Slow-boiled soup 老火湯
Old cucumber and rice bean soup
老黃瓜赤小豆湯lou5 wong4 gwaa1 cik3 siu2 dau6 tong1
Traditionally eaten to clear heat. Best in hot, dry or "heaty" spells. Old cucumber is cool; rice beans and hyacinth beans drain damp.
Good for traditionally believed to drain damp and cool you down in muggy summer weather.
- 20 minprep
- 2 h 30 mincook
- 6servings
- One potSummer
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Ingredients
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- 3¼ quarts3 LWater
4 pantry items with a checked Amazon match. Buy the fresh produce and meat locally or on Weee!.
Method
- Soak the beans for 1 hour. Scrub the cucumber, halve it and keep the skin and seeds. Cut in chunks.
- Put the meat in cold water, bring to a boil and let it bubble for 3 minutes. Drain and rinse off the scum.
- Bring the water to a rolling boil. Add everything, boil hard for 20 minutes, then cover and simmer on low for 2 hours.
- Skim off any fat and season with salt just before serving.
Who should go easy
Go lighter if you run cold or have loose stools.
Traditional Chinese food therapy, not medical advice. Ask your doctor if you are pregnant, on medication or unwell.
Ingredient natures from HKEJ 信健康, 老黃瓜 article (Chinese medicine practitioner), Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Society, "中醫食療——食物種類分析" (Dr Lam To-yee, registered Chinese medicine practitioner, 2022). How we judge a soup’s nature.
Watch someone make it
Home cooks on YouTube. Opens right here.
