Making a Delicious Lotus Root with Vegetables in Pork Broth Chinese Soup (with Roasted Fresh Peanuts!)
Soup Name:
Making a Delicious Lotus Root with Vegetables in Pork Broth Chinese Soup (with Roasted Fresh Peanuts!)
Traditional Chinese Name:
蓮藕豬骨湯 (Lián’ǒu zhū gǔ tāng)
Nature: Neutral
Taste: Sweet
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For this post, I made 6 x 2 person portions (freezing them in packs and giving some to friends). I didn’t really make a pot that big. LOL.
You’ll see in the image that they fit neatly into 6 packs, which are vacuum sealed and frozen. That means the it’s literally a take-out-and-drop soup. NO WORK needed! I’ve even prepped and blanched the meat so it comes clean into the soup.
I used a frozen pack the other day and it was AMAZING. Literally 2 minutes of work for me first thing in the morning before my meetings. I dropped the whole frozen pack into my rice cooker, added water to the max water line, and pressed COOK RICE. That means, I had a delicious hearty soup ready for lunch, which I had with rice. It was PERFECT!
This is a great, earthy, slightly nutty light soup great for the whole family!
I know, I went a bit crazy on the portions, but stay with me 🙂 I actually made extra to freeze (and give to friends)! Each packs are made in 2 person portions and I actually tried one in the rice cooker and it was AMAZING! I know each device is different, so the rice cooker I’m using is a Zojirushi one, which is fantastic. I’ve been using this brand from Hong Kong and has to rebuy in Canada.
This soup is easy to make and with common ingredients. Lotus roots are very accessible in Canada and Hong Kong and make for an amazing meal as part of the soup with the hearty vegetables and pork ribs.
What’s involved?
Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 60 minutes (in rice cooker)
Total time: 90 mins
Serves: 4 bowls (2 people portion)
Ingredients
10 pieces of pork back ribs, cut into individual pieces
- 1 small lotus root, peeled and sliced
- 3/4 fresh corn
- 1 fresh small carrot, peeled, sliced
- 5 pieces of whole dried scallops (or equivalent shredded scallops works)
- 2 dried dates
- 3 dried shiitake mushrooms
- 2 tablespoons of fresh peanuts, shelled, and pan fried (or roasted with a pinch of salt)
- 7 cups of water (max line in my rice cooker)
Cooking Instructions
- I will first pre-soak the dried mushrooms to allow them rehydrate
- Cut and wash your pork ribs
- In a small pot of cold water with a teaspoon of salt (to lower the boiling point), add your ribs to blanch and set to a high boil. Once that boils, you can remove the pork bones
- Drain the pork ribs and rinse one more time with cool water to get rid of any debris, bones, or foam
- Peel and slice your lotus roots
- Peel and slice your carrots
- Cut your corn into bite-sized portions
- Using the flat side of a butcher’s knife, gently crack the peanuts and remove the fresh peanuts from the shell
- In a shallow pan with a little bit of oil, pan fry the peanuts with a pinch of salt until golden brown on medium heat
- Optional to fry the rehydrated shiitake mushrooms at this point with the peanuts
- In your soup pot add all the ingredients together and bring to a boil covered. Once that boils, reduce heat and let it simmer for another 60 minutes covered. Or you can try to use a rice cooker, which worked amazing for me!
- Serve and enjoy!
Tips for making this soup:
- Use fresh lotus roots. You’ll know they’re fresh when they are super crunchy and as you cut through it, it’s pale and looks clean. Be sure to wash thoroughly as lotus roots do have a lot of mud as they are grown under water.
- Buy fresh peanuts (available from Asian supermarkets). This takes a bit of work to process, but produces deeper, darker flavours versus using pre-processed roasted peanuts (which tend to be pretty salty). But both work just as great!
- Pan frying mushrooms ahead of time really brings out the flavour of the dried shiitake mushrooms.
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