See a real photo
Photo: Winter melon soup with chicken, duck and mushroom by roland, CC0 1.0, cropped and resized.
Slow-boiled soup 老火湯
Winter melon, coix seed and lotus leaf soup
冬瓜薏米荷葉湯dung1 gwaa1 ji3 mai5 ho4 jip6 tong1
Traditionally eaten to clear heat. Best in hot, dry or "heaty" spells. Winter melon is cold and raw coix seed slightly cold.
Good for traditionally believed to beat summer heat and drain dampness.
- 15 minprep
- 2 hcook
- 6servings
- One potSummer
Eat at ? Start by …
Ingredients
Tick what you have. Watch the pot fill.
0 of 5 in the pot
Ticked = you have it. The rest goes in your cart.
-
Fresh: local Asian grocerAbout
- 2¾ quarts2.5 LWater
2 pantry items with a checked Amazon match. Buy the fresh winter melon and lean pork locally or on Weee!.
Method
- Wash the winter melon well. Keep the skin, scoop out the seeds and cut it in big chunks.
- Rinse the coix seed and lotus leaf. Soak the peel and scrape off the pith.
- 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 1 hour 30 minutes.
- Skim off any fat and season with salt just before serving.
Who should go easy
Avoid during pregnancy (raw coix seed) and 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 Hong Kong Anti-Cancer Society, "中醫食療——食物種類分析" (Dr Lam To-yee, registered Chinese medicine practitioner, 2022), Hong Kong Department of Health, Chinese Medicine Regulatory Office, "中醫飲食養生 - 五穀與蔬果". How we judge a soup’s nature.
Watch someone make it
Home cooks on YouTube. Opens right here.
