Chinese Cooling Herbal Sweet Soup

Herbal Sweet Soup was my favorite summer sweet soup when I was a child. It was served in a round-mouthed bowl and tasted exactly like what I remember. Today I’m sharing this recipe with you.

What is Herbal Sweet Soup?

Herbal Sweet Soup is a classic and well-known therapeutic soup in Guangdong. It can be eaten in all seasons and is also called Four Seasons Qingbuliang. It has a long history. It can remove dampness in spring, relieve heat in summer , moisturize in autumn, and nourish in winter . It is suitable for the whole family, young and old.

Why should we drink Herbal Sweet Soup?

Herbal Sweet Soup is made with wolfberry, lotus seeds, ginseng, lily and other ingredients as main raw materials. These ingredients are all Chinese medicinal materials and have good dampness-removing and nourishing effects. Drinking them appropriately is good for human health.

Secondly, the taste of Herbal Sweet Soup is sweet and refreshing, with rich flavors of lotus seeds, wolfberries, ginseng and other ingredients and Chinese medicinal materials. You can experience a different feeling with every sip. If you have no appetite, drinking some Herbal Sweet Soup can help you recover your strength quickly.

Ingredients Needed and Substitutions

Main Ingredients

Wolfberry: The main ingredient, has a strong tonic effect.

Job's tears: It has diuretic, anti-swelling and heat-clearing effects, and provides a sweet taste.

Lotus seeds: provide a soft and glutinous taste, and have a calming and spleen-tonifying effect.

Northern ginseng, Chinese yam, Sichuan lily, and polygonatum: these are all nourishing Chinese medicinal materials with strong health-care effects.

Yuba: provides protein and multiple amino acids, supplementing nutrition for the human body.

condiment

Rock sugar: provides sweetness and has a lung-moistening effect.

What is Beishan Ginseng?

Northern ginseng, also known as northern adenophora, is the dried root of the Umbelliferae plant Coral Glehnia littoralis. It is mainly produced in Shandong, Hebei, Liaoning and other regions of China. The root is mainly used as medicine and is a commonly used yin-nourishing medicine in traditional Chinese medicine.

From the perspective of medicinal value, Glehnia littoralis is sweet, slightly bitter, slightly cold, and enters the lung and stomach meridians. It has the effects of nourishing yin and clearing the lungs, benefiting the stomach and producing body fluids. It is mainly used to treat lung heat and dry cough, cough with sputum and blood, insufficient stomach yin, and damage to body fluids caused by febrile diseases. In traditional Chinese medicine prescriptions, Glehnia littoralis is an important ingredient in many Chinese patent medicines, such as the well-known Honey Refined Chuanbei Loquat Paste and Yangweishu Capsules, which all contain Glehnia littoralis.

In the field of food, Glehnia littoralis mainly appears in medicinal food or nourishing soups, and has a strong nourishing effect. By combining with other ingredients, the unique nourishing effect of Glehnia littoralis can be brought into play, playing a role in strengthening the body.

Tips for Success

Ingredients

If you want to make the perfect refreshing and cooling sugar water, then choosing fresh and high-quality ingredients is the first step to success. Bean curd sticks, wolfberries, coix seeds, lotus seeds, northern mountain ginseng, yam, Sichuan lily, polygonatum, etc. should all be top-quality products without impurities, pollution, and natural colors; especially northern mountain ginseng, there are many inferior products on the market, so be careful not to be cheated when purchasing.

Food Processing

Before making the clear and cool sugar water, the processing of each ingredient is crucial. Ingredients like wolfberry, coix seed, lotus seeds, northern ginseng, yam, Sichuan lily, and polygonatum need to be soaked for a period of time to make it easier to cook out their nutrients.

Usually, coix seeds and lotus seeds need to be soaked for at least 1 hour; while Northern ginseng, Chinese yam, Sichuan lily, and polygonatum need to be soaked for at least 30 minutes to allow all the ingredients to fully absorb water and make them easier to taste.

Heat control

When cooking the clear and cool sugar water, you must pay attention to controlling the heat. It is usually recommended to boil the water over high heat first, put all the ingredients in and cook over high heat for 15 minutes, then turn to low heat and simmer for at least 30 minutes, so that the nutrients of the ingredients can be better integrated into the soup, making the soup taste rich and mellow.

Seasoning

When adding rock sugar for seasoning, you can flexibly adjust the sweetness according to your taste. If you like sweetness, you can add more; if you don’t like sweetness, add less or no sugar. At the same time, pay attention to the timing of adding rock sugar. Don’t add it too early, otherwise it will affect the taste of the soup and make it too sweet.