Fresh Chinese Yam and Mung Bean Damp-Clearing Soup

Why people make this soup

In early summer, the weather alternates between muggy heat and cool rainy spells — the kind of unsettled conditions that, in traditional Chinese medicine thinking, invite “dampness” into the body. Add in a habit of eating cold foods and iced drinks, and that external dampness joins forces with internal dampness from a weakened spleen. The result is a body that feels inexplicably heavy and tired, a mind that seems foggy, limbs that feel waterlogged, and in children, an increased likelihood of eczema or loose stools. This soup addresses exactly that pattern. The combination of five ingredients — each classically associated with spleen support and dampness drainage — works gently and steadily, making it a good soup to come back to whenever the weather or the body calls for it.