My parents came home last night from a cruise from Italy and are jet lagging and there’s nothing more warming, homecoming, and beautiful than a familiar Chinese soup waiting for them!
I made an easy green radish, carrots, and corn pork herbal broth. The trick to this soup is to really let it boil out. I made it early morning and then pretty much let it sit in the thermal pot all day until dinner.
TIP: This soup actually tastes even better left overnight! Don’t forget to boil it before you sleep and don’t open the lid or cover (this will ensure that everything is killed off and isn’t reintroduced, this is how they manufacture canned food and soups in large scale!). Re-boil the next day and you can still drink it.
Traditionally in the Cantonese soup repertoire, this green radish and carrot soup is cooling and often recommended if you’re feeling heaty, want to cool the body, or it’s hot and humid in the summer and autumn months.
It is also commonly found as a dinner soup, where restaurants will serve it at the beginning of the meal known as “lai tong” (or aka, free soup). You’ll find the bits of carrots and green radish chopped up and along with pork (or chicken).
Boil both your soup water (3L) and another pot to blanch the pork bones in (enough to cover all the bones)
Once your blanching water boils, gently drop in the pork bones and boil on high for 5-7 minutes, until the brown foam begins to form on top of the water. You can turn off the stove at this time.
Prepare your vegetables by peeling and chopping into large bite-sizes
Once your soup water boils, transfer the pork bones to your soup pot. You can either rinse them gently in the water, or do a water rinse under warm water to remove all the debris and foam stuck to the pork bones
Drop in all the ingredients (herbs + vegetables) together
Cover and boil on high for 30 minutes
Transfer to a thermal pot for at least 2-3 hours
Re-boil for 10 minutes prior to serving
If you’d like to quick boil this faster, I’d suggest cutting up the pieces smaller, almost cubed.
Be sure to also buy fresh, firm green radish. You’ll know they’re fresh because they are super hard to touch and you can’t really squeeze them. When they get soft, squishy (but not leaky), they’re already drying out and aging.
This combination of green radish and carrots are amazingly delicious! Some people will also add white radishes, which makes the soup even more cooling, and corn is also a nice addition! Enjoy!
Q&A
A huge thank you to my Instagram community for the questions as they also hugely benefit other readers who may be thinking the same thing!
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Traditionally in the Cantonese soup repertoire, this green radish and carrot soup is cooling and often recommended if you’re feeling heaty, want to cool the body, or it’s hot and humid in the summer and autumn months.
It is also commonly found as a dinner soup, where restaurants will serve it at the beginning of the meal known as “lai tong” (or aka, free soup). You’ll find the bits of carrots and green radish chopped up and along with pork (or chicken).
This soup is delicious, hearty, and tastes like home! My family often prepares this and my (grown) children will always ask for it when I ask them what kind of soup they want 🙂
What’s involved?
Prep time: 20 mins
Cook time: 2 hours
Total time: 2 hours and 20 mins
Serves: 6 bowls
Ingredients
3 pieces of boned chicken thighs, sliced, pan fried
2 fresh green radishes, quartered and in 1-inch thickness
Optionally slice up your chicken thighs, I do this so that it cooks faster and there are smaller pieces in the soup to be served
In a shallow pan, fry the chicken thighs under cooked and a lot of the skin and fat should render out
Peel and chop up your radish and carrots. I’m using a smaller cut this time around as I’m not boiling as long, but still want them relatively soft to be eaten
Once your soup boils, drop in the meats, chopped vegetables, and herbs
Cover and boil on medium heat for 2 hours
No salt needed, serve and enjoy!
If you’d like to quick boil this faster, I’d suggest cutting up the pieces smaller, almost cubed.
Be sure to also buy fresh, firm green radish. You’ll know they’re fresh because they are super hard to touch and you can’t really squeeze them. When they get soft, squishy (but not leaky), they’re already drying out and aging.
This combination of green radish and carrots are amazingly delicious! Some people will also add white radishes, which makes the soup even more cooling, and corn is also a nice addition! Enjoy!
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Soup Name: Delicious One Pot Vegetable Vermicelli Soup for Dinner. Literal translation from Chinese is "Mixed vegetables vermicelli pot soup". Traditional Chinese Name: 雜菜粉絲鍋湯 (zá cài fěnsī guō tāng) Nature: Neutral Taste: Sweet and savory For more videos, you...
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Another soup for the damp, wet spring season! You’ll find a recurring theme within Spring soups, mainly consisting of an assortment of beans and certain vegetables that are diuretic. This is a simple soup with a pretty strong “bean” taste – so use less beans if it’s for kids. Mine found it a bit too “beany” and didn’t really like it that much. Consider adding corn to sweeten it up, but the adults lapped it up. It’s an easy to drink soup that is excellent for our health during this time of the year, especially when it’s wet and humid. You can also use chayotes, onions and fish for variation.
In a small pot of boiling water, blanch your pork for 5 minutes. Scoop out and rinse of any excess foam.
Start boiling your soup water.
Prepare old cucumber and carrots. Keep the peel for the old cucumber to prevent disintegration.
Soak the dried tangerine peel in warm water for 5 minutes and with a sharp knife, scrape the outer peel (where it’s darker in color) to remove the outer layer of the skin (which is most bitter).
When you soup water boils, add all the ingredients together
Boil on high for 30 minutes and reduce to a medium boil for another 1.5 hours.
Salt to taste – enjoy!
Any benefits?
This soup is perfect for Spring or humid conditions when there is a lot of moisture in the body
It is great for clearing damp heat since it’s cooling in nature
Fit for the whole family, this soup eats like a meal!
