Tu Fuling, Old Cucumber & Red Bean Soup

Why people make this soup

The wet, muggy months in southern China and Hong Kong are classically associated with what Chinese medicine calls “dampness and heat” accumulating in the body — a pattern that can show up as fatigue, heavy limbs, poor digestion, skin breakouts, or a persistent low-grade feeling of not quite being well. Tu fuling (smilax rhizome) is one of the strongest heat-clearing, detoxifying herbs in the Cantonese culinary medicine tradition. Paired with old yellow cucumber — riper and more therapeutic than young green cucumber — and two kinds of beans to help the body drain excess dampness, this is a soup Nourilo turns to regularly during rainy seasons. It is also useful when a cold or flu has passed but you still feel tired and heavy.