Beef Soup with Waterchestnuts and Wintermelon - Soup Week #6

I had some waterchestnuts on hand and I remember this soup with beef in my soup book. Then when I checked the ingredients, sugarcane???? Where to get fresh ones? Then I came to think of it, should be the dry ones at herbal shops. Then when I went there,I found that it comes prepacked, and there's couchgrass root in it too. So I bought the pack home to later pick out whatever I needed. But there are no Chinese almonds in it, so I asked the herbalist to pack some for me separately.

Frankly there’s not much beef smell or taste. But the soup itself is sweet, but lacks a savoury meaty end. It does need more salt than most of the soups that I’ve done (my slow simmered soups usually need minimal soup to lend a salty end), maybe due to the high amount of non meat compounds, or the absence of seafood ingredients. Anyway, this is good for you.

Try this if you would like to clear heat, promote urination, detoxify and nourish the skin.

Beef Soup with Waterchestnuts and Wintermelon
Recipe Source: Soups for Expelling Dampness and Heat, by Chiu Sang
200gm beef
750gm winter melon
200gm water chestnuts (about 7 pcs)
150gm carrots
80gm dried sugarcane
10gm sweet Chinese almonds 南杏
10gm dried couchgrass 白茅根
2L water
Handful of coriander for sprinkling

1. Bring water to a boil.
2. Meanwhile, peel water chestnuts and cut carrots.
3. Scrub skin of wintermelon clean, remove seeds and cut into chunks.
4. Rinse dried sugarcane and couchgrass.
5. Cut beef into smaller pieces.
6. Put everything into the boiling water, bring back to a boil and let it simmer on low heat for 2 hours.
7. Sprinkle coriander into hot soup before serving.

What's up on Monday?

Fruit Week