Daikon Pork Ribs Soup
Daikon pork ribs soup (白萝卜排骨汤) is a homely Chinese soup. This recipe is for those who prefer a pure daikon (white radish) soup, without the addition of carrots. Dried mushrooms, mushroom seasoning powder and dried scallops provide a delicious umami depth to the soup, which more than make up for the lack of carrots. My family said that the resultant taste, oddly but in a good way resembles our favourite tonjiru soup (Japanese pork & vegetable soup).
See Also:
- Carrot & Daikon Pork Ribs Soup Recipe
- Rice Cooker Chicken Daikon Soup Recipe
- Easy Chinese Soup Recipes
This is where I start from. It was the weekend when I made this recipe, so yay! I get to use my slow cooker. In my crock pot pictured above, there are blanched pork ribs (using prime ribs on this day but spare ribs are just as good), daikon chunks, red dates, dried scallops and the trio garlic-ginger-onion immunity boosters. I also added thin dried shiitake mushrooms. The dried mushrooms are cheap due to their thinness (but just as nutritious and delicious) and best of all, do not require soaking or prolonged simmering. They will work well for both the slow cooker or the stove. Just snip off the mushroom stalks, rinse the caps, then squeeze out any excess water. Wolfberries also need not be soaked in advance, and can simply be added to the pot during the last 5 minutes of cooking. I would say this is a really lazy but efficient way of making soup.
I accidentally left my slow cooker on HIGH for more than 3 hours. You can see that with prolonged simmering, the daikon turned brown after absorbing the rich broth. My family who usually avoids eating the daikon, said it was delicious and ate all of them. With this soup, we had multigrain rice and a pickled vegetable to complete the meal.
Daikon Pork Ribs Soup Recipe
This recipe covers two methods of cooking this soup: simmering over the stove-top and using a crock pot slow cooker
Pork ribs can be substituted with chicken: use one kampong chicken or 6 drumsticks with 1 chicken bone.
Ingredients:
- 500 grams pork ribs
- 1200ml water (for stove-top method) OR 900ml for slow-cooker method
- 350g daikon (white radish) peeled and cut into large chunks
- 8 thin dried mushroom stalks discarded, caps rinsed and excess water squeezed out
- 4 red dates
- 4 dried scallops
- 1/2 small yellow onion roughly chopped
- 4 garlic cloves don’t peel or mash them
- 3 slices ginger
- 1 tsp mushroom seasoning powder to taste; optional
- 1 tsp wolfberries rinsed
- salt to taste
Directions:
First, blanch pork ribs in a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes. Rinse pork pieces with cold water and set aside.
Stove-Top Method
Use 1200ml hot boiling water for stove-top method.
Add blanched pork and all the ingredients except wolfberries and salt into a large soup pot. Bring to a boil, then simmer over low heat for another 40-50 minutes. Add the wolfberries during the last 5 minutes of cooking/keeping warm. Season to taste with salt. For best results, keep warm in a thermal pot for at least 2 hours before serving.
Slow-Cooker Method
Use 900ml hot boiling water for slow-cooker.
In a crock-pot slow cooker, add blanched pork and all the ingredients except wolfberries and salt. Cook at “High” for 2 hours (starting from the time when the soup starts bubbling), then set to simmer at “Low” until ready to serve. Top up with a small amount of boiling water occasionally whenever the soup is reduced. During the last 5 minutes of simmering, add the wolfberries. Season to taste with salt.