Pork Rib Lotus Root Soup 莲藕排骨汤

I happened to see two Lotus Root in Chatswood Westfield fruit stall today. They have only two left and well I thought, maybe I can just grab one for Pork Rib Lotus Root Soup. It is just great soup for Autumn season.

This soup is great for whole family. It improve the blood circulation, balancing your heart and blood pressure generally. And if you feel bloated after eating too much cheese (liked me), heavy meat and oily food, then this is the soup for you. It can be served as appetizer also. 

Chinese like to add extra ingredients, such as dried Optupus, honey dates, peanut/beans and cut scallion. It's really depends on your preferences. They all have their own goods and nutritions.

For me, I cook a simple version as I just want the best from the lotus root.

Ingredients:

1. Lotus Root (Peel the skin off, wash to clean and slice)

2. Pork Rib

3. Dried red dates

The quantity of all the above are flexible, depends how much you want to eat.

4. Little ginger thin slices

Instructions:

1. Put the pork rib into water, boil it. Then take out the pork rib. The purpose of this is to remove the strong smell of pork and pork blood. If you don't mind, you can skip this step. Personally I do that quickly but I am not sure how much nutritions has been lost. 

2. Prepare pot of water, add in all the lotus root slices. Boil it for about 20 minutes with medium to low heat.

3. Add in Pork Rib, boil it for 30 minutes with low heat.

4. Then finally add in ginger and dried red dates. Just boil it for another 30 minutes with low heat will do. (I will boil longer, liked 1-2 hours until the lotus root is much softer and it will be really easy to eat.)

5. Finally of course add in salt and heat for about 1 minutes before serving.

A simple soup which is good for whole family. :)