The highlight of this soup is the dried monk fruit!  It’s a super common dried fruit that can be found in Hong Kong at wet marts and supermarkets and is primarily known to help coughs and nourish the lungs.  It comes as a dried brown (or dark green) round ball with a hard outer shell.  Combined with the Japanese Yam, this soup is amazing for the lungs and supports yin deficiency.

The soup is slightly sweet to taste (depending on how much monk fruit you add).  I tend to only put half of the green (less strong) type and a quarter of the dark brown monk fruit. 

• 2 pounds of fresh pork shoulders (or any type of pork)
• half a dried monk fruit
• 4 x 1-feet of Japanese yam
• 1 fresh corn
• 1 cup of dried lily bulb
• 1 cup of fresh lotus seeds
• 1 cup of dried scallops
• 3 L of water

1. The first thing I’ll do is soak the pork in cold water for about 10 minutes.  This is a great way to first clear some of the bone bits and fat from it.  Rinse it in cold water a few times and you’ll see it run murky!  Truly amazing.
2. Boil your blanching water and your soup water at the same time
3. As that boils, prepare your corn by cutting into 3 or 4 pieces, peel the yam (with gloves if you’d like as it’s pretty slimy) and cut into 1-inch pieces
4. Break open the monk fruit.  I’ll only use half and put the other half for another soup or tea.  They can be stored for years in dry conditions.
5. When your blanching water boils, add in the pork and boil on high for 5 minutes
6. When your soup water boils, transfer the pork and add in all the ingredients together
7. Boil on high for 30 minutes
8. And reduce boil to low-medium for another 2 hours (or use a thermal pot)
9. Serve and enjoy!

The monk fruit!  This is the slightly less dry version.  You’ll notice it’s more green and less brown.  This one is a little more expensive, coming in at $2 CAD per monk fruit.  You’ll also notice a thin layer of sugared coating, so it is a bit sticky to touch, but that’s just the sugars of the fruit on the skin.  The great thing about the greener version is that it isn’t as pungent or sweet, so you can use half in a soup to give is just enough of that flavour.  If it’s the heavily dried version, I will only use a quarter in 3L of soup water.  This is also great in teas!!  

Japanese Yam and Monk Fruit in Pork Broth Chinese Soup