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Herbs & Cultures

Chinese medical traditions →

Vegetarian eight-treasure soup

Sweet herbal soup with chestnuts, ginkgo nuts, jujubes and white fungus; warm or cold.

Traditional use

Time
Preparation 30 min, cooking 2 h 15 min
Makes
6–8 people
Snow fungus (bai mu er)

A beloved sweet herbal soup: chestnuts give sweetness, mushrooms and ginkgo nuts make it full and white fungus gives a crunchy bite.

Ingredients

  • 3 litres water
  • 1 piece tangerine peel (chen pi), rinsed
  • 2 dried white fungi, soaked, hard core removed
  • 50 g ginkgo nuts, shelled and skinned
  • 5 dried figs
  • 8 pitted jujubes
  • 8 dried shiitake, soaked, stems removed
  • 12 dried, peeled chestnuts
  • 40 g lotus seed, soaked overnight
  • 4 tbsp fox nut
  • 1 tsp salt, or to taste

Step by step

  1. Bring the water and tangerine peel to the boil.
  2. Add everything except the salt and boil for 10 minutes on high heat.
  3. Simmer gently uncovered for 2 hours.
  4. Season with salt and eat the soup warm or chilled.

Registry

Herbs in this recipe

Read more about effects and safety on each herb’s page.

  • Caution

    Asia · Mushroom · № 652

    Snow fungus (bai mu er)

    Tremella fuciformis

    Traditionally attributed effects: a tonic for the yin energy and the lungs; supports breathing, energy and a balanced blood pressure.

    Chinese medical traditions
  • Caution

    Asia · Herb · № 37

    Ginkgo

    Ginkgo biloba

    There is no conclusive evidence that ginkgo helps any health condition. A modest effect on dementia symptoms is possible, but results are inconsistent.

    Chinese medical traditions+1
  • Caution

    Asia · Food · № 636

    Jujube (red date)

    Ziziphus jujuba

    Traditionally attributed effects: sweet and strengthening in fatigue, anaemia and low energy; builds strength and blood and softens herbal dishes.

    Chinese medical traditions+2
  • Caution

    Asia · Food · № 131

    Sacred lotus

    Nelumbo nucifera

    Almost every part is used: seeds for diarrhoea and restlessness, rhizome as food, leaf for 'summer heat'. Scientific evidence is mostly laboratory research.

    Ayurveda+3Folklore
  • Caution

    Asia · Food · № 646

    Fox nut (qian shi)

    Euryale ferox

    Traditionally attributed effects: a tonic for long life that according to tradition counters ageing and gives strength.

    Ayurveda+1
  • Caution

    Asia · Food · № 801

    Fig

    Ficus carica

    Traditionally attributed effects: dried figs make Chinese soups naturally sweet, such as the watercress and spare-rib soup and the eight-treasure soup; they are regarded as moistening for lung and bowel.

    Chinese medical traditions+3
  • Caution

    Asia · Food · № 802

    Chinese chestnut

    Castanea mollissima

    Traditionally attributed effects: dried, peeled chestnuts give sweet soups such as the eight-treasure soup their sweetness; in Chinese food therapy they strengthen spleen and kidneys.

    Chinese medical traditions
  • Caution

    Asia · Mushroom · № 145

    Shiitake

    Lentinula edodes

    An edible mushroom. Lentinan from shiitake is researched and used in oncology in Japan; there is little evidence for ordinary shiitake as an 'immune booster'.

    Chinese medical traditions+3
  • Caution

    Asia · Food · № 730

    Tangerine peel (chen pi)

    Citrus reticulata

    Traditionally attributed effects: the ripe peel (chen pi) moves the qi of spleen and lung and dissolves phlegm; the green peel (qing pi) moves liver qi.

    Chinese medical traditions+2

Cultures and traditions

Where the herbs come from

The herbs in this recipe also appear in these traditions.