Papaya and Snow Fungus Soup With Pork Ribs

“Savoury Papaya Soup with loads of taste and nutrients”

Green Papaya and Fish Soup is one of the well-known soup recipes among the Cantonese. I like it, too. However, to cook soup with fish, adding ginger slices is a must in order to eliminate the fishy taste totally. Some of us might not fancy ginger-flavour in the soup. So, can we use something else to replace fish in the papaya soup? Of course, there is. How about pork ribs?

My recipe uses pork ribs, white snow fungus and greenish-ripe papaya. Greenish-ripe refers to not-too-raw kind of papaya. Find much green colour with a little orangy on its rind, and flesh in bright orange. I prefer papaya of this stage as I like to eat it with a little sweet taste (too raw/ green will not be as tasty), and not just for boiling purpose. Eating the papaya after boiled is actually quite “meaningless” as its nutrients have been extracted and emerged into the soup instead. But I simply love to it even with just plain sweetness left in it. Just for the fun of exercising my jaws (chuckling) or to satisfy your crave of having some papayas!

I added white snow fungus, too. Snow fungus claimed to be effective in nourishing the lungs. This nourishing soup is light-bodied, with a hint of fruity taste in the palate. This soup is very refreshing and nutritional to drink it regularly. With minimal calorie count, this soup is about 120kcal per regular serving.

It’s quick and simple to prepare which needs only 40 minutes.

Cook it for your family!

Ingredients
1 small not-too-raw papaya (about 5″ long), cut into big cubes
300 gram of pork ribs, blanched
1 palm-sized white snow fungus (Chinese translation: 雪耳), soaked and break into smaller size
8 red dates
1 cube of chicken stock cube
1 pot of water, 50% filled (about 1500 ml)
Pinch of salt

Method
1) Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add in pork ribs, and chicken stock cube.

2) Add red dates, white snow fungus and papaya cubes into the broth, when chicken stock cube dissolved.

3) Bring all ingredients to a boil again. Reduce heat to low fire, and simmer for 30 minutes. Cover pot with lid. Add salt to taste.

4) When all ingredients are cooked till tender, heat off. Serve.

This soup is colourful, it attracts most children to try when they see it. Give it a try!

Tips: Cook the papaya with its rinds intact, if preferred. Papaya rind contains nutrients, too.
* I prefer to go without the rind. However, peel away the rind very thinly.
* To cook it sweet, forgo pork ribs, and replace it with some lotus seeds and dried longan. Add rock sugar. I will share my recipe of sweet soup version next time.