Chicken-Ginseng Soup
When I first read the recipe I was a bit skeptical. Could ginseng be good in a soup? Even though I grew up watching my grandfather drank a cupful of ginseng tonic (I believe it’s ginseng root steeped in water), I’ve never cooked with ginseng before. The only way to know was to try to cook it. I remember I had a brand new box of ginseng tea in the pantry as yet to be opened. As I further inquired, ginseng could be cooked with some protein as a soup and it’s believed to have a healing property; mainly to release muscles tension and to increase the body’s resistance to stress (from Wikipedia). It’s a quite contradictory statement because if I read the side effects of taking ginseng I found out that it could cause people to be unable to sleep. How can you be relaxed when you can’t sleep afterwards? Maybe if one consumes to many ginseng this would happen, but not on occasional basis. