Fresh Dendrobium, Pear & Fig Sweet Soup

Why people make this soup

After the Chinese New Year holiday, children often come home with stomach issues from overindulgence — too many sweets, fried snacks, and festive treats leave their digestive systems overheated and sluggish. Symptoms look like a noisy throat, small skin blemishes on the forehead, dry cough, or constipation. Nourilo turns to this sweet soup as a gentle reset: cooling enough to ease internal heat, but pleasant enough that children will actually drink it.

Fresh dendrobium (shi hu) is one of the more elegant ingredients in Chinese food therapy. The orchid family plant produces fleshy, slightly sticky green stems that are mildly sweet and deeply associated with nourishing the stomach’s “yin” — the cool, moistening quality that keeps the stomach functioning smoothly. Traditional Chinese herbal research suggests dendrobium may support gastric acid secretion, blood sugar regulation, immune modulation, and antioxidant activity. That is an impressive list for what is essentially a pleasant, mild green stem you simmer in a soup pot.