

• 1/2 daikon, thinly sliced into rounds

• 1.5 cups of Japanese dashi broth

• 1 tbsp sake

• 1 tbsp mirin

• 1 tbsp soy sauce

• 3 slices of ginger

• Serve with shichimi, japanese pepper powder

Instructions:

• Cut the cabbage and thinly slice the daikon so they’re roughly the same width as your pork belly slices

• Layer a cabbage leaf, then a slice of pork belly, then a daikon piece, and repeat until you have a tall stack

• Pack them tightly into a pot, cut side up, so you can see the layers

• Tuck any leftover pieces of cabbage or daikon into loose pockets

• Pour your dashi broth over everything until it just covers the layers

• Cover and simmer on medium for 20-25 minutes until the pork is fully cooked and the cabbage and daikon are tender

• Add the sake, mirin, and soy sauce at the very end, simmering for another 5 mins

• Season with a little extra salt if needed and serve straight from the pot