“Slow-Cooked Healthy Vegetable Soup”
Hi there, how are you? It had been many days since the last update of my post.. Even though I still cooked during these busy days, but was really too occupied by tons of chores, and no choice but to miss the posting for awhile.
Today, not posting any HK gourmet, I wanted to share my soup recipe here. One of my readers, Ms Lin Li, left comment in my FB page to request more soup recipes. I promised her to share it in the upcoming posts.. So, here you go..
Nothing too special, but I thought this was simple enough to cook and healthy to savour on.. This is a soup that you would definitely drink, even if you don’t take bitter gourd. Without the strong bitter taste from the gourd, and I even added wolfberries to sweeten the soup naturally, there wouldn’t be any reason for you to reject this delicious and beneficial homecooked soup.. While bitter gourd cools your body, the wolfberry aids in brightening your eyes.
Forget to mention, this recipe is tailored for busy working class. If you are working 9-5 or needing to be out half the day, yet you wish to have such nice health soup for the family and of course yourself, this is the soup recipe you would like.
See my simple recipe here:
Serves 3-4
Ingredients
1 arm-lengthed bitter gourd, deseed and cut into pieces
250 grams of lean prime pork ribs, blanched
1 tablespoon of wolfberries or called it Goji berries (枸杞子), rinsed
1 teaspoon of salt
Method
1) Cut bitter gourd into halves, lengthwise. Remove seeds inside using a metal spoon. Then, cut bitter gourd into smaller piece, crosswise. Now, heat a pot of salted water over high heat, briefly blanch bitter gourd, for just 10 seconds, before removing it from the pot using a strainer. Drain and set aside.
2) Heat another pot of water over high heat. Blanch ribs till scum appears on the surface of water. Remove ribs from pot.
3) Now, prepare your slow cooker. Place bitter gourd, ribs and wolfberries into croak pot and add water till 3 quarter filled, or about an inch covering above the ingredients. With lid on, shift slow cooker to low or auto mode. You are free to do any other thing or off to work in the morning now!
4) After simmering for hours, this soup is all ready to be induldged in. Add salt to taste, 5 minutes before heat off. Let’s serve it!
A serving of my bitter gourd pork ribs and wolfberry soup counts about 200kcal (with ingredients taken).
Tips: If you are more keen to cook this soup on stove. Simply follow the steps, but simmer the soup on low heat, for 2 hours.
Where did you get goji berries? Do they taste like normal berries? I only ever had them in teas.
Hi PRPM,
Wolfberry or called it Goji berry is tasted pleasantly sweet when you bite it. It does not really affect the flavour of the soup or any dishes cooked with an addition of such, actually.
You may get wolfberries in packet from many supermarkets such as NTUC Fairprice or from Chinese medicine hall even at neighbourhood area.
Hi,
i’ve long wanted to try the slow cooker method b4 i go off to work but i cant seem to fully trust that it wont overflow or over cook and dry out.:P
does the cooker really maintain slow heat by itself after few hrs when i set it to auto?
twinkie
Hi Twinkie,
I always cook my soup in slow cooker before going off to work early in the morning as I hope to have nice and flavourful hot soup served for my family in our dinner after a long day. I also always encourage my other colleagues to do so, but like what you said, they always worry abt the safety. :)
To me, I dare not commit 100% safety as it always has many other factors concerning what quality is the cooker, how hazardous your kitchen environment, what ingredients have you put in, etc.. Hence, it has to be individual belief and confidence.
For me, I simmer my half or three quarter filled soup on low mode for more than 10 hours and it has never dried up. And I always make sure the croakpot is fully wiped to dry before putting into slow cooker. So, I am not too worried abt it most of the time. That’s my belief. :)