The Quintessential Ingredients for Chinese Oxtail Soup: What Are They?
There are hundreds of herbs commonly used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to cure illness; out of which, at least a couple dozen are used in everyday soup and broth. For this recipe, we will use 2 of the most common yet wonderfully nourishing Chinese herbs, goji berry (aka. NingXia berry) and codonopsis root (aka. Dang Shen).
Goji berry is a nutrient-dense and antioxidants-rich berry eaten for its nutritional and medicinal values. The codonopsis root, also called the “poor man’s ginseng”, is a very important tonic that’s suitable for all body types.
Don’t get thrown off by the nickname “poor man’s ginseng”, and think it’s not valuable medicine. Codonopsis root is similar to ginseng, however milder in strength, therefore can be consumed by the whole family including little children. The same is not true though for ginseng, which is powerful but can also be harsh and harmful for certain people. Codonopsis root is much cheaper than ginseng, despite great values in toning and strengthening our Qi (energy). Codonopsis root is one of the go-to herbs used in many medicinal soups in Chinese families. Now the nickname “poor man’s ginseng” totally makes sense, doesn’t it? You really don’t have to spend much to benefit from the nourishing codonopsis root.
OXTAIL SOUP RECIPE
Equipment
- Clay Soup Pot
Ingredients
- 1 lb oxtail pre-cut into pieces
- 3 tbsp raw apple cider vinegar or another light-coloured cooking vinegar
- 2 inch ginger
- 2 Codonopsis root (aka. Dang Shen) cut into 1-inch pieces
- 3 tbsp goji berries
- 3 potatoes
- 1-2 tomatoes depending on size
- 150 g buna-shimeji mushrooms (aka. brown beech mushrooms) or another soup mushroom such as enoki or oyster mushrooms
- 1 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
- 1/4 cup cooking rice wine
- 2 liter filtered water plus more for blanching and rinsing
Instructions
- As long as time permits, soak the oxtail chunks for a few hours in cold water and rinse to get rid of as much blood as possible.
- Submerge oxtail pieces in new water in a stock pot, bring to a boil then let it cook for a few minutes to get the inpurities out of the meat and bones. Although some prefers to skim off the foam, I highly recommend discarding this water and rinse remaining scum off the oxtail chunks. You will get a much clearer and yummier soup in the end.
- Cut the ginger into thin slices.
- Gently wash the codonopsis roots, then cut into 1 inch long pieces. The whole root is edible after cooked. The head of the codonopsis root (the bigger end) is the most nutritious.
- Add the oxtail, sliced ginger, pieces of codonopsis root, and vinegar back to the stock pot, cover with 2 litres of clean filtered water. Vinegar helps to extract the minerals from the bones. Simmer for a minimum 6 hours. Add more water if the water runs low.
- Meanwhile, peel the potatoes. Cut both potatoes and tomatoes into bite size of your liking. Trim off the roots of the mushrooms.
- After the broth has been simmered for at least 6 hours, add potatoes, tomatoes, mushrooms, rice wine, goji berries and salt to taste. I typically use around one and a half tea spoon of salt. Simmer for another hour. Enjoy!
Nutrition
Calories: 420kcal