I simply love snow fungus!  And this combination is a beautiful one in that at times, you’ll find this a dessert and other times, a soup!  I know, super strange.  But the combination of papaya + snow fungus can swing both sweet and savory! Which makes it so amazingly diverse!

What makes this combination so amazing?  It’s a combination of nourishing and lubricating the lung, stomach, and spleen with the papaya and the snow fungus.  This soup can soothe and aid in digestion, heal the stomach and stomachaches, and support lung treatment in coughs and dryness.  And of course, the added benefits of the plant collagen that is found in snow fungus (which, by the way can hold 500 times its weight in water!).  Reference this interesting article in the National Library of Medicine regarding snow fungus and its composition of collagen.

This is an easy to make, nutritious soup that is packed full of Vitamin C and beta-carotene. It is deliciously sweet and refreshing and ideal for autumn or winter days. You can use chicken to make it more warm and also add a variety of other ingredients to make it a meal.

Regardless of weather, this soup is designed to be moisturizing (from the inside) and perfect if you’ve got dry skin, dry lips, dry tongue (this is one key indicator from a TCM perspective).  In fact, some Chinese people claim that it’s part of their skin care regime to be consuming foods of this nature.  Bird’s nest is another one of those delicacies that call into this category of “self care”.  And you will often here Chinese ladies (and mothers) tell you how great this recipe is to stay looking “young”!

• 1 pound fresh pork bones (any type)
• 1 large fresh papaya, cubed
• 2 whole dried snow fungus, cored and quartered
• 15 (or 33 g) pitted red dates
• 33 g of dried Chinese yam
• 15 g of dried scallops
• 2 L of water

1. Rinse and soak dried snow fungus in a bowl of enough water to immerse it in for about an hour (or until soft)
2. In a separate pot of boiling water, blanch pork bones for 5 minutes, set aside and cool
3. Boil your soup water
4. Wash and cut papaya into large edible cubes
5. Using scissors, cut out the middle of the snow fungus (the hardest part) and cut the other portions into edibles pieces
6. When your soup water boils, add in the pork bones, papaya and Chinese herbs.  I made this soup in the morning and set it into the thermal pot for the whole day, coming back to the soup in the afternoon and then dropping in the snow fungus to cook for another 2 hours.  Depending on how soft you want the snow fungus, I’d say at least an hour.
7. Boil on high for 30 minutes and reduce to medium heat for another hour
8. Serve and enjoy!