Lotus Root and Dried Octopus Soup 章魚蓮藕湯 (zhāng yú lián oǔ tāng) is a very common and delicious soup that is usually made in the winter months. Some families will make it on Winter Solstice Festival for the warming effects. The purpose of this soup is mainly the warm the insides, especially the digestive system, and it nourishes blood.
Have you ever been scolded for drinking ice water? I have! “How can it be bad for me?” “Makes no sense!” These were my usual responses to my mom. Then mom would say, “you’ll see when you get old!” Well, I’m old now and I understand! When I drink something cold, I can feel that my digestion is not as good as when I drink something hot. I guess when you’re young, everything works better and you don’t feel any difference. My son is more obedient than I was. He actually prefers warm water over cold water. My sister calls him an old man!
Warming the digestive system is a big part of Chinese herbology. A cold digestive system can give rise to various digestive disorders. The only time we could eat cooler things is during the summer when our bodies are actually hot. In Chinese medicine, digestive disorders can cause inflammation, malnourishment, constipation, skin disorders, diabetes and much more. So, very often, with any chronic issues, your Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner will focus on fixing your digestion first. Once your digestion improves, then you can fix the other problems.
Nourishing your blood is also extremely important. When you nourish your blood, it can bring nutrients to all parts of your body. This is especially important for women during child-bearing years.
Lotus Root and Dried Octopus Soup 章魚蓮藕湯 can do all of this! But, it’s important to balance out the warming effects with beans and mandarin peel. This way you won’t experience any unnecessary breakouts or constipation. I used mung beans in my recipe, which is typically used, but black-eyed peas can be used too.
In my Lotus Root and Dried Octopus Soup 章魚蓮藕湯 recipe, I’ll show you how easy it is to make this delicious, nourishing and warming soup that you can make for the cold winter months.
Looking for more soup ideas? Try my all time favourite soup: Hong Kong Style Borscht with Oxtail 牛尾羅宋湯. Or check out my soup section here.
Lotus Root and Dried Octopus Soup 章魚蓮藕湯
Ingredients
- 1 Dried whole octopus use 2 if they’re small (12” or smaller is considered small)
- 700 g Pork bones with meat or 400 g boneless pork
- 900 g Lotus root
- 400 g Carrots
- 100 g Mung beans
- 2 Honey dates
- 1 piece Dried mandarin peel
- 2.5 L Water
Instructions
- Optional: rinse pork bones with water and put into a pot
- Add water to the pot until the water covers the pork bones. On high heat, bring the pork bones to a boil. Turn off heat
- Rinse off the bone fragments and impurities from the pork bones and put into a clean pot
If you don’t want to rinse the meat, you can wipe them clean with a paper towel - Soak 2 honey dates and a piece of dried mandarin peel in water for around 5 minutes. I used one piece of mandarin peel that’s approx. 1” x 1”
If you like the taste of mandarin peel, you can add more - If your mandarin peel still has some of the membrane on it (white layer), scrape it off with a knife or spoon
- Place the honey dates and mandarin peel into the pot with the pork bones
- Peel carrots, cut into small pieces and put them in the pot
- Peel lotus root and slice into small pieces and put them in the pot
- Add 2.5L of water to the pot and bring to a boil
- Rinse dried octopus and wipe clean with kitchen towels
- Turn heat to medium in a wok or pan. Place octopus into wok. You can cut up the octopus if it’s too big to fit
- Toast the octopus on both sides until aromatic and until it has obviously shrunk in size. This should take approx. 6-8 minutes
- Add the octopus into the pot
- When the soup comes to a boil, reduce the heat to low and boil for a total of 2 hours
- Soak the mung beans for approx. 1 hour
- After 1 hour, drain the mung beans and add to the soup
since octopus is considered a warming ingredient, to ensure that the soup is not too heaty, mung beans are added to cut the heatiness. If you like the mung beans super soft, adding thickness to the soup, you can add it with the rest of the ingredients. Adding it after 1 hour will keep your broth clean and the mung beans whole at the time of serving - Boil for another hour on low heat
- Serve.
Note that I did not have to add any salt because the octopus had flavour and natural sea salt on it. But if it’s not enough, you can add salt to taste.
Leave a Reply