If you have a dry cough or dry throat, this soup is especially suitable for you. This is also one of my favourite soups in this hot and humid island. The original recipe for this soup use Chinese pears [雪梨] but we have changed it slightly to use apples. The reason is simple, because we have some apples in the fridge and did not want to waste it. 🙂
From a TCM perspective, food has medicinal purposes and energetic properties. They can be eaten correctly to balance the body’s yin and yang. Once balanced, our body is nourish and we are in good health. Below we have added another column that highlights the benefit of each ingredients.
Ingredients
| Apples, peel and cut into chunks | 3-4 pieces | high in antioxidants |
| Solomon’s Seal Rhizome [玉竹] | 15 grams | nourishes the yin in the lung and stomach. |
| Goji berries [枸杞] | 7 grams | helps promote healthy skin and high in antioxidants |
| Chinese dried figs[無花果] | 10 pieces | a neutral food (yin yang balanced) and known to moisten the lungs and relieve coughs |
| Sweet apricot kernels [南杏] | 10 grams | helps to relieve heatiness and soothes coughs |
| Bitter apricot kernels[北杏] | 5 grams | helps to relieve cough and asthma, moistens the intestines and unblocks the bowels. |
| Chicken bones or Lean pork | Optional, but if you are adding them about 300 grams |
5 Steps to becoming stronger
- Peel and remove core of the apples
- Soak in the herbs (expect Goji Berries) for about 5mins in warm water
- If you are adding in lean pork – blanch the meat before adding into the soup pot
- Put everything into a soup pot, add 2.5 liters of water
- Add salt for taste and Goji Berries before serving
Notes
- 南杏 are frequently used in Chinese soup for the sweetness and in Chinese dessert. But 北杏 we need to be a little bit more careful. It should not be overused for its slight toxicity. It should be used with cautions for infants and patients with diarrhea. However a little bit of it helps you build up defense against cold and dyspnea.
- stomach deficiency, or phlegm-damp should avoid using 玉竹.
