Dragon-Tongue Leaf and Shihuangpi Soup

Why people make this soup

When the weather keeps flip-flopping and the air turns hazy, folks with weaker lungs often feel that tight, scratchy throat and start bringing up phlegm. Fresh dragon-tongue leaf and the hillside herb shihuangpi, simmered with a little sugared winter melon and apricot kernels, produce a fragrant, lightly sweet soup that goes down like a tea. It is the kind of pot people keep on hand to head off a cough before it digs in. Fresh dragon-tongue leaf is available at Chinese or Asian grocers; dried is sold at Chinese herb shops.

Method

1. Rinse the shihuangpi and lightly bruise it with the back of a knife.
2. Rinse the remaining ingredients.
3. Put everything in a pot with 1.8 L of water and simmer about 40 minutes, down to 1.2 L. Serve.

Nourilo’s Tips

This soup is lightly sweet with little herbal bitterness and a very mild, balanced nature, so the elderly and young children can both enjoy it. If you want to skip the sugared winter melon, a quarter of a monk fruit can stand in to help with phlegm, though the taste is not quite as nice.