Papaya, Snow Fungus and Red Dates in Pork Broth
Tea Name:
Papaya, Snow Fungus and Red Dates in Pork Broth
Chinese Name:
木瓜雪耳豬展湯 (mù gua xuě ěr zhū zhǎn tāng)
Nature: Warm and ideal for moisturizing the body and lungs, supporting digestion and soothing the stomach.
Taste: Sweet
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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.
What makes this soup 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.
So, because we live in a flat (or condo or apt) and my family loves it hot (and dry), the heat’s been up since spring still feels like winter (in the western hemisphere)! My daughter also complained of a faint stomachache, so I decided to make this easy to digest, simple, delicious, and internally healing and moisturizing soup as part of dinner.
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 1 hour 30 mins
Total time: 1 hour 45 mins
Serves: 8 bowls of soup
- 1 pound fresh pork shank
- 2 large fresh papaya, cubed
- 2 whole dried snow fungus, cored and quartered
- 10 pitted red dates
- 2 L of water
- Rinse and soak dried snow fungus in a bowl of enough water to immerse it in for about an hour (or until soft)
- In a separate pot of boiling water, blanch pork shank for 5 minutes, set aside and cool
- Boil your soup water
- Wash and cut papaya into large edible cubes
- Using scissors, cut out the middle of the snow fungus (the hardest part) and cut the other portions into edibles pieces
- When your soup water boils, add pork shank, snow fungus, papaya and dates
- Boil on high for 30 minutes and reduce to medium heat for another hour
- Serve and enjoy!
Tips and tricks:
- Here’s a quick video on how to prepare snow fungus for Chinese soups
- Be sure to cut out the hard middle, or buy snow fungus that doesn’t have the middle and is broken up
- I like to use red papaya instead of green papaya for this version (green is more traditionally known to support milk production in post partum Chinese soups)
- You can opt to keep the skin on the papaya during soup boil so it doesn’t disintegrate and break down into the soup
- Snow fungus cooks and softens quite quickly. Depending on how soft you’d like it, you can drop it in about 30 minutes before you serve, although I like it super soft and some of it dissolved into the soup (for that collagen benefit), so I drop it along with all the other ingredients.
Hi. Do I need to add any salt for this soup?
Hi Samantha, no, no salt is needed. I normally don’t add salt to any of my soups. Keeping it natural! 🙂 Lisa
Hi Lisa! I really love your recipes! Out of curiosity, do you know what are the nutritional benefits of red dates? Thanks :]
Dear Joyce,
All I’ve heard from my mother-in-law, my mother and the vendors is that red dates are great for your eyes. It’s like an urban myth, but if you google it, it does say that that is true. Hope this helps! Lisa
Hi is there any chineese herbs besides the realy woody ones that you should not eat i have made a few tonic soups except for a few i know you can eat bean throwing out after straing
are red dates considered a “hot” item?
great soup.
Can I eat snow fungus while breastfeeding? Thanks.
Dear Christine, yes you can have snow fungus while breastfeeding. It’s a neutral ingredient and is primarily known for its collagen-like benefits. Hope this helps and congrats! Lisa