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.
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!
Any benefits?
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!
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My herbalist recommended I make this soup given the recent change of temperature and humidity. She actually only provides the “dried goodies” – see below – in terms of herbs. She will tell you that you additionally need a pork shank and chayotes to complete the soup. This soup is targeted to help reduce wetness in the body and aid with the dampness that comes with Spring in Hong Kong. It’s slightly sweet to taste, and surprisingly, my children drank it all!
Start boiling your soup water and immediately (while the water is still cold) throw in all the dried herbs (figs, honey dates, apricot kernals, lily bulbs, lotus seeds) 2. In a separate pot, blanch the pork shank for 5 minutes, drain and set aside 3. Once the water boils, add in cubed chayotes (with the skin on so it won’t completely disintegrate in the soup) and pork shank 4. Boil on high for 30 minutes 5. Reduce to a medium boil for another 1.5 hours (or put it in a thermal pot) 6. Salt to salt 7. Serve and enjoy!
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Soup Name: Chicken Herbal Soup with Abalone Traditional Chinese Name: 鮑魚清雞湯 (bào yú qīng jī tāng) This soup is warming in nature and sweet to taste. Visit us on YouTube for more tea and soup videos.One of my favourite basic chicken Chinese soups - ever! And it's...
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HOW TO CHECK IF YOU'RE IMPROVING BLOOD CIRCULATION? I'm always curious about metrics and measuring success or at least measuring progress. What started as an initial recommendation from my Chinese doctor to do foot soaks to improve circulation, turned into a full...
Soup Name: Chicken Herbal Soup with Abalone Traditional Chinese Name: 鮑魚清雞湯 (bào yú qīng jī tāng) This soup is warming in nature and sweet to taste. Visit us on YouTube for more tea and soup videos.One of my favourite basic chicken Chinese soups - ever! And it's...
Happy Chinese New Year's!! Wishing you and your family a very happy, healthy, and beautiful year of the rabbit!! As a tradition, the Chinese will eat what's called "New Year's Cake". It's basically sweetened rice and glutinous rice flour pan fried until soft and...
Tea Name: Chrysanthemum and Roselle (Hibiscus) Honey Tea Traditional Chinese Name: 菊花茶 (jú huā chá) This tea is sweet and sour to taste and cooling in nature.Visit us on YouTube for more tea and soup videos.Taking a moment? Want something calming and soothing? Try...
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Soup Name: White radish with mushrooms and vermicelli in Chicken Soup Chinese Name: 白蘿蔔冬菇粉絲雞湯 (bái luóbo dōng gū fěn sī jī tāng) For more videos, visit us on YouTube.Sometimes, I want something relatively easy and quick to whip up all in one-pot! Make a bit of...
It’s almost Spring time! Can’t you feel the warm sun on your face? Can’t you feel gentle wind without that bitter, cold bite?
Spring is a unique season – well, there are only 4 – so that’s pretty unique already. What makes Spring so different is one key thing (especially in Asia) – humidity. You can’t run from it – especially if you happen to live on an island in Asia or even South East Asia. And like all seasons in the Chinese circle of life, there are soups that are targeted for this season to help:
reduce moisture in your body
remove dampness
tone & strengthen Qi & blood
relieve heaviness in the head and body
For me, being a western-raised Chinese, the key is removing dampness (all the others aren’t as tangible to me). I can feel it in my blankets, in my bedsheets, on the walls and especially on my skin. To remove the “feeling” of dampness in my home, the humidifier is the next great thing after sliced bread in the Spring. I have 2 of these machines that run around the clock in my house to make sure that both my bedsheets and walls don’t start molding on me – it happens – especially given that I live facing a harbor. Spring is a great prelude to Summer, so I’m neither a hater nor a lover. So how do you deal with the dampness that affects the body? Drink soups – in great quantities.
Over the past 8 years living in Hong Kong, there are the same key soups that my meat, veggie and herbal vendors all tell me to make. Even the old ladies that I knock elbows with at the market tell me the same thing, and of course, my own mother. So it’s not coincidence that through generations of knowledge and teaching, the Chinese have narrowed down their soup recommendations for various personal and environment conditions.
There are always KEY ingredients associated with the Spring and you can mix and match the various vegetables and additives as needed for this season. You can also use a combination of pork, chicken and fish with the proposed “Spring” ingredients for variety.
Some Spring ingredients:
old cucumber – with its diuretic effect, it helps you urinate and release the moisture in your body.
adzuki beans – another natural diuretic, this ingredient can dispel both excess body moisture and heat. It also helps strengthen the spleen.
black eye beans – similar to adzuki beans in dispelling excess moisture from the body.
lentils – helps to also dispel moisture from the body and a great source of protein.
barley, job’s tears – another natural diuretic and used to promote urination and has mildly cooling properties.
fu ling or tuckahoe – excellent for removing damp-heat (like Spring or wet conditions).
smilax root or toe folk ling – can help remove excess phlegm and dry throat during illness when the seasons change.
watercress – helps clear heatiness, neutralizes toxins, nourishes the lung and dissolve phlegm.
Soup Name: Vegetables and Dried Octopus with Mung Beans Soup
Traditional Chinese Name: 雜菜綠豆章魚湯 (Zá cài lǜ dòu zhāng yú tāng)
Introduction:
When it rains, the Chinese like using beans to absorb moisture from the body. Mung beans, dried beans, red beans, green beans, yellow beans, big beans and little beans – any type of beans will do really! The octopus is known to be a heaty ingredient and therefore is balanced with the cooler mung beans. This combination with lotus root is a delicious Spring Chinese soup ideal for the whole family. I’ve also added a variety of vegetables to sweeten it and dilute the unique taste of the octopus that my children pick up on. On top of this, it gives you a hearty soup that you can eat as a meal or additional dishes to your meal – like the corn.
Soup Name: Lotus Root with Dried Octopus in Chicken Soup
Traditional Chinese Name: 章魚幹蓮藕雞湯 (zhāng yú gàn liánǒu jī tāng)
Introduction:
This is a simple, easy-to-make soup that doesn’t require many ingredients. It’s a heavy sweet (not a light sweet) and appropriate for spring weather. This soup is quite neutral and ideal for children and adults. The dried octopus & dried mussels do give the soup a little bit of a “fishy” taste if you put too much, but use less if you’re concerned. It’s a similar taste to dried conpoy almost. A naturally delicious soup for the whole family.
A bean-filled vegetarian soup that packs a punch in proteins. With seven different types of “beans”, it is a hearty meal that is easy to make and light to drink. By adding a Japanese pumpkin, it makes it slightly sweet and refreshing. The soup itself is very clear and slightly sweet. You can also add other vegetables such as corn, carrots, and onions to make it an even heartier broth.
