Winter melon is versatile – it can be cooked in a savoury soup or as a sweet, cooling drink (check out my winter melon barley drink).
Winter melon is not only ‘cooling’, it is good for detox too! If you understand Mandarin, you can read this site for more details. In general, cooking the winter melon with the skin on is more effective if you are interested in the ‘cooling’ properties. You can choose to remove the skin – no biggie. And if you prefer a thicker winter melon soup, feel free to add barley to the soup.
Winter melon soup
Author: Simply Mommie
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Ingredients
- 1 slice of fresh winter melon, preferably a slice somewhere in the middle rather than at the ends of the melon (keep the skin on/ off - depends on your preference)
- 250g pork ribs
- 3 chicken carcasses
- 1 handful dried shrimps
- 1 teaspoon bitter and sweet almonds
- 8 red dates, pitted
- 10g dried scallops
- 3 cloves garlic (keep the skin on)
- fish sauce and/or salt to taste
- 2-3L water
Instructions
- Wash the skin of the winter melon clean if you are retaining the skin. Remove the seeds and cut the winter melon into chunks.
- Blanch the pork ribs and chicken bones.
- Rinse the dried shrimps, red dates, bitter and sweet almonds, garlic and dried scallop.
- Place the pork ribs, chicken bones, dried shrimps, garlic, bitter and sweet almonds into a soup bag. Place the soup bag and dried scallop into a soup pot of water.
- Bring the soup to a boil then simmer for an hour.
- Add the winter melon, bring the soup to a boil, then simmer on low heat for another hour.
- Add fish sauce and/or salt to taste.
Click the link for the full list of soup recipes (with thumbnails).
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