To answer your questions on what equipment I'm using, I've built a section here where you can find and explore what I'm using to make soups. Ingredients are a little harder, but I will do my best as I source them around. However, you can always message me on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or Facebook, and I will reply and try to point you in some direction!
Soup Name: Hong Kong Styled Russian Borscht (with oxtail) Traditional Chinese Name: 羅宋湯 (luó sòng tāng) Nature: Warming Taste: Savory, sweet, and slightly sour For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube. Did you know the secret ingredient to an HK-styled...
Here are suggestions for replacement ingredients for peanuts in Chinese soupsOne guiding principle in Traditional Chinese Medicine is the yin yang theory. In the natural world, there exists a balance between 2 opposing and co-existing forces and yet, they also exist...
Soup Name: Healing Chinese Chicken Herbal Soup with Fish Maw Traditional Chinese Name: 花膠雞湯 (huā jiāo jī tāng) Nature: Warming Taste: Sweet and savory For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube. The star of this soup is FISH MAW. This takes collagen to the...
Soup Name: Delicious One Pot Vegetable Vermicelli Soup for Dinner. Literal translation from Chinese is "Mixed vegetables vermicelli pot soup". Traditional Chinese Name: 雜菜粉絲鍋湯 (zá cài fěnsī guō tāng) Nature: Neutral Taste: Sweet and savory For more videos, you...
Soup Name: ABC Chinese Soup in a collagen rich Salmon Broth (with Chicken Feet) Traditional Chinese Name: 雜菜蕃茄三文魚湯 (zá cài fānjiā sānwènyú tāng) Nature: Slightly cooling Taste: Sweet and savory For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube. Taking collagen to...
Soup Name: Hong Kong Styled Russian Borscht (with oxtail) Traditional Chinese Name: 羅宋湯 (luó sòng tāng) Nature: Warming Taste: Savory, sweet, and slightly sour For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube. Did you know the secret ingredient to an HK-styled...
Soup Name: ABC Chinese Soup in a collagen rich Salmon Broth (with Chicken Feet) Traditional Chinese Name: 雜菜蕃茄三文魚湯 (zá cài fānjiā sānwènyú tāng) Nature: Slightly cooling Taste: Sweet and savory For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube. Taking collagen to...
5 Tips for Exercising in the Cold (from a Traditional Chinese Medicine Perspective)One guiding principle in Traditional Chinese Medicine is the yin yang theory. In the natural world, there exists a balance between 2 opposing and co-existing forces and yet, they also...
Soup Name: Shrimp Congee with Fresh Yams and Lettuce Traditional Chinese Name: 蝦粥 (xiā zhōu) Nature: Neutral Taste: Sweet For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube. Want something easy? Want something delicious? This is the perfect lunch to make in 30 minutes...
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 For more videos, you can follow us on YouTube. For this post, I made 6...
This soup is an easy and sweet soup that is perfect to warm you up on a chilly autumn or winter’s day. Chicken is considered to be very nourishing (補) and can give your body a good kick of healthy heartiness (this is similarly recognized by Westerners who drink chicken noodle soup when sick). To sweeten the soup, red dates are added. We also suggest adding a palmful of wolfberries to boost the qi or “chi” which is ideal for cool weather. Carrots round out this simple yet delicious soup. You can see from the photo that this recipe results in a rich, deeply-colored broth and I can assure you, it’s tasty, too! (Yes, I’m drinking as I type this post.) Depending on whether you use a fresh, whole chicken or alternatives, the difficulty of creating this soup can vary from 1-star (from pre-washed and cut chicken with minimal preparation) to 4-star (whole chicken from scratch).
Amount serves: 6 to 8 soup bowls
What Ingredients are required?
1 fresh whole chicken, quartered 5 large, dried red dates (to taste depending on how sweet you like your soup to be) 10 g of dried wolfberries (small palm-ful) 2 large fresh carrots, sliced 2L of water
How do I prepare it?
Prepare the chicken
Wash and soak the dried wolfberries
Add red dates to your soup water and bring to a boil
When the water boils, combine all the ingredients together
Boil on medium-high for at least 1 hour
Any benefits?
A warm soup that is perfect for autumn or winter
Chicken is very nourishing (補) and creates a healthful soup
Red dates are an excellent source of Vitamin C
Red dates are also used in throat-soothing drinks
Wolfberries are high in antioxidants and contain 6 essential vitamins, Beta-Carotene, Calcium, Potassium, Iron and Zinc
Wolfberries are also known to enhance the qi or “chi” in your body
Any tips or precautions?
Whenever using real, whole chicken, it’s useful to have an oil scooper on hand to help scoop out the fat and any large or small particles that float to the top of your soup. I usually need to use the scoop two or three times — once after the soup is fully boiled and still hot and there is an abundance of oil floating on the top, then once again after the soup has cooled slightly and you have additional oil and particles that have had time to float to the surface, and usually once again upon re-heating (possibly the next day).
Feel free to drink the same soup the next day after re-boiling. I like to make an extra big pot and any that isn’t finished can be drank and finished off the next day.
This simple, clean and very sweet soup is great for people with sore throats or heaty bodies. You can actually drink it cold or hot and it’s ideal for all seasons. I’ve decided to go meatless because I wanted to drink it cool and it turned out fabulous. Fat free, oil free and made with all natural ingredients, it’s great for kids and adults alike.
Any benefits?
Meatless soup is great for vegetarians and is fat and oil free
