Kudzu, Soybean & Job's Tears Pork Bone Soup

Why people make this soup

I picked up a kind of green-skinned soybean in the countryside — freshly sun-dried, so the beans still looked green. Boiled into soup they turn back to yellow, but the broth comes out wonderfully sweet and clean. Kudzu (fen ge) is the star here: in Chinese food tradition it is the go-to root for cooling down a hot, restless body and for loosening a stiff, sore neck and upper back. Paired with soybeans, Job’s tears and pork bone, it makes a gentle everyday soup that many people drink to support steady blood pressure.