This Angelica soup (當歸汤) or "female ginseng" is widely used in Chinese traditional medicine to treat gynecological ailments, mild anemia, fatigue and high blood pressure. This soup is also cooked for new mom in the last two weeks of confinement. It is also one of my favorite soups and I cook this soup 2-3 times per month. It is best for women to drink this after each menstrual cycle to revitalize. Bonus is this soup is very sweet and delicious.
Ingredients:
2 Chicken drumsticks
2-3 pieces of sliced Angelica (Dong Guai)
10 pieces of dried Polygonatum (Yok Chook)
10 red dates
1 .5 Tbsp. wolfberrie/Goji berries (kee chi)
6 dried longan
1000ml water
Salt to taste
Method:
1. In a stock pot, add in the water and let it boiled. Rinse all the herbs with water, drained.
2. When boiled, add in the chicken drumsticks and the rest of the ingredients except salt.
3. When boiled again, turn the heat to low and let it simmer for 3-4 hours. Season to taste with salt and serve hot.
Oh!! I love this soup!!My mom cook for me when I was in confinement.later b4 she left she pack each individual herbal for me and storage in frezzer.At that time I have no idea or can't remember which herb go with what,so my mom make prepack different type of herbal,I think I still have some in the frezzer now!!..Now you make me wanna to cook this soup again!!
ReplyDeletewah I also like to a bowl of this soup, so tasty and so refreshing!
ReplyDeleteI used to cook this herbal soup often but without the dong quai as even smelling it gives me headache..
ReplyDeleteThanks for this recipe. I'm hopeless with chinese soups and have been wanting to use this fresh ginseng which was given to me. Wonder if still edible. :P
ReplyDeletehmmm.. I can see goji berries in the soup..;-p
ReplyDeletewow... thanks for sharing... will try this soon :)
ReplyDeleteThis is very good soup indeed. I try to have it once a month. But then, I dun cook it myself. :P
ReplyDeleteI love herbal soups and Dong Guai is my favorite!
ReplyDeleteThis looks really interesting. I'm not entirely sure what a couple of the ingredients are, but it looks pretty tasty.
ReplyDeleteBeachlover, go cook this soup, it's good for women, especially after each menstrual period.
ReplyDeleteYes BBOven, I have yet to find anyone who doesn't like this soup yet. ;)
Sweet Jasmine, the smell can give you headache, that's something! As for me, I love the smell of Dong Quai. :P
SIG, you're welcome. Hope you like the soup!
Yes Jin Hooi. :)
You're welcome mikky. Hope you like it too!
Haha..baking fiend. You lucky, got your mom to cook it for you ya?
Ning, same here! :)
Thanks Fearless Kitchen. These are all very common base ingredients for Chinese herbal soup. Should be easily available in Chinese Asian supermarket. :)
Mmm, I like the dried longans in it. Makes the soup even sweeter.
ReplyDeleteWe made it the other day with whole Cornish game hens. It came out pretty good! We waited to put the goji berries in until about 20 minutes before serving. That way they don't disintegrate.
Dong Quai is very good overall tonic for females. As well as stinging nettle.
ReplyDeleteGreat info, thanks for sharing.
Thanks for posting this. I had my baby not long ago too.....
ReplyDeleteAnd I had this soup cooked for me every day despite the fact that I am not chinese and this is not really a confinement recipe. Its ingredients are readily found in Sydney's chinatown.
I love your recipes, BTW.
They're so nostalgic.
besides my mom's cooking, this soup is available at foodcourts, just have to find a good one that doesn't add msg into it! LOL
ReplyDeleteNow you can also add Mee Sua in there...if don't feel like eating rice :P
ReplyDeletehehe i normally don't boil my own soup at home...we are lucky to be able to just go to sous chef's parents place for nice chinese soups hehe
ReplyDeleteYes nate n annie, this soup is sweet.
ReplyDeleteI used dried longan in all my herbal soups.
You're welcome dawn, but I have no idea what is stingy nettle? :P Probably do a wikipedia later to find out.
Thanks implosion! You were lucky to have someone cooked this for you after you had your baby. Happy to have you as my reader. :)
OIC baking fiend, I forgot you can easily buy it where you are at already. :P
Tigerfish, I actually served it with mee sua that day... hehehe... because I was too lazy to stir-fry and the chicken drumsticks cooked in Dong Quai soup were delicious.
Lucky you Rita! :)
This soup is perfect for the weather in Perth now. I would love to have a bowl-sure will warm me up!
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love herby dang gui ... yum yum ... slurp slurp ...
ReplyDeleteJust curious, I know that this would be just annecdotal evidence, but how effective do you think Dong Quai is in dealing with PMS, hot flashes, etc?
ReplyDeleteI have heard many people say it works, but I have not read of any scientific studies that say either way.
Hi Dong Quai Girl,
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of it being beneficial in dealing with hot flashes and PMS though. So, I don't know. Sorry!