Chinese Yam Herbal Soup

Made myself herbal soup today. Yearning for herbal soup for a long time. Plus I am too bored of the canteen food. Cant really think of what I can eat. I dont really quite like the herbal soup prepared outside. Too salty, too oily, too much sugar/msg in order to enhance the taste of the soup. All this makes the soup just a soup rather than a soup that can boost your health. Thus, I prepared myself a Chinese Yam Herbal Soup. Chinese Yam is a must eat once a week. *Wink* This soup is a healthy and beauty preserving soup. Why did I say so? You will find out later when I introduce the goodness of the soup. I will introduce the herbs separately next time or else the blog will be too long. Hehehe ...

What you need

• Skinless chicken (do not debone) - if you dont like to eat chicken, pork bones/ribs are fine. Here I used skinless drumstick = #1
• Shan yao (Chinese wild yam) - deskinned and cut into cubes. DO NOT wash away the sticky part. If you dont know why, do refer back to the goodness of Chinese Wild Yam in the Health section. = #1
• He shou wu (fleece flower root) - can easily get from traditional chinese medicine (TCM) store = 2 small slices or 1 big slice
• Dang gui (Chinese Angelica Root) - Hey Angel's name is in here ... can easily get from TCM store
• Hong zhao (Red dates) - depending if you like. If this is the first time you get to know about red dates, put in about 5-6 pieces. You can get seedless red dates too. TCM or grocery store
• Hua qi shen (American ginseng) - can easily get from TCM store. About 5-6 slices
• Water 2 bowls
• Salt - that suits your taste

Processing

1. Scald the chicken/pork/bone with hot water. Leave it for 5 minutes. This is to remove the smell of the chicken/pork/bone when you are boiling for the soup later. The smell actually comes from the animal fat. And this can effectively remove majority of the fats.
2. Put all other ingredients into a slow cooker. If you are not using slow cooker, use a double boiling method to cook it.
3. For slow cooker, cook for about 8 hours at low mode (meaning I cook this when I was sleeping) while 4 hours for high mode. IF you are using double boiling method, cook for about 3-4 hours.

*Double boiling means you put the container that consist the herbs and meat into another cooker which is filled with water. Refer to below for illustration

The General Goodness

• Anti aging
• Improving immune system
• Protects liver
• Improve development of red blood cells
• Resist anti-oxyen and fatigue
• Anti-inflammatory

If you think that you need a booster, why not try this option out? Although it takes 8 hours to cook, it's just a easy dish. Preparation require less than 15 mins!!! It just suit the needs for busy individuals as well as parents. So do not worry about your child health. You, yourself and family (for those who has and is working) can be healthy just by having this simple meal. Happy trying them out ^_^. It's simple and definitely it wont go wrong!!