Chris’s Ginger Soup

So my friend Chris makes an amazing Ginger soup. Every time I go to Chris and Annie’s house for dinner, I make an effort in requesting the special soup. I personally have an obsession with lemons and love anything with lemon, and this soup has a lot of lemon. The only problem is that when I ask Chris for the recipe he just answers “ Just add stuff ‘till you like the taste of it, innit?”, but after one year of watching him make Ginger soup, I managed to figure out the recipe and even made it a few times on my own. I will provide a basic recipe for the soup, but Chris’s theory of “adding stuff until you like the taste of it” actually works.

(The amount for the ingredients varies depending on how many people there are and how much soup you want to make, also how much of the stuff you actually want in the soup)

·      Beef or Chicken (I prefer beef)

·      Ginger

·      Lemons (I use a lot)

·      Okra

·      Chinese leaves (or whatever green you like, I prefer Pak Choi)

·      Chayote (this is similar to an apple on the inside, with a taste similar to that of a cucumber, it looks like a green apple)

·      Hot peppers

·      Rice

First step is to boil a pot of water; when it comes to a boil you can add the meat and let it cook in the water until you think it is sufficiently soft (probably about 40 minutes)

While meat is cooking you can start adding some lemon juice, grated ginger and hot peppers (not all of them)

You can also add a stock cube to make it tastier

The vegetables go in last since they take the least time to cook (the chayote goes in first)

The main ingredients for a successful Ginger Soup are the lemons and the ginger, so just keep adding those until you like the taste of it. I like it very lemony and the vegetables not too overcooked, so they are nice and crunchy.

Cook a pot of white rice on the side, and serve two spoonfuls of it on the bottom of each person’s bowl, then pour the soup on top of that.

It’s a very simple soup; I love how I can add as much lemon as I want and the feeling that it’s so healthy (it actually is). Also, it’s different each time you make it, since you can change the amounts and even the ingredients. Enjoy!