Watercress, Golden Monk Fruit and Pork Shin Soup

Why people make this soup

Watercress and monk fruit soup is one of the most widely made Cantonese home soups during the cooler months — familiar to anyone who grew up in a Cantonese household. It is made for more situations than just simple coughs: Chinese medicine holds that most inflammatory conditions in the body involve a degree of heat, which causes fluids to thicken and accumulate as phlegm. Watercress, which is one of the most nutritionally dense leafy vegetables, is cooling and phlegm-resolving. Nourilo uses the golden variety of monk fruit in this recipe — a form that is dried slowly at low temperature, producing a clean, clear sweetness without the smoky notes of conventional kiln-dried monk fruit. The result is a broth that is genuinely pleasant to drink and not at all medicinal in taste. It is particularly helpful for those whose coughs persist after a cold, or who spend long hours in front of screens, or who smoke or drink regularly.

Method

1. Rinse the watercress and set aside. Do not add it yet.
2. Rinse the golden monk fruit, then crack it open into several pieces to help release the flavour.
3. Soak the dried tangerine peel until soft; scrape off the white pith if desired.
4. Cut open the pork shin and blanch in boiling water to remove impurities; drain.
5. Place the pork shin, golden monk fruit pieces, dried figs, and tangerine peel in a pot with 3 L of water.
6. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Once boiling, add the watercress.
7. When it returns to a boil, reduce to a medium-low simmer and cook for 2 hours.
8. Serve the soup with the watercress and pork shin.

Nourilo’s Tips

The key step is adding the watercress only after the broth has come to a full rolling boil — if you add it to cold or warm water and cook it from the start, the finished soup will be noticeably bitter and unpleasant. This soup is also an ideal food-therapy approach for lung ailments such as chronic bronchitis. Red carrot can be added for extra sweetness and colour, which works beautifully. Golden monk fruit is now widely available at herbal shops and some supermarkets; conventional smoke-dried monk fruit is a usable substitute, but the flavour will be different.