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    Home » Recipes » Soup

    Winter Melon Soup

    December 21, 2015 by Elaine 18 Comments | Jump to Recipe

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    Warm and comforting soup for autumn and winter—Winter Melon soup with ribs and other options you like.

    winter melon soup with ribs|chinasichuanfood.com

    Winter melon also known as Ash Gourd is quite popular in China. We grow several winter melon vines almost every year when I was still young. I did not like it previously when we were not so rich in food especially meats. Winter melon usually was in large size and we might have it on dining table for several days. And what’s worse, there is no unique or special taste of it. However, I like blank ingredient more along with the growing ages.  They can be the best partner for most of other ingredients.

    winter melon |chinasichuanfood.com

    winter melon soup with ribs|chinasichuanfood.com

    But my mind changes a lot after cooking the winter melon chunks with meat, including meatballs, hams and ribs etc. The fat can stimulate the freshness of the winter melon and on the contrast; winter melon makes the meat brighter and less greasy.

    winter melon soup

    For most of the soup recipes, I use high pressure cooker or maybe instant pot is a more familiar term. Electric rice cooker and high pressure cooker are the most important small tools in Chinese kitchen. And they are really excellent assistants. If you do not have one, I highly recommend buying yourself one. During my working day, I finish all the cooking staff within 30 minutes, usually a typical Chinese menu including a meat dish, a vegetable stir fry, a salad and a soup. Rice cooker is steaming rice while high pressure cooker is either making a soup or braising a red cooked pork belly. I may have my bread machine start working for the next breakfast.

    winter melon soup with ribs|chinasichuanfood.com

    Winter Melon Soup

    Healthy and warm Chinese Winter Melon Soup. Only 25 minutes with high pressure cooker.
    5 from 2 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Soup
    Cuisine: Chinese
    Keyword: Winter Melon
    Prep Time: 10 minutes
    Cook Time: 25 minutes
    Total Time: 35 minutes
    Servings: 4
    Calories: 259kcal
    Author: Elaine

    Ingredients

    • 1 pound winter melon , remove the skin and cut into cubes
    • 2 large ribs cut into sections
    • 3-4 red dates
    • 1 teaspoon dried shrimp
    • Green onion , chopped for garnishing
    • Coriander , chopped for garnishing
    • 1 thumb ginger , smashed
    • pinch of salt as needed

    Instructions

    • Place ribs in clean water, bring to boil and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes. Transfer out and rinse under running water.
    • Cut the rind of winter melon and then cut into large chunks.
    • Place red dates, dried shrimp, smashed ginger, ribs and winter melon with enough water in high pressure cooker; cook for 15 minutes after boiling. Or you can use a stew pot or slow cooker; cook until the ribs and winter melon are soft.
    • Add salt before serving
    • Place some chopped green onion and coriander at bottom. And scoop the soup to serving bowl.

    Notes

    Adding chopped green onion and coriander directly to the large pot of soup is not recommended, as they are easy to overcook and spoil the freshness.
    Winter melon needs to be matched with meat, bones or ham. There are several options:
    Winter melon soup with fresh meatballs
    Winter melon soup with ham, black mushrooms and dried shrimp

    Nutrition

    Calories: 259kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 13g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 70mg | Sodium: 86mg | Potassium: 232mg | Vitamin A: 110IU | Vitamin C: 7.9mg | Calcium: 28mg | Iron: 1.8mg
    « Hot and Dry Noodles - Wuhan Noodles
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Jennie

      December 22, 2015 at 1:32 pm

      Love all your recipes! More soup recipes please!

      Reply
      • Elaine

        December 22, 2015 at 3:40 pm

        Soups are planned in following months since it is quite cold now. Thanks for the suggestion. Happy cooking!

        Reply
    2. Susanne

      December 24, 2015 at 5:28 am

      I have a few Chinese cookbooks, which are quite good and authentic. But none of them actually describe the everyday Chinese menu. So I became a bit wiser now as yours consists of soup, salad, vegetables and meat. With a bowl of rice, I guess?

      The winter melon soup looks nice. It's not a common vegetable here and I'm thinking of possible substitutes. Maybe some sort of pumpkin with a less dark flesh, or even a regular squash. Possibly the squash will not keep its shape very well during cooking.

      The instant pot seems to be a very useful device. Guess I could use one, too 🙂

      I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas.

      Reply
      • Elaine

        December 24, 2015 at 4:13 pm

        Thanks Susanne for your kind blessing. I am busy with the coming Christmas and New Year gifts. I understand because Chinese menu arrangement is quite different from Western cuisines. We do not have starters, main course etc. We describe our menu usually with vegetables stir-fries, soups, salads, meat and staple food (as the steamed rice you mentioned or steamed buns, congee and noodles). That's really a great inspiration. I will post more photos of my daily menu in the coming year.
        Merry Christmas too!

        Reply
    3. Andreas

      August 28, 2017 at 6:43 am

      Thank's a lot Elaine,

      this is really a great recipe. I had some trouble identifying the winter melon, as it was labeled "Long Tong Kwa" in my local store, which seems to be a latin transliteration from cantonese if the internet is to be trusted. But anyhow, it's definitely delicious! Absolutely recommended.

      By the way, I always wondered how to make this after I saw the movie "Eat Drink Man Woman" (饮食男女) a couple years ago.

      Reply
      • Elaine

        August 28, 2017 at 9:31 am

        It is a great movie! I love it too, especially the great skills of cutting and preparing the raw food.
        It is the winter melon season now. We are eating it frequently in stir-fries and will use it in soup when it is cooled down on our side.

        Reply
        • Andreas

          August 29, 2017 at 5:18 am

          Hi Elaine,

          well, it's still summer here too (although the latitude of the place where I live is more that of northern Manchuria). But I'm a huge fan of "fighting fire with fire" so a hot soup is totally fine with me even if it's thirty degree Celsius outside 🙂 Anyways, you mentioned stir-fries. With what other ingredients would you use winter melon in those? My first thought was maybe to take the Moo Shu Pork recipe and substitute the cucumber with melon slices.

          Reply
    4. Andreas

      October 31, 2017 at 6:57 am

      5 stars
      Hi Elaine,

      I have a question regarding the dried shrimp. I've always used the kind which was somewhat red/brownish in color and had the shell and head removed. Now recently in the freezer of the Chinese grocery store I found a bag which said "salted dried shrimp" on the label. But they where very tiny whole shrimps (similar in appearance to Korean "Saeujeot" but dried and without the brine).

      So my question is, which kind of dried shrimps do you use?

      Reply
    5. Bernicia

      January 05, 2018 at 3:40 am

      Hi Elaine,

      Just wondering ,does it matter how much water we add into the instant pot? is it just enough to cover the ingredients?

      Reply
      • Elaine

        January 05, 2018 at 10:07 am

        Bernicia,
        If you plan to use instant pot, your water level should be around 2cm higher then the ingredient level.

        Reply
    6. Amy calahan, Boyaid jr.

      February 08, 2020 at 6:15 am

      Ok ! here's my question, which part of china eat winter melon soup? or is it Greater China ?

      Reply
      • Elaine

        February 08, 2020 at 10:07 pm

        Almost every place in China.

        Reply
    7. Winter Melon

      February 11, 2020 at 4:32 am

      Finnnally made this over the weekend after I got ahold of winter melon at my local Asian market, and omg it was sooo good! We had a snow storm, and it was the perfect winter treat! Thanks for sharing!

      Reply
      • Elaine

        February 11, 2020 at 9:52 am

        One of the best ways of winter melon is to make soups.

        Reply
    8. dan

      September 09, 2020 at 1:04 pm

      5 stars
      Hi Elaine,
      I just tried your recipe and it was great.
      Thanks so much for sharing it.
      Dan

      Reply
      • Elaine

        September 14, 2020 at 8:21 am

        My pleasure, Dan. Happy cooking!

        Reply
    9. Annie

      November 15, 2021 at 11:49 am

      Love this recipe, I've been making it for over a year now and it has become a staple.

      Sometimes we replace the winter melon with daikon (white radish), which holds its firmness a little better and doesn't end up as soft as the winter melon.

      Reply
      • Elaine

        November 15, 2021 at 8:24 pm

        I love daikon soup very much in winter season too!

        Reply

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