Lotus Root and Pork Bone Soup Chinese Cooking Stove Top Version | BIG Bites MY

Lotus Root and Pork Bone Soup (Stove Top Version)

In a Chinese home, soup is always part of our meal. This is another soup that is regularly served during meals as I was growing up. Although cooking it in the instant pot / pressure cooker is fast and easy, I always prefer to boil my soups for 2 hours on the stove top because it's so much tastier! It takes about 15 minutes of prep time and then it's an easy 2 hours of slow cooking on the stove. So this is a really SO EASY LAH recipe! The recipe shown here feeds two, just double up accordingly if you are cooking for more. A bowl of steaming hot lotus root soup warms up the soul on cold, rainy days.

Watch video for step-by-step method of preparation

CLICK HERE FOR PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 2 hours

Serving: 2 (increase portions accordingly if you are cooking for more)

Ingredients:

• 300g - 400g pork bones / soup bones (1/2 a large bone - chopped up)
• 2 sections of lotus root
• 1 piece pork stock cube
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (see note)
• 2 small pieces dried cuttlefish
• 10 dried Chinese dates
• 3000ml water

Method:

1. Pork Bones:
• Place pork bones in a saucepan and cover with water (1000ml). Bring to a boil over MEDIUM LOW heat. Boil for 3 minutes. 
• The scum and impurities will float to the surface. 
• Pour away the liquid and rinse the pork bones under running water to wash away the impurities. Set aside.
2. Clean the lotus root. Wash all traces of mud away and slice into 7mm thick discs. Set aside. 
3. Rinse the red dates and dried cuttlefish
4. Bring 2000ml water to a boil over MEDIUM LOW heat
5. Add all the ingredients except for the salt - Blanched pork bones, lotus root, red dates, dried cuttlefish and pork cube
6. Cover pot and boil over MEDIUM LOW heat for an hour
7. Remove any scum and impurities that float to the surface
8. Cover pot and boil over MEDIUM LOW heat for another hour.
9. Taste and flavor to your liking. Add salt now if it's needed. I omitted the salt for this pot of soup because it was tasty enough for my liking.
10. Ready to be served
    
    

Notes:

• I used a whole piece of pork stock cube, so I did not add salt until the very end of the cook. I tasted and it was salty enough for me, so I omitted the salt. Use your own judgement as ingredients may vary slightly each time you cook, so the taste may be different too. 
• If you like groundnuts (peanuts), you can add it into the soup at the beginning of the cook with the rest of the ingredients. The groundnuts have to be soaked overnight before hand to soften them. I omitted that because I don’t fancy having groundnuts in my soups.