Take away the desserts. Okay, deny me my veggies if you’d like. But I can never live without my soup. I’m a Cantonese. ‘Nuff said.
Old cucumber soup is one of my family favourite. With its nourishing and cooling properties, and given the sweltering heat in this part of the world we live in, it is little wonder that this soup frequently graces our dining table.
What you’ll need:
(Serves 4)
1 medium sized old cucumber
12-15 red dates
few cloves of garlic
100g of soybeans/ handful of dried scallops/1 piece of dried cuttlefish
1.5 litres of water
500ml of Heinz chicken stock
200g of meaty pork ribs (optional)
pinch of salt to taste
1. Scrub the skin of the old cucumber clean, cut it in half lengthwise, scraped off the seeds and cut into mid-sized chunks.
2. Rinse the red dates, garlic and soybeans in running water, set aside to drain.
3. Boil the water in a separate pot. When done, transfer the boiling water to a slow cooker. Add in the chicken stock.
4. Add all the ingredients into the slow cooker. Turn the knob to ‘high’ and allow to slow cook for at least 4 hours.
5. After 4 hours, if not serving immediately, turn the knob to ‘low’ and keep the soup simmering until ready to serve. Add salt to taste if desired.
If however there are men at home who insist on having their meats, simply blanch the pork ribs in a pot of boiling water to remove the scum and set aside. Add the blanched ribs into the soup one hour before serving to prevent overcooking the meat.
Here, except for the use of chicken stock, this is an almost “vegetarian” version of the soup as I chose to substitute the dried scallops or cuttlefish with soybeans and leave out the pork ribs. What you’ll still get is a hearty soup that is full of natural flavours and sweetness!
Hi my dear,
Although I’m not cantonese, I can’t do without my herbal soup, lotus peanut soup, wintermelon soup, watercress soup etc too! Its simple to cook yet so nutritious. I have cravings especially when I have very little appetite. Take care =)
Learnt something new today! I didn’t know we could substitute soybeans for dried scallops and oysters ;D Those dried seafood smell kinda weird to handle and I’m glad there are alternatives!
thanks char :-) yea, i’ve been making these soups recently, enough to last me for lunch and dinner again the next day…
jules, the soybeans not only provides sweetness to the soup, it’s also nice to eat after several hours of boiling, not to mention good source of protein too, i like ;)
somehow, old cucumbers don’t exist in Boston :( but I make alot of lotus root soup :)