Fresh Smilax, Maranta and Three-Bean Soup

Why people make this soup

In foggy, damp weather — especially alongside rich, greasy, spicy or fried foods and a lot of stress — skin troubles like eczema flare up more easily. Fresh smilax (tu fu ling) and the folk herb di lao shu are both traditionally valued for skin prone to eczema; both are available at Chinese or Asian grocers, where they can often be peeled and sliced for you on request. Cooked with rice beans, hyacinth beans and mung beans, this soup is traditionally enjoyed to support the spleen, clear damp and soothe itchy skin.

Method

1. Soak and rinse all the ingredients separately; blanch the smilax and di lao shu.
2. Put everything in 2.7 L of water and simmer 2 hours down to 1.2–1.5 L. Serve.

Nourilo’s Tips

This soup has a faint herbal taste but isn’t hard to drink. You can add lean pork so even children won’t refuse it. But it’s on the cooling side — those with a cold-weak spleen-stomach and pregnant women should not drink it.