Chinese herbal soups - a delicious form of dietary therapy

The Chinese believes that a person's health is affected by the kind of food he consume.

All food items are believed to contain properties that affect bodily functions.

In fact, every ingredient in the chinese kitchen is supposed to have different effects on the body. These can therefore be manipulated to promote good health.

"Good health begins with a healthy diet"

Food are deliberately combined and prepared and the effects of the food items on the person's constitution considered.

The final aim is good health.

Cooking with chinese herbs

Although all food items have properties that affect health, some of these are extra special.

They are more commonly known as chinese herbs and some have very well-known curative functions.

Cooking with chinese herbs is a common approach in chinese cooking. One of the easiest ways to use chinese herbs is in soups. Adding chinese herbs to soups is a long tradition and a distinctive feature of chinese soups.

Chinese herbal soups is different from the medicinal decoctions prescribed by traditional chinese medicine practitioners.

Decoctions are usually blackish in color, very bitter and have very strong smell while chinese herbal soups are much more palatable. They are gentle tonics meant to nourish the body and maintain proper bodily functions.

If you are interested in chinese herbs and using them to cook, I recommend taking a look at Terry Tan's Cooking with Chinese Herbs. Terry Tan is a veteran when it comes to Chinese cooking, with over 40 years of experience and 20 cookbooks. See more details at Cooking with Chinese herbs

Another book that is worth looking at is Nina Simond's A Spoonful of Ginger : Irresistible Health-Giving Recipes from Asian Kitchens. If you have been cooking chinese food, Nina Simonds might be a familiar name. See more details at A spoonful of ginger

The Cooking pots

I wish I can say that you do not need special equipment to make chinese herbal soups. But you do.

A number of chinese herbs react with metal so it is not advisable to cook herbal soups in pots made with metal. The ideal soup pots for cooking chinese herbal soups are the slow cooker, the ceramic double boiling jar, and the claypot.

The slow cooker is great for making herbal soups. Not only does it have a earthern inner pot, it can control the cooking temperature and achieve a steady simmer without needing close supervision.

Do you know...
You can get your friendly neighbourhood chinese medicinal hall owner to pack little sachets of chinese soup packs according to your recipes.

If you happen to have a medicinal hall that sell chinese herbs loose as compared to all vacuum-packed in standard sizes. Show them the soup recipes and ask them to pack and label accordingly. Open a pack when you are ready to cook.