![[Photo-Daikon Carrot and Luo Han Guo Pork Soup]](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8009/6959128626_3e29545458.jpg "Daikon Carrot and Luo Han Guo Pork Soup")
Early this morning, the temperature outside dropped to 32° F (or 0° C). With the heater running all night and a few nights of not-so-good sleep, I woke up today feeling very dry and thirsty. It was one of those thirst that I knew drinking water wouldn’t cure. I barely had any moisture or saliva in my mouth or throat. My eyes were dry and they blinked with a gritty sensation. The first thing I knew I needed to do for the day was to make a Daikon Carrot and Luo Han Guo Pork Soup. It moisturizes and releases what Chinese medicine calls dry-heat from the body. It is also an excellent soup for dry coughs as it nourishes the lungs and expels phlegm. So as soon as I was done with my morning routines, I quickly went out and bought my ingredients for this soup.
Aside from the healthful benefits, this soup is also very delicious, easy, and inexpensive to make. My total grocery bill was only $7.33. The main ingredient in this soup that works to cure dryness in the body is Luo Han Guo, a dried sweet fruit with a fragile outer shell. Although it tastes very sweet, Luo Han Guo’s sugar is different than the regular normal sugar. Its sweetness does not raise blood sugar levels. For this reason, Luo Han Guo has been used for thousands of generations in Chinese Medicine to sweeten soups and other food recipes for diabetics, or those with high blood glucose.
After drinking 2 bowls of this soup, I am already feeling much more moisturized. This soup is one of my family’s many tonic soup recipes to achieve yin-yang balance in the body. Give this soup a try and I hope you will enjoy this as much as I do.
- 2 lbs of lean pork
- 1 small daikon, about ½ lb (a.k.a turnip)
- 2 medium sized red carrots, about ¾ lb
- ½ of a small Luo Han Guo, about 2.5″ in diameter
- 2 tsp of sweet almonds (a.k.a south almonds)
- 1 tsp of bitter almond (a.k.a north almonds)
- 12 cups of water
- 1″ of ginger root, sliced
- Boil a medium pot of water for blanching while cutting the pork to 2″ – 3″ cubes. Blanch the meat cubes and set aside.
- Boil 12 cups of water. In the meanwhile, peel, and slice the daikon and carrots to 1″ thick slices. Rinse and cut the Luo Han Guo in half. Rinse the almonds and set aside.
- When the water boils, put all ingredients into the pot. Boil covered on high heat for 5 minutes.
- Simmer soup on low heat for 2 hours. Set your timer. When ready, sprinkle a pinch of salt to taste and serve.
Looks delicious!
I am so happy that you stopped by my website http://bamskitchen.com/ so that I could find yours. You have so many lovely Chinese dishes and soups, I cannot wait to try them. I love how you bring Chinese Medicine information into your website. I am currently studying acupuncture at HKU so I am very keen on learning more about Eastern Medicine. Looking forward to keeping in touch. Take Care
This looks like an interesting combination of flavors! I’ve never put almonds into a soup so far …
On another note, looking on all your delicious soup recipes and noting that you like to use pork with some of your dishes (which I’m not used to eat and don’t find overly appealing usually, but the way you use it looks to delish …) gave me a real appetite for it, and the next day I went to the store and bought some. It was so good! I see myself cooking pork meat much more often now!