Green Papaya, Red-Skin Peanut, Dried Fig, Pork Shin & Dried Scallop Soup

Why people make this soup

Papaya comes in two distinct forms: the firm, pale-green unripe fruit used in savoury cooking, and the golden-orange ripe fruit enjoyed fresh or in dessert soups. They look like the same fruit, but in the kitchen they do very different things. Ripe papaya is sweet and gentle — wonderful to eat fresh or to use in a dessert soup. Green papaya is firmer, less sweet, and packed with natural enzymes that ripe papaya does not have in the same concentration. It is these enzymes that have made green papaya one of the best-known ingredients in Chinese (and indeed Southeast Asian) lactation cooking. Combined with red-skin peanuts and dried figs — both traditionally associated with milk production — and given body by pork shin and dried scallop, this soup is a warm, nourishing, and genuinely practical choice for a new mother who wants to build her milk supply.