7 Basic Chinese Soup Pantry Ingredients

by LadyTong | Jan 4, 2022 | Featured Articles, Videos | 3 comments

7 Basic Chinese Soup Pantry Ingredients

What do you do when you move half way across the world?

Rebuild my Chinese soup pantry!

For more videos, visit us on YouTube.

Check out the video for what ingredients I used for my basic Chinese soup pantry ingredients. I keep these stocked all year round and constantly filled because that’s how useful they are! You’ll find at least 2 or 3 of these in each of my basic soup recipes! You can buy these at your local Chinese supermarkets or herbal shops.

For the all ingredients shown here:

Dried Red Dates

Dried Chinese Yam

Dried Longans

Dried Wolfberries

Dried Apricot Kernals

Large Dried Dates

Dried Scallops

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Winter melon

by LadyTong | Jan 5, 2009 | Ingredients | 0 comments

Winter melon

Ingredient Name:

Winter melon, white gourd, or ash gourd

Traditional Chinese Name:

冬瓜 (dōng guā)

For videos, visit us on YouTube.

The winter melon is actually a vine grown fruit that is eaten as a vegetable
The melon itself can grow to be very large, hitting 1-2 m in length and 30 pounds at full maturity, although smaller single serving of these melons are also available for double-boiling (which are super cute)
Both young and mature melons are used in Chinese soups
It is commonly used in dishes, stews, steamed and soups
People drink fresh melon juice
It is quite popular in Hong Kong to use baby winter melon (see picture below) in soups

How do I prepare it?

For the simple winter melon soup, you simply wash the melon, and cut into large cubes, keep the skin on so that melon doesn’t disintegrate, but this is up to you.
If you’re making the fancy winter melon soup, you will need to carve out the WHOLE melon and double boil it as a soup
For quick boil Chinese soups, I tend to peel and cut the melon into smaller cubes (for a faster boil)

Where can I buy it and cost?

You can purchase fresh winter melon at most Asian supermarkets – they will be cut into manageable sizes and packaged
In Hong Kong wet marts, you can purchase it by the weight, requesting the vendor to cut the amount you wish directly from the whole melon

Any benefits?

Winter melons are known to remove heatiness and helps detoxify the body
It is ideal in removing phelgm from the lungs
It is also particularly effective in regulating blood sugar levels
The winter melon skin can also be boiled/eaten for someone with heat stroke or edema due to heat

Any precautions?

Since it is a cooling food, it should be carefully consumed if pregnant (less than 3 months into term) or menstruating (can cause contractions)
If someone is experiencing diarrhea or loose stool, they should avoid consuming the winter melon seeds

Looking to build your basic Chinese Soup Pantry?

Check out this video to help you build your basic Chinese Soup kitchen pantry.