Chinese Watercress Soup recipe

unrefined sea salt, to taste

about 1 water (1.5l if not using slow-cooker)

Method

1. Blanch the carcass in boiling water for 5 min and drain along with any scum. This makes for clearer soup later, the hallmark of good old fire soup.

2. Add the carcass, carrot and dates into a pot, bring to a boil, and immediately reduce heat to very low and let simmer for 2 hours, or more. I just dump it all into the slow-cooker and leave it for 6 hours.

3. 45 min towards the end, remove the carcass, shredding any meat from it, and set aside. If you use pork ribs, no work needed. Add the goji berries and watercress to cook.

4. That's it, season with unrefined sea salt if necessary, and scoop into a bowl with some chicken, and serve up with rice.

This is very light, no phwoar! of flashy flavours here, but there's something beautiful about how these delicate flavours all come together in a deliciously light broth. The watercress becomes meltingly soft, and the meat, tender and falling apart. The soup is incredibly nourishing, a perfect spring detox and antioxidant boost, and from the traditional chinese medicine point of view, blood-tonifying. A bowl or two is the Chinese mum's antibiotic to any sniffle or ache that might come with the spring showers.