Angelica Root
Ingredient Name:
Chinese angelica root, dang quai, female ginseng
Traditional Chinese Name:
當歸 (dāng guī)
Nature: Warm
Taste: Sweet, bitter
Here’s how to build your “Basic Chinese Soup Pantry“
This unique Chinese herbal (and fragrant or smelly, depending on how you look at it) is also known as “female ginseng” and is a popular herb used in Chinese medicine. It’s a highly revered root, second to the ginseng root. This herb is indigenous to China and can be found in various forms, such as long dried roots, smaller chips, or powdered. It’s actually got a very distinct smell when dried and carries that flavour into the soup slightly.
This ingredient is considered warming and sweet and often used to support blood and qi deficiency, targeting the heart, liver, and spleen. It’s used to tonify blood, improve circulation, and welcome in tonics and soups for women and menstruation, but is also a very healing herb.
How do I prepare it?
- Not much preparation is needed other than rinsing in warm water before usage. You can also drop it in directly into your soup as well.
Where can I buy it and cost?
- You can purchase these from most Asian supermarkets prepackaged
- You can also purchase this in bulk from specialty stores (online herbal shops)
- Be sure that you’re buying from a reputable source
- Angelica root comes in various forms, including in thinly sliced, chopped (or chip form), powdered, or in teas (as natural herbs)
- I’ve seen the range of these vary as well, depending on the quality and size of the product
Any benefits?
- This is an amazing warming herb that can help warm the body
- It increases blood circulation in the body
- It also helps with tonifying and replenishing blood
- This herb is amazing for supporting pre and post menstruation and reducing pain
- It is also often found in healing tonics
Any precautions?
Be sure you are buying these from a reputable source
Also to check that this is angelica root (or dang quai), there are so many herbs that look like this (small and brown) that it’s sometimes hard to tell, but you can definitely identify this from its smell.
Looking to build your basic Chinese Soup Pantry?
Check it out in my video to learn more!
Wouldn’t ladies in confinement also be nursing? So to take or not to take?
Hello! So happy to have found your wonderfully informative website 4(?) years ago. I was very impressed with your dictionary type listing of ingredients with pictures but I seem to have lost the link.
Recently I inherited a number of canisters of mysterious (to me) ingredients and now want to use them but am at a loss. Do you have a link that points to all ingredients instead of one at a time? Hopefully, there is a posted link on your main menu?
Dear Nadine, ah! I don’t have such an index, although it’s a great idea. My challenge is that I don’t even know the Chinese to some of the herbs, do it’s very hard for me to match it back to the English. This learning process has been quite a journey! Do you want to take a pic and send it to me? You can post it to my facebook page and I can try to show my herbalist or the old ladies at the wet mart! :) Lisa