Four Gentlemen Sea Cucumber & Lean Pork Soup

Why people make this soup

In recent years more people are facing cancer, and treatment with chemo or radiotherapy is hard going, with many side effects. There’s a folk idea of “starving the cancer cells,” but in truth cancer cells are good at taking the body’s nutrients, so that approach mostly just leaves the patient weaker. The sounder path is to build up nutrition and the body’s own resilience — eat plenty of high-protein, vitamin- and mineral-rich foods, and avoid inflammation-promoting foods like barbecue, deep-fried and processed items. Because the body is weak during treatment, avoid undercooked foods (sashimi, rare beef, salads, peeled raw fruit) to lower infection risk. This soup pairs nourishing sea cucumber with the classic spleen-and-qi tonic “Four Gentlemen Decoction” and lean pork to support strength.

Method

1. Blanch the sea cucumber and the cut lean pork together.
2. Rinse and soak the remaining herbs; pit the red dates.
3. Place everything in a double-boiler pot, pour in 1.2 L of boiling water.
4. Double-boil (steam) for 2 hours. Serve.

Nourilo’s Tips

Rehydrating sea cucumber takes time, so soak a larger batch (300–600 g) at once and freeze it, ready to use whenever you like. This soup is light and gentle, fine for young and old — but sea cucumber is hard to digest, so anyone with a very weak spleen-stomach should not overeat it.