Tang Ge Cai (Wild Watercress) and Monk Fruit Lean Pork Soup

Why people make this soup

Tang ge cai is one of those humble vegetables that carries a disproportionate amount of food-therapy history. Related to the watercress family, it has a slightly peppery, earthy flavour and has been used in Cantonese kitchens for generations to address lung heat, phlegm buildup, and lingering coughs. It is available at Chinese or Asian grocers alongside other wild greens. Paired with monk fruit (luo han guo), which is intensely sweet and traditionally cooling to the lungs, this soup comes together as something genuinely pleasant to drink — sweet and clean-tasting, not medicinal — while addressing the kind of damp, phlegmy cough that tends to hang around after a cold.

Method

1. Remove the roots from the tang ge cai, rinse thoroughly, and cut into sections.
2. Crack the monk fruit open.
3. Cut the lean pork into thick slices and blanch in boiling water, then drain and rinse off any foam.
4. Place the pork and monk fruit in a pot with 2.4 L of water. Bring to a full rolling boil over high heat.
5. Add the tang ge cai, bring back to a boil, then reduce to a medium-low simmer.
6. Cook for about 2 hours until the soup reduces to roughly 1.2 L. Serve.

Nourilo’s Tips

This soup has a naturally sweet, pleasant flavour and is good for the whole family regardless of age. Tang ge cai contains a compound that has been shown in studies to calm coughs and dissolve phlegm, and to inhibit the bacteria associated with pneumonia and influenza — making this a soup that stands up to some scrutiny from a modern perspective, not just a traditional one.