Autumn is finally here with chill evenings and nights. It is time to pull out the pots for herbal soups to enhance the ‘chi’.

One of the great remedy for restoring energy in autumn is a ginseng soup.  For autumn, I like to use the American ginseng (Hua Qi Shen 花旗参) which is less intense than the traditional ginseng. It will provide a balanced boost for yin and yang in the body.

I used a shop-bought ingredient pack called ‘Hua Qi Shen Dun Ji’ (picture below). It has American ginseng (花旗参), lotus seeds, goji berries, Chinese yam (淮山), fox nuts (芡实), Astragalus root (黄芪) and dried longan fruit. I also used approximately 500g of lean pork ribs.

If you can’t source the shop-bought soup mix, you can use American ginseng and goji berries with lean pork.

The soup gives me so much energy and warmth.

Ingredients

• 1 pack of ginseng soup mix (from Asian stores). The soup mix can be replaced with or 2 small pieces of ginseng, 1 tbsp. of goji berries and 1 tbsp. of longan fruit (for sweetness, optional).
• 500g lean pork
• salt to taste

Method

• Add pork ribs and water (enough to submerge the meat) to a saucepan, bring to boil, continue to boil for 3 minutes
• Pull the meat and liquid in a colander over the sink; rinse the meat with cold water to remove impurity
• Add the cleaned pork ribs, soup mix and water (enough to submerge the meat) to the saucepan again, bring to boil; turn the heat down to the lowest setting possible, simmer for 2-3 hours
• Add salt to taste