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The Cantonese watercress soup (西洋菜湯) is one of my favorite slow-cooked soups that I grew up with. Slow-cooked soup, or lo for tong (老火湯) is a Cantonese specialty which is a broth produced by simmering meats, bones, vegetables and other ingredients for 3 to 6 hours. Essentially, most of the Chinese soups are great for health benefits and the watercress soup is good for releasing heat in our bodies and clearing sputum in our lungs.

Watercress is normally used in sandwiches and salads in the States and interestingly, I also found out the watercress is one of the main ingredients in V8 Vegetable Juice few days ago before preparing this soup. For me, I just know how to utilize it for the soup and yes, nothing is more comforting than having a bowl of hot watercress soup in the winter.

Ingredients:
1/2 lb baby back rib or rib (cut into chunks)
1/2 lb pork loin (cut into cubes)
4 bunches of watercress (washed and drained)
2 honey dates (蜜枣)
12 red dates (红枣)
1 handful goji berries
2 ½ gallons water
Salt to taste

Serve size: 6-8 people

Cooking method:

1. Fill the big pot with the water and boil it with high heat.
2. Blanch the ribs and loin in another pot with boiling water for few minutes until the scum has come out. This will give you a clear soup.
3. Remove them from the pot and rinse the ribs and pork with cold water before putting them into the big pot.
4. Add watercress, honey dates, red dates and goji berries into the pot right after the ribs.
5. Cover and simmer over medium heat for 2-3 hours.
6. Add in salt to taste.

Serves hot.