Old Cucumber and Carrots in Pork Broth
Soup Name:
Old Cucumber and Carrots in Pork Broth
Traditional Chinese Name:
老黃瓜胡蘿蔔湯 (lǎo huáng guā hú luóbo tāng)
This soup is slightly cooling in nature, sweet to taste, and helps clear excess water from the body.
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Another soup for the damp, wet spring season! You’ll find a recurring theme within Spring soups, mainly consisting of an assortment of beans and certain vegetables that are diuretic. This is a simple soup with a pretty strong “bean” taste – so use less beans if it’s for kids. Mine found it a bit too “beany” and didn’t really like it that much. Consider adding corn to sweeten it up, but the adults lapped it up. It’s an easy to drink soup that is excellent for our health during this time of the year, especially when it’s wet and humid. You can also use chayotes, onions and fish for variation.
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 2 hours
Total time: 2 hours 10 mins
Serves: 8 bowls
- 1 pound of fresh pork shank, cut and blanched
- 1 large old cucumber, washed and largely cubed (with skin)
- 2 large fresh carrots, peeled and largely cubed
- 3 dried honey dates
- 40 g lentil
- 40 g red beans
- 1 small piece of dried tangerine peel, cleaned
- 2 L of water
- In a small pot of boiling water, blanch your pork for 5 minutes. Scoop out and rinse of any excess foam.
- Start boiling your soup water.
- Prepare old cucumber and carrots. Keep the peel for the old cucumber to prevent disintegration.
- Soak the dried tangerine peel in warm water for 5 minutes and with a sharp knife, scrape the outer peel (where it’s darker in color) to remove the outer layer of the skin (which is most bitter).
- When you soup water boils, add all the ingredients together
- Boil on high for 30 minutes and reduce to a medium boil for another 1.5 hours.
- Salt to taste – enjoy!
- This soup is perfect for Spring or humid conditions when there is a lot of moisture in the body
- It is great for clearing damp heat since it’s cooling in nature
- Fit for the whole family, this soup eats like a meal!
My 6 years old son is having “风 瘼” now. This situation will happen especially after he recovered from fever. During the fever, I will feed him the medicine call “Dhamol” which also call “Panadol”.
This time find that my son is having 风瘼 also because 4 days ago he did recover from fever. The ” 风瘼” normally will appear a bit in the morning & afternoon. But during the evening time, the “风瘼” appears much more than the morning & afternoon on my son hand & leg area.
May I know any soup reccomended for my son?
Hi my daughter is 3 years old and has a cold and cough which soup is good for her?
Dear Jacqui, try using this ingredient: http://www.thechinesesouplady.com/luo-han-guo/ . Put a quarter of the dried fruit into a pork based broth (with simple veggies such as corn, onions and chayotes). It will strengthen the lungs and help with the cough. Hope this helps! Lisa
Hi,
Should the outer layer of the tangerine peel or the pith – the white layer be removed? I’ve read elsewhere that the bitterness comes from the pith not the outer layer. Please advise. Thank you.