Chinese Green Radish and Carrot Soup
One of my favourite soups that my parents made while I was growing up was this Chinese Green Radish and Carrot Soup. When I moved out, I had a hard time finding legit recipes for this soup. There just wasn’t a lot of blogs out there that had good Chinese recipes. Frustrated, I asked my dad to give me his recipe. If you have Chinese parents, you will know that written recipes do not exist. I basically had to sit him down and ask him to break down the ingredients and steps the best that he could. If you enjoyed our Chinese Winter Melon soup recipe, you’ll definitely like this one š
Key Ingredients
This Chinese Green Radish and Carrot soup only calls for a few essential ingredients. It requires a few essential Chinese soup seasonings which we would recommend stocking up on if you plan on making more Chinese soups in the future.
- Pork Bones – This will serve as the foundation of the pork stock where most of the soup’s flavour will be extracted from (similar to Chicken Stock)
- Pork Hock (aka Pork Feet) – This will also lend flavour to the pork stock, while releasing lots of gelatin to the soup to help it thicken up.
- Carrots – one of the stars of the show! We recommend using approximately 5 carrots for this recipe but this recipe is quite forgiving. If you want to use less, that’s okay too! We used 1 giant carrot and 2 smaller ones in the photo below as we feel that is equivalent to approximately 5 regular sized carrots.
- Green Radish – Green radishes are sold in many sizes. Again, it doesn’t really matter if you get the biggest or the smallest green radish. We chose a mid-sized one š
- Chinese Dried Dates – This will help lend sweetness to the soup. Prior to using it, it’s best to rehydrate it in some water.
- North Almonds – Chinese almonds are often used in soups to lend flavouring. There are two types of Chinese almonds – North and South. North Almonds are more bitter.
- South Almonds – Similar to North Almonds which are commonly used in soups, South Almonds are more sweet.
How to Make Chinese Green Radish and Carrot Soup
1. Parboil the pork bones and pork hock
A common technique used in making Chinese soups include parboiling the bones to help the broth comes out more clear, resulting in a ‘cleaner broth’. Parboiling is short for ‘Partially Boiling’ and in this context, the process requires you to boil the pork bones and pork hock for approximately 7 minutes to remove any impurities (e.g. excess blood, dirt, etc) which is often seen as the ‘scum’ on top of soup (see photo below).
After the bones have been parboiled, you would drain all the liquid and give the bones a quick rinse under cold water and scrub to remove any excess impurities that may have adhered to the bones.
2. Re-boil the pork bones and pork hock
Once the pork bones and pork hock have been cleaned, set them aside in a large boil and give your stock pot a quick cleaning to remove the excess grime that may have stuck to the sides of the pot from parboiling the bones. Once cleaned, add the pork bones and pork hock back in and add 16 cups of water. Bring to a boil for approximately 10 minutes.
3. Add in remaining ingredients and cook for 1 1/2 hrs
Add in your re-hydrated dates along with the soaking liquid for extra flavour. Then, add in the remaining ingredients (north and south almonds, carrots, green radish). Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cook for an hour and a half. Season with salt to taste.
You can serve the soup right away but from our personal experience, the soup tastes best after sitting for a day as it will have more time to develop more flavour. If you can’t finish the all the soup within a week, we’d recommend portioning it out and freezing it for later consumption.
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Chinese Green Radish and Carrot Soup
Ingredients
- 16 cups water
- 2 lbs pork hock
- 1 lbs pork bone
- 6 Chinese dried dates, soaked in water (keep the soaking liquid!)
- 2 tbsp south almond
- 1 tbsp north almond
- 2 green radish, peeled, sliced and quartered (if needed)
- 5 carrots, peeled, sliced and quartered (if needed)
- salt to taste (we used approximately 2 tbsp of kosher salt to start)
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Instructions
- 1. In a large stock pot or dutch oven, parbroil the pork bone and pork hock for 7 minutes to remove scum and dirt. Then, drain all the liquid and rise off the bones and pork hock with cold water in the sink.
- 2. Add the pork bones and pork hock back into your large stock pot or dutch oven and add 16 cups of water. Bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes.
- 3. Add the soaked dates (along with the soaking liquid) and the south and north almonds.
- 4. Add the carrots and green radish. Bring to a boil and then reduce to simmer for about 1 1/2 hour. Season with salt to taste. You can serve the soup right away but from experience, the soup tastes better after sitting for a day š
