My hubby’s been having backache for a few weeks now and so he’s been visiting the chinese sinseh more often and eating the prescribed chinese medicine, either in powder form or herbs to be brewed (by me, of course). When he’s not taking the Chinese medicine, I’d brew this herbal tonic soup for him as the ingredients are supposed to help 补 and heal his backache problem.
Du Zhong is known to help ease backache and commonly brewed in soup as well during the confinement month after delivering baby.
- 1.5L of water
- du zhong (杜仲) (about palm size)
- jin mao gou ji (金毛狗脊) (2pcs)
- huai niu xi (淮牛膝) (3 pcs)
- ba ji tian (巴戟天 ) (3 pcs)
- black beans (a big handful)
- dried red dates (紅棗) (6)
- dried black dates (3)
- a handful of wolfberries (枸杞子)
- pork rib/loin (optional) - if cooking it as a soup, then add the pork rib/loin; otherwise if drinking it as a drink, you can omit this
- Rinse the ingredients.
- Put the pork into a small pot of water and wait for the water to boil. Once the water boils, you can remove the pork. This is to cleanse the pork of the bloody taste and the dirt.
- Fry the black beans with a pinch of salt till the beans are completely dry.
- Place all the ingredients into a pot of water (with the exception of the wolfberries) and put to boil on high heat.
- Once the soup boils, turn the fire down to low and simmer for 2hours.
- minutes before turning off the flame, put the wolfberries in.
I try to cook this either as a soup or drink for my hubby on alternate days whenever the backache is really bad. He always says that it makes him feel much better the next day!
Click the link for the full list of soup recipes (with thumbnails).
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Thanks for sharing the recipe. A herbalist advised my sister who had back problems
to avoid eating anything that’s very sour like tom yam, cooling vegetables like water convulvus, bitter gourd, winter melon, old cucumber,chinese cabage, white radish cauliflower etc. Good posture and body mechanics, sitting on straight back chair and using chiropractic gadgets for the spine are also helpful.
Thanks for the list! We do avoid eating Tom yum and radish. The rest we eat in moderation.
Thanks for sharing. Wonderful recipe. Tried a few times and realised ba ji tian is great for sinews and bones.
Glad to know you enjoy it!