We literally served this one-pot meal in the middle of the table with bowls and chopsticks and chowed down!

Ingredients

Soup base:

• 1 piece of chicken thigh (marinade is soy sauce, white pepper, sesame oil) – be a chef… use any proportions that make sense :) 
• 1 pack of dried green bean (mung bean) vermicelli
• 1 fresh white radish, thinly sliced
• 2 potatoes, thinly sliced
• Mix of fresh green vegetables (I used, baby napa cabbage, cabbage, broccoli)
• fresh green onions
• 5 dried red dates
• 5 dried longans
• 2 L of water

Cooking Instructions

1. In a bowl, take out your dried green bean vermicelli and add in cold water, ensuring it’s completely covered and let it soak (to soften)
2. Cut your chicken thigh into one-inch strips and marinade with soy sauce, white pepper, and sesame oil (I eyeballed the proportions but used about 1 teaspoon of soy, half a teaspoon of white pepper, and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil)
3. In your soup pot, add 1 teaspoon of oil on medium heat and panfry your chicken thighs until they are golden brown
4. Add in your peeled and thinly sliced potatoes into the pot, panfrying the sides until they are golden
5. Add in 2L of water to your pot
6. Cover and let it come to a boil on high heat
7. Reduce heat and add in the sliced white radish, dried red dates, and dried longans
8. Cover and let that gently boil for 45 minutes
9. In the final 15 minutes, add in your softened green bean vermicelli and all the vegetables into the pot covered
10. Everything should be nicely softened and ready to eat!
11. Your choice now to add other ingredients (like you would with hotpot).  In this case, I added fresh chicken meat (thinly sliced), random selection of fish balls.
12. Garnish with fresh green onions
13. Serve and enjoy!

Tips for making this soup:

• For a more neutral soup, use neutral vegetables (both in nature and in taste) such as leafy greens like napa cabbage, cabbage, broccoli, gai lan, choy sum
• Vegetables such as watercress are more cooling and spinach as a particular unique taste that may throw off the soup
• Add in a few Chinese herbs of choice that are slightly more warm (such as dried red dates, dried longans, even 1 piece of dong quai would be amazing!)
• Chop your root vegetables thin like the potatoes and white radish.  It makes it easier to cook and eat.  This is literally a quick boil soup!  So you want your ingredients to cook quickly and thoroughly.
• Get creative with the vegetable base!
• Vermicelli and vegetables go last.  They cook really fast!

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• The ultimate Parent’s Guide to Making Chinese soups for children – learn TCM concepts, which informs soup design, and base recipes, along with an ingredient tracker.