Spinach and Water Chestnuts in Chicken Broth

Spinach and Water Chestnuts in Chicken Broth

Spinach and Water Chestnuts in Chicken Broth

Soup Name:

Spinach and Water Chestnuts in Chicken Broth

Traditional Chinese Name:

菠菜馬蹄雞湯 (bō cài tāng mǎ tí jī tāng)

This soup is slightly cooling in nature and sweet to taste.

 

For videos, visit us on YouTube.

This is a variation on a restaurant-styled spinach soup I had at a Chinese restaurant. In their version, the spinach was less dense and more coarse and it was called a “gung” in Cantonese – meaning a thick stew type of soup. I wanted something lighter, healthier for the kids and lighter on the corn starch, so kind of made this up. It turned out to be delicious and the water chestnuts added a refreshing and crunchy texture that I loved! For the vegetarian version, use vegetable broth instead.

What’s involved?

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 30 mins

Serves: 4-6 bowls

For videos, visit us on YouTube.

Benefits

  • This soup is extremely high in iron, calcium and antioxidants (that help kill free radicals and slow down the sign of aging).
  • It’s suitable for the whole family.
  • It’s an easy and quick soup that you can whip up in less than half an hour.

Ingredients
  • 3 cloves of fresh garlic, finely diced
  • 1/2 fresh white onion, finely chopped
  • 6 bunches of fresh spinach, chopped
  • 2 cups of chicken broth
  • 2 cups of water
  • 10 fresh water chestnuts, peeled
Cooking Instructions
  1. Finely chop both onions and garlic
  2. In your soup pot, add a teaspoon of cooking oil and fry garlic and onions until the onions are caramelized
  3. Throw in the chopped spinach and cook for another 5 minutes while continuously stirring
  4. Add in chicken broth and water
  5. Boil on medium for another 10 minutes (or until boiling)
  6. Remove from heat and using a hand blender, blend the soup until it runs smooth
  7. In a pot of hot water, boil the peeled water chestnuts for 5 minutes
  8. When ready, remove and finely chop the water chestnuts
  9. Sprinkle the water chestnuts on top of the soup and serve!

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Winter Melon and Beef and Fish Balls Soup

Winter Melon and Beef and Fish Balls Soup

Winter Melon and Beef and Fish Balls Soup

Soup Name:

Winter Melon and Beef and Fish Balls Soup

Chinese Name:

冬瓜湯 (dōng guā tāng)

 

For more videos, visit us on YouTube.

Another simple soup with a few ingredients you can pick up at your local grocery or wet mart. The winter melon is usually more readily available during the warmer months in HK, but beef and fish balls are in season all the time (yah, in the frozen section of your friendly supermarket). Use the simplest balls, that being beef and fish balls without any surprises on the inside (Taiwanese styled fish balls usually have exploding surprises, so avoid these). The flavors of the balls (mainly salt and whatever other marinades they use) will seep out and make your soup tasty, so don’t add salt unless you’ve tried it first. You can make this soup in about thirty minutes by simply throwing all the ingredients together. In this case, I separated the peel from the flesh so that the melon could soften quicker. In “old fire” wintermelon soups, I will keep the peel attached – but this is really up to personal preference.

What’s involved?

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 45 mins

Serves: 6 servings

Ingredients
  • 1 large slice of winter melon, sliced with skin off (but the peel is also boiled as part of the soup)
  • 10 precooked beef balls
  • 10 precooked fish balls
  • 2 L of water
Cooking Instructions
  1. Start boiling your soup water
  2. Wash the winter melon skin and then peel the skin off the winter melon and cube the remaining winter melon flesh
  3. Rinse the beef and fish balls in warm water
  4. When the water boils, throw all the ingredients together
  5. Boil on high for 30 minutes
  6. Serve and enjoy!

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Chicken Feet and Wintermelon Soup

Soup Name: Chicken Feet and Wintermelon Soup

Traditional Chinese Name:  冬瓜雞腳湯 (dōng guā jī jiǎo tāng)

Introduction:
The feet of the chicken are one of the Chinese’s most interesting “unwanted” parts of the chicken (after the bottom parts). It’s so versatile that the Chinese use chicken feet in soups, stews, dim sum and other dishes. I remember back in the days when I was a young lad that my parents would go to the Western super markets and get chicken feet by the bags for a whole dollar. It’s definitely not as cheap anymore because of the influx of demanding chicken feet eaters, but still an affordable, tasty and collagen packed ingredient. This wintermelon soup is simple to make and if you’re a single gal (or guy) you can make it in a one person pot. My husband really liked this soup and gobbled all the feet. Thanks for the clean up job, sweetie!

 

Amount serves: 5-6 large soup bowls (around 300 mL each)

What Ingredients are required?

10 fresh (or frozen) chicken feet
3 fresh corn, quartered
1 large slice of wintermelon, sliced with skin on
70g fresh gingo biloba
70g dried lotus seeds
1 slice of ginger
2 L of water

How do I prepare it?

  1. Soak the gingo biloba and lotus seed in warm water for 10 minutes
  2. Rinse and cut off the nails on your chicken feet
  3. In a small pot of boiling water, blanch your chicken feet for 5 minutes
  4. Remove chicken feet from boiling water, strain and set aside
  5. Boil your soup water
  6. When the soup boils, throw all the ingredients together
  7. Boil on high (covered) for 30 minutes, reduce to a medium boil for another 30 minutes (you can continue to boil or use a thermal cooker to keep it hot, as some people love their chicken feet super soft)
  8. Serve and enjoy!

Any benefits?

  • This soup is excellent for cooling down the body and heat from hot summer days
  • Chicken feet is an excellent source of collagen and is low in fat

Any precautions?

  • Women in their first trimester of pregnancy should avoid as it is an extremely cooling soup and may cause contractions (you can add more ginger slices to “heat” up the soup)
  • Melon soups are best consumed within same day as keeping melon soups overnight or over an extended period will make the melons sour (and so will your soup!)

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Dried and Fresh Bok Choy in Pork Broth

Dried and Fresh Bok Choy in Pork Broth

Dried and Fresh Bok Choy in Pork Broth

Tea Name:

Dried and Fresh Bok Choy in Pork Broth

Traditional Chinese Name:

菜乾白菜湯 (cài gān bái cài tāng)

This soup is cooling in nature and sweet to taste.

Visit us on YouTube for more tea and soup videos.

This cooling soup is really sweet and delicious! With a combination of dried and fresh bok choy, it’s a basic soup with minimal ingredients. You can adjust the “coolness” of the soup by adding more or less ginger, but it’s great to help fight off fever, a heaty body, an inflamed tongue, a mouth full of cold sores or canker sores. Really, no salt needed – just be sure to rinse and wash the dried bok choy super well, or you’ll have lots of added protein (the little flies that always seem to be embedded during the curing process!).

Bok choy is the cooling ingredient in this soup.  It’s one of the cooler ingredients relative to its cabbage cousins and targets the stomach and large intestines.  It’s also a great for clearing excess water and detoxifying the body, including aiding in digestion. 

Dried bok choy is more salty (and even sweet) relative to it’s fresh counterpart.  It’s actually super tasty and they have the same properties (even when dried!).

 

What’s involved?

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 1 hour 30 mins

Total time: 1 hour 45 mins

Serves: 6 bowls of soup

Ingredients

Cooking Instructions

  1. Blanch the pork shank in a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
  2. Soak the dried bok choy in warm water for 15 minutes
  3. Rinse the dried bok choy in running water 2-3 times (to remove the dried bugs that get embedded during the curing process)
  4. Boil you soup water
  5. When the water boils, add all the ingredients together
  6. Boil on high for about 30 minutes and set to medium boil (covered) for another hour
  7. Serve and enjoy!

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Watercress and Chestnuts in Roasted Pork Soup

Watercress and Chestnuts in Roasted Pork Soup

Watercress and Chestnuts in Roasted Pork Soup

Soup Name:

Watercress and Chestnuts in Roasted Pork Soup

Traditional Chinese Name:

西洋菜栗子燒豬湯 (xīyáng cài lì zi shāo zhū tāng)

 

Waste not! Want not! I’ve used the remains of a roasted piglet (from a banquet) to make a delicious watercress and chestnut soup. Usually, people don’t eat the head, feet and tail of the roasted piglet, so I took home the head! It creates a very rich, delicious broth and great as a soup base for almost any ingredients.

My vegetable vendor suggested watercress because of the recent change in weather and everyone was getting sore throats and was heaty.

Well, actually that’s because my sister is going through confinement, so all we eat is ginger pork feet and it sets our body on fire! Combined together with the roasted piglet head are chestnuts and dried scallops to bring a tang of sweetness to the already salty soup base. There are plenty of things around the house you can find as leftover for soups!

  • This soup is naturally flavored (slightly salty from the roasted piglet)
  • It is a great cooling soup for sore throats, heaty bodies and cold-sore ridden mouths (or acne)
  • Really,  no additives needed (salt or sugar)
  • Great for kids
  • The watercress can be eaten as cooked veggies, so scoop more with the soup (or some people like to scoop it all out and serve it as a separate dish)

What’s involved?

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 1 hour

Total time: 1 hours 15 mins

Serves: 4 bowls

Ingredients

Cooking Instructions

  1. Boil a small pot of water (for the chestnuts). When the water boils, add in the chestnuts to boil for 5 minutes
  2. If you can, immediately peel the chestnuts (as its easiest to peel when it’s still hot)
  3. Boil your soup water
  4. When you soup water boils, add in the roasted piglet head, peeled chestnuts, and conpoys
  5. Boil on medium-high heat for 1 hour
  6. Ten minutes before serving your soup, add in the watercress (or depending on how crunchy you like it, you can adjust the timing to cook the watercress)
  7. Serve and enjoy!

Bitter Melon and Preserved Sour Vegetable Soup

Soup Name: Bitter Melon and Preserved Sour Vegetable Soup (in Pork Broth)

Traditional Chinese Name:  苦瓜酸菜湯 (Kǔ guā suan cai tāng)

Introduction:
This soup is a delight of two tastes. The first is an appetizing sour taste and it finished off with a golden, rich, bitterness. It’s a unique soup that is designed for the bridging season of Summer and Autumn and helps cool the body and aid in digestion. If you like it more sour, you can add more preserved sour vegetable and if you like it more bitter, then more bitter melon. This soup also doesn’t really need salt as the preserved veggies are already salted.

 

What Ingredients are required?

500 g of pork shank
1 large fresh bitter melon, seeded and sliced
100 g of preserved/salted mustard greens, largely sliced (more if you want it more sour)
50 g of yellow beans

2 L of water


How do I prepare it?

  1. Start boiling your soup water
  2. Boil pork for 5 minutes in a separate pot of water to blanch it
  3. Drain pork and set aside
  4. When your soup water boils, all add the ingredients together
  5. Boil with a cover on medium heat for 1 hour
  6. Serve and enjoy!

Any benefits?

  • This soup is naturally flavored (slightly salty, sour and bitter)
  • It is a refreshing soup to drink when it’s particularly hotter
  • A great appetizer
  • This soup aids in digestion
  • The vegetarian version is to simply remove the meat and tastes just as great!

Any precautions?

  • It can be a bit cooling (due to the bitter melon), so if you’re concerned about cooling soups, take caution
  • Women on menstruation or first trimester of pregnancy should avoid too cooling soups as it causes potential contractions

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