How to make vegetarian green and white radish carrot Chinese herbal soup packs
Tea Name: Vegetarian Green and White Radish and Carrots Chinese Herbal Soup Packs
Traditional Chinese Name: 紅青蘿蔔湯 (hóng qing luóbo tang). Literal translation is “red pale radish soup”. The red means the carrots (usually), the pale means the green radish (usually), but I’ve also added white radish into this vegetarian creation.
Nature: Slightly cooling
Taste: Sweet and slightly bitter. The bitter after tones are so slight and come from the dried tangerine peels, dried raw barley, and the radishes. This is offset by the sweet herbs that include red date and dried longans and the carrots.
(You can read this article on the impact on your body of different food tastes!)
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I did my first LIVE production (on Instagram).
You can watch the full soup pack production here.
The design of this soup is for the spring time, to eliminate toxins and liquid from the body. This is aided by the dried raw barley (which is a diuretic) and the dried tangerine peel.
The soup packs are designed for 3-4 bowls and are meant to fit into a small pot or a 5 cup rice cooker. I am using a Zojirushi 1L rice cooker that has a host of functions and I just press “cook rice” and it does it thing for an hour and then I have a delicious, healthy, ready-to-serve Chinese soup for dinner!
The business case for making frozen soup packs in bulk!
This use case continues to amaze me! Literally, this morning, I was like “I feel like soup” and I took out another one of these soup packs (this one to be precise because I made extra for me and my pescatarian friend) and tossed it into the rice cooker, topped up with water, added a few red dates and an hour later, had soup ready for lunch and dinner.
To start, I did a survey when I first initially created these for friends and the time saving is phenomenal.
On average, it takes someone 2-3 hours of time to make a Chinese soup (beginning to end with checking). Compared to using frozen premade soup packs using a rice cooker, it takes 5 minutes of work (and then 60 mins of no supervision) with an upfront investment of 2-3 hours to make 6 soup packs. So on average, you are saving 14 hours of time over 6 soups. The math isn’t perfect, but this was my best estimate based on answers from friends. That’s HUGE!
What’s involved?
Prep time: 45 mins
Cook time: 0 mins
Total time: 45 mins
Serves: 3-4 bowls x 5 soup packs
Ingredients
This is for 5 x soup packs:
- 2 medium sized fresh green radishes
- 1 medium sized fresh white radish
- 5 small carrots (1 each)
- 4 x 5 dried red dates
- 4 x 5 dried longans
- 5 dried small tangerine peels (1 inch in length)
- 2 x 5 teaspoons of dried raw barley (or fried barley works)
- 3 x 5 tablespoons of roasted cashews (salted or unsalted is fine)
You’ll also need:
Prep Instructions
- You can follow along in the YouTube video as well.
- Peel and chop all your vegetables. I tend to peel my radishes deeper as the skin is quite tough and thick and unpleasant to eat. I’ll chop the pieces quite small, about 1-inch cubes so that they boil quick and can fit into my rice cooker or smaller soup pot. I’ve had friends who also have used instapots for this recipe!
- Count out your Chinese herbs.
- I’ll then pack each soup pack starting with the vegetables first, green radish and white radish on the bottom and then layer the carrots around then finally the Chinese herbs into vacant spaces.
- Be sure to leave at least 2-inches from the top of where you’d like to seal. You can cut the bag as well to ensure it’s fit to size.
- Don’t forget to label the soup with the date of production. I’ll normally do this with a permanent market.
- Insert into your soup bag into the vacuum sealer and seal! TA-DA!
- Immediately put them into the freezer.
- When making this, simply take out of the freezer, cut open the soup pack, drop into a rice cooker, instapot, or small pot. Fill waterline to max. Press cook rice (usually 60 minutes) and wait until it’s finished. Serve and enjoy.
Tricks and tips on prepping frozen Chinese soup packs
- You can follow this YouTube video on “How to make frozen Chinese soup packs”
- Cut your ingredients smaller so that it will fit into a rice cooker (or small pot or instapot)
- Fully wash, cut, and blanch all meats so that they can drop directly into the soup
- Pack the largest ingredients on the bottom of the pack, working your way up to the smallest (I’ll typically put meats on the bottom)
- Consider what ingredients are best for frozen conditions. This is usually roots, melons, starchier vegetables (like broccoli, cauliflower). I don’t use leafy vegetables that often in these types of soups, although now that I think about it, would love to try a watercress and see how that freezes!
- Prepare these packs for 3-4 bowls worth (also depends on the size of the rice cooker)
- Write the date of production with a permanent market so that you know when it was produced, especially if you have a selection in the freezer.
- Always reserve at least 2-inches at the top of soup pack before you seal to allow for more room to make the seal
- Use a wet + dry vacuum sealer if you intend to use some of the juice or water reserves (such as coconut water, which is delicious and sweet!)
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EQUIPMENT USED FOR MAKING FROZEN SOUP PACKS
I get this question a lot, especially as I am now making more clips of these soup packs as showcased above. The real additional equipment you’ll need is the vacuum sealer and bags. You can most certainly boil these in pots as well. I would love to hear your comments on how this is going and how you’re finding the different equipment. My house has now turned into a soup factory – literally! LOL.
Start with a low cost option that also comes with a few pre-sealed bags. You really don’t need anything fancy to do this job!
These come in handy especially as you finish the ones that come with the starter kit. And I tend to give a lot of my soup packs to friends! HOORAY!
I get this question a lot about which rice cooker I am using. It is a 1 L (5 cups) one that I use in both HK and Toronto. Amazing product!
Amazing product in both usability and durability. Comes in many colours! I’ve used this to ladle congee into freezer bags – highly recommend it! To freeze congee in bulk.
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