I have a New Years tradition with a friend to make a giant pot of soup with a ton of vegetables from Chinatown, the reason being that after a late night of drinking it feels good to start the new year with something healthy, hot and easy to digest. And Chinatown is usually the only place with grocery stores that are open on Jan. 1.
So our soup includes everything from lime green winter squash to lotus root to bok choy, purple yams, carrots, enoki mushrooms and pretty much anything else that’s light and juicy and unusual.
This year, that “unusual” criterium included a box of Chinese herbs and roots for soup. There’s a traditional Chinese chicken and ginseng soup that I started seeing on regional Chinese restaurant menus in Markham, Ontario (think of it as the Chinese version of chicken noodle soup; it’s meant for colds) and then saw a bunch of recipes for in cookbooks. So when I saw a pretty little box of things like ginseng and other adaptogens, I bought it. Here’s what was in it:
A lot of these ingredients are being touted as superfoods or adaptogens (here’s an article I wrote about them for Prana a few years ago), with the ability to bring you up energy-wise if you need to go up or bring you down to a calm place if you need to come down, by regulating your adrenal system. It’s not a magical fix. You don’t feel it abruptly. It’s subtle. And honestly I don’t find it that effective for me personally, since I often find a can’t sleep at night. Apparently my body thinks I need to go up and I think I deserve to sleep…
And here’s the soup we made:
I know, I know, it’s not pretty, but it was so good. One version had more dates and longans and just water for broth, so it was sweeter, and the other had fish sauce and a fermented chili paste I made for extra saltiness and savouriness. I liked the latter more, but probably because it also had less of the ginseng and barks, so I got less of a sleep problem from it. I can’t eat this soup after lunch time if I want a good night’s sleep, but I can’t eat chocolate or caffeine of any kind, so I guess I’m sensitive. You’ll probably sleep like a baby.
Anyway, I crave this soup constantly. Throw in whatever vegetables you like and cook it until soft. That’s it. You could make it with a whole small chicken, which is the traditional Chinese way, but that makes it fancier. This is simple.
Happy new year.
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