Wow, there’s definitely something going around lately!  As the seasons change from fall to winter, what happens is different pathogens show up and we can’t always adapt as quickly.  

In partnership with SouperWell, a Toronto-based hand-crafted Chinese soup provider, I made the PERFECT soup this weekend for my sick family.

Seriously, my kids got sick two weeks ago, I got sick last week, and finally my husband was lucky enough to get it.  This also included my nephews and other family members all passing something around and then colleagues and hospitals concerned about filling capacity.

Try this recovery healing Chinese soup to help nourish, strengthen, and loosen the congestion on the chest and lungs to help with breathing.

This soup is slightly cooling, sweet to taste, and designed to remove dampness from the body.  It’s perfect for those with phlegm, runny everything (nose, throat), and sore throats.  

The soup packet itself has all the basic ingredients you’ll need to address this and I added some protein, neutral vegetables, and my all-time favourite lung power herb, the dried snow fungus.

Dried contents (in the soup package):

• 2 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 3 pieces of dried Chinese yam
• 3 pieces of dried snow pears
• 1 dried fig
• 1 piece of dried conch
• 1 teaspoon of north and south apricot kernals
• 1 teaspoon of dried fried barley
• 8 dried longans

Additional ingredients:

• Fresh pork (anything), I used pork legs because of the marrow content
• frozen conch
• Neutral vegetables (I used 1 carrot and 1 corn)
• 1 large piece of dried snow fungus
• 3L of water

1. Soak the dried snow fungus in a large bowl of cool water to let it expand (so you can cut out the hard, unwanted middle) – you can watch this video here on how to prepare it
2. Soak the dried conch and dried mushrooms in another separate bowl of cool water to allow them to expand and soften as well
3. Boil 2 pots of water, your soup water and a separate blanching pot for the pork and frozen conch
4. While your soup water is still cold, add in the dried fig and dried snow pears.  This will ensure they don’t cook right away and allow the flavours to seep out as it warms. 
5. When your blanching water boils, add in the fresh pork bones and frozen conch
6. Boil this for 10 minutes or until the water boils again and you can see a layer of brown foam
7. Remove the pork bones and conch into a separate bowl, rinse under warm water to remove any excess foam and debris.  I’ll also scrub the conch to make sure it’s super clean as I usually serve this as a side dish
8. You can prepare your vegetables now, ensuring they are cut into bite-sized pieces
9. When your soup water boils, add all the ingredients into the pot (except the snow fungus)
10. Cover and boil on high heat for 30 minutes
11. You can then transfer your soup pot to it’s thermal holder (or continue to boil on low heat for another 2-3 hours)
12. 30 minutes before you serve, put the pot back on the burner on medium heat and add in the prepared snow fungus
13. Serve and enjoy!
14. You can remove the mushrooms and the conch from the soup, slice into small pieces, and serve as a side dish with soy sauce.  So yummy!