Watercress, Carrot, Dried Duck Kidney, and Pork Rib Soup

Why people make this soup

Most parents know the pattern: a child who loves fried chicken, chips, and meat, eats very little in the way of vegetables — and then starts showing signs of what Cantonese grandmothers would call “too much fire” (热气): bad breath, a dry or slightly hoarse cough, a red throat, yellow urine, or constipation. Western medicine would probably call some of this a minor dietary imbalance; traditional Cantonese food therapy calls it “lung-stomach accumulated heat.”

Watercress is one of the best-known cooling vegetables in Cantonese cooking. Paired with carrot and dried salted duck kidney — a distinctively Cantonese ingredient with a savoury, slightly gamey character — this soup is both genuinely flavourful and traditionally used to clear heat from the respiratory and digestive systems. The long simmer (two hours) ensures the soup is not too cold in nature despite using cooling ingredients.