Soup Name: Chinese Sweet Potato & Ginger Soup Dessert
Traditional Chinese Name: 蕃薯糖水 (gān shǔ táng shuǐ)
Introduction:
This sweet dessert is traditional to Hong Kong and the Chinese. Literally, in Cantonese it means “Sweet Potatoe Sugar Water”. The simplest form of it is found here, although variations can have different herbs and ingredients that make it far more unique. It is a warm and heaty dessert (especially if you use more ginger) and said to be extremely nourishing and helps removes toxins. I enjoy this dessert all year round and my children especially love it. Keep the sugar and ginger content low if intended for children.
What Ingredients are required?
2-3 medium sized sweet potatoes (can use any variety of sweet potatoes)
3-4 thin slices of ginger
Chinese brown sugar (in bar shaped)
2 Litres of water
How do I prepare it?
- Start boiling your water
- Peel the sweet potatoes and cut into edible cubes
- Slice ginger thinly (with or without skin)
- Add all ingredients to boiling water
- Boil until sweet potatoes are soft
- Serve!
Any benefits?
- This sweet soup is a great dessert and snack – especially for children.
- Helps warm up the body in the cold winter days and is considered a thirst quencher.
- High source of beta-carotene and natural sugars.
Any precautions?
- Too much ginger makes the soup spicy, which children tend to not like.
Lady Tong, this sweet soup is definitely a killer. Thanks a lot for the recipe.
This soup is so easy to make,every body ( including kids) love it.
I love it..
maybe u can add in pandan leafs (fragrant leaf) and add some sago..
yummi..
Ceylene, that is a GREAT idea!! Will consider making this version – have yet to make something with sago – probably coconut milk based. THanks for the recommendation and stay tuned! Lisa
Ceylene,
Which step of the recipe is best to add sago?! At the same time with the sweet potato or later after all the ingredients have been added?!
Thanks!
How much brown sugar should be used? (And could regular, loose brown sugar be used?)
Dear Lill,
Any type of brown sugar can be used – in fact, even white sugar, but it doesn’t taste as rich. I would use a 1-2 tablespoons as a start and then adjust accordingly to taste thereafter. You can either add more sugar or water as well. Hope this helps! Lisa
Cutting sweet potato with a cracking action i.e make a small cut then force the root to open, this would create uneven surface and the sweetness from potato will release into the soup and the soup will not be clear, yummy!!
Also adding some longan meat after the soup is done-off fire will add aroma to the soup.
Enjoy
Ah..one more for share: use the back of your knief to smash ginger instead of slicing, more ginger goodness/oil from ginger will go into the soup. Leaving the ginger skin on for more nutrients.
I love using the purple sweet potato and see the soup turn purple with lots of sediments.
Purple sweet potato is very sweet and firm compare to the golden and the white sweet potato, it is more ‘Q’ so the potato is still sweet after it is cooked.
I used this recipe but did not add any type of sugar at all. The sweetness of the potatoes was good enough for us (and healthier too).
I used a slow cooker (2 hours on high).
Dear J, thanks for sharing! That’s definitely an option if it’s sweet enough! Depending on the yam, some are definitely sweeter than others! Lisa
Hi! Can i know how much in grams (approximately) for the sweet potatoes? Thanks!
Hello Jolene, I actually just go with size of sweet potato. Let me cook tomorrow as it’s winter here and will let you know. However, these are one of those that you just go by what you feel. Some people LOVE more soup, so will have less potatoes, and some love to eat just the potatoes. I prefer more soup, so I usually just have more soup. I’d portion it to be around 1 fist-sized sweet potato per person per serving. Hope this helps! Lisa