The Chinese believes Winter Melon has cooling effect on our body. When purchase, should look for those covered with white frosts (you just cannot wash it away).

This soup is one very good alternative for vegetarian:

INGREDIENT
100g black beans
100g black eye beans (眉豆)
600g winter melon
8 dried black mushrooms
2 candied dates (密枣)
1/4 dried tangerine peel

METHOD
1. Wash black beans and soak for 1 hour.
2. Wash black eye beans and soak for 30 min.
3. Wash winter melon, remove pith, and cut into chunks together with the skin.
4. Wash mushrooms and soak until soft – throw away the soaking water.
5. Wash candied dates and tangerine peel. Soak tangerine peel until soft and remove pith.
6. Bring 1.5L water to the boil, together with the tangerine peel.
7. Add in all ingredients and bring to the boil again. Reduce to low heat and cook for 2 hours. Season with salt and serve.

This is a soup that is said, to be effective in improving qi and provides energy. Well, to be honest, I don’t quite care about the effects, as long as it is tasty then I love it! And I like Chinese herbal soups too! Here is the Huang Qi (Astralagus) and Dang Shen (Codonopsis Pilosulae Radix):

INGREDIENTS
15g huang qi (黄芪)
30g dang shen (党参)
1 tbsp wolfberries/geizi (杞子)
30g Chinese yam (淮山)
30g fu ling (茯苓)
1 kampong chicken or faux meat for vegetarian
3 slices of ginger
2 dried scallops
Some salt for seasoning

METHOD
1. Put all Chinese herbs in 3.5L of hot water, bring to the boil.
2. Add in chicken, scallops and ginger, reduce to low heat and cook for 4 hours.
3. Season with salt and serve hot.

This Burdock Soup is very tasty, with all natural taste, and I didn’t add any salt it was already so tasty. Of course, I know, the faux meat is already salted. LOL! Oh, if you are not vegetarian, you can use beef, chicken or pork instead.

Just to re-emphasize, burdock is a very good food. It regulates blood circulation, prevents high blood pressure, heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, stroke and lowers blood sugar. It is also believed to prevent cancer related disease. You can also cut this into thin slices and stir fry with other veggie to eat.

INGREDIENT
1/2 burdock (choose the thick ones)
1 carrot
1 corn
4-5 dried scallops (or 2 only if yours is big)
Some Faux meat (approx 200g)
1 tbsp QiZi (杞子)

METHOD
1. Put all ingredients into 3.5L of water, bring to boil.
2. Turn to slow heat and continue to cook for 4 hours.
3. Season with salt if you like.

Note: If you cook with conventional gas stove, then you need 3.5L water. I cook with induction cooker on power 3, I only use 2L or it will be too ‘watery’.

Since I rejected meat, I have been starving from nice soups. MIL and Mom think boiling soup must use chicken bones or pork ribs, or it will not be nice.

I found a recipe book on vegetarian soups. They are surprisingly delicious. That’s why I have been boiling a lot since early this year. I don’t really use any faux meat like many would guess. Natural vegetable ingredients can make soup even more delicious than meat based soup. And here is one example: Black Eye Beans and Peanuts Soup with Potatoes (马铃薯眉豆花生汤):

INGREDIENTS
100g black eye beans (眉豆)
100g peanuts
500g potatoes
6 red dates
2 slices ginger
1/4 dried tangerine peel
[You may add 6-8 dried oyster if you are not vegetarian]

METHOD
1. Wash peanuts and soak for 2 hours.
2. Wash black eye beans and soak for 30 min.
3. Peel potatoes and cut into chunks.
4. Wash and core red dates.
5. Soak dried tangerine peel until soft and remove pith.
6. Bring 1.5L water with dried tangerine peel to the boil. Add all other ingredients and bring to the boil again. Reduce to low heat and continue cooking for 2 hours.

Again, without any seasonings, this soup is very delicious. You may add some salt if you like.

Tell you what… this is the best-est soup I have made so far. Happened that my in-laws were here for dinner when I made this soup. Father-in-law keep saying that it was delicious.

Then DH came home without much appetite. He didn’t eat much, but he told me the soup was very nice.

Here comes the red radish, tomatoes and apples soup!

Well, I was supposed to use beetroot instead of red radish, but I bought the wrong one. Turned out it was okay and I am happy!

INGREDIENTS
1 large red radish
2 tomatoes
2 red apples
1 corn cut
2 stalks celery
2 potatoes
2 slices ginger

METHOD
1. Peel the skin of red radish, potatoes, tomatoes and cut into pieces.
2. Wash apples, remove core and cut into pieces (keep the skin).
3. Wash and cut celery into pieces.
4. Remove corn leaves, wash and cut into 3 chunks.
5. Bring 1.5L water to boil. Add all the ingredients and bring to boil again.
6. Reduce to low heat and cook for 2.5 hours.

I did not add any seasonings, and it tasted so well. I think you should not add any salt to help reducing sodium intake. It is so good that, if you add, it might even spoil the soup.

The other day when I boiled the Chinese Burdock (Cobo) soup, I used only half of the very large radish. Trying to clear my fridge, I took out whatever ingredients left from previous cooking and made this pot of soup. This can be made vegan if you omit the dried mussels – it tastes equally good (I added because I wanted to eat it!).

Ingredients
1 corn cut into 3 segments
1 medium radish or half a large one, cut into large pieces
1 tomato wedged
2 stalks of celery, cut into chunks
1/2 carrot, cut to chunks
1 pc (150gm) pumpkin sliced
6-8 dried mussels, washed and soaked (can be obmitted to turn this into vegetarian soup)

Method
1. Bring 1.5L water to the boil.
2. Put in all ingredients and bring to the boil again.
3. Turn to low heat and boil for 2 hours.

If you like, you may add some salt to taste, but my family prefers it this way without seasonings. The soup is very tasty with natural sweetness. Again, Isabel gobbled up the corn!

I have been wanting to cook this dish since before CNY. But since I wanted to make my own dried cabbages, it took me so long to be able to make it!

Ya, I made my own dried cabbages, but I think you better buy them from the market. A lot easier and faster! :p

Well, to be honest, I think this soup is a failure. I think I used too much dried cabbages and too much of luohanguo (罗汉果). The soup became too dark and too thick. The taste isn’t that pleasant so I seasoned with some salt, and I ended up dislike the salt taste (been liking the natural un-salted soups all these while!).

Will share the recipe only when I get it right next time. :p

I read about Burdock somewhere, that it is a ‘heath’ food for Chinese, used to remove toxins from body as well as to prevent cancer. I finally saw it in Tesco, and apparently it is widely sold in the market. I just didn’t pay any attention to it before.

I used it, together with some coriander, pumpkin and carrots, and made this soup. This is a vegan recipe. For more savory or ‘meaty’ result, you may add in chicken or beef chunks.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 stalk burdock (roughly 250g)
4 stalks coriander
600g pumpkin
1 large carrots (or 2 medium)
1 tbsp QiZi (杞子)
4 red dates

METHOD
1. Wash burdock, peel and cut into chunks.
2. wash and drain coriander.
3. Remove pumpkin skin and pith. Cut into chunks.
4. Peel carrot and cut into chunks.
5. Rinse red dates and core. Rinse QiZi.
6. Boil 1.5L water. Put in all ingredients. Boil over high heat for 30 min. Reduce to low heat and continue cooking for 1 hour. Season with salt and serve.

I love drinking soup. But because I don’t eat meat/chicken any more, MIL/Mother stopped making soup. Or, if they make soup using pork/chicken, I can’t drink.

Finally, after moving to my own house, I started cooking and I found this recipe in MPH, that gives many creative ideas to make Vegetarian Chinese Soups. You just won’t believe how yummy they are, even without meat!!

Here is Zhu Sheng, Lotus Roots and Dried Black Mushrooms Soup/ 竹笙莲藕冬菇汤. ZhuSheng is a type of mushroom, I heard it grows around bamboo area. It looks and tastes like fishmaw.

Ingredients
1oz Zhu Sheng (1/3 pack)
8 dried shitake mushrooms
600g lotus roots (roughly 1 large, or 3 small)
100g red kidney beans or peanuts
1/4 dried tangerine peel

Method
1. Soak and wash ZhuSheng until soft and does not smell acidic. Scald, rinse and drain it.
2. Soak dried mushrooms until soft. Rinse and drain.
3. Wash lotus roots, remove skin and cut into large pieces.
4. Wash beans/peanuts and soak for 1-2 hours.
5. Soak dried tangerine peel until soft and remove pith.
6. Boil 1.5L water together with tangerine peel.
7. Add all other ingredients and bring to boil again. Reduce to low heat and cook for 2 hours.
8. If you prefer, season with salt (I prefer without).

Will cover in next post, how to turn the lotus root in this soup into another dish. Yes, turned it into a very yummy appetizer!!

Before I stop taking meat, making carrots soup is so common – just add those pork ribs and carrots and a lot of onions. Now, it is harder, because if only use carrots without pork ribs, the taste may be too plain.

To bring up more flavour, we need to add in other ingredients which are not common in non-vegetarian soups. In this recipe, the book uses some almonds, which is actually very good for lungs.

Ingredients
1 medium size white radish
2 regular size carrots
4 pieces of vegetarian chicken (or a handful of dried mussles for non-vegetarian)
4 tbsp of sweet (south) almonds (南杏)
1 tbsp of bitter (north) almonds (北杏)
2 candied dates (蜜枣)
1/4 dried tangerine peel (陈皮)

Method
1. Peel radish and carrots. Cut into large pieces.
2. Wash and drain vegetarian chicken (if using mussles, soak for a while).
3. Bring 1.5L water to the boil together with dried tangerine peel.
4. Add in other ingredients and bring to boil again.
5. Reduce to low heat, continue cooking for 2 hours.
6. Season with salt if prefer (don’t think necessary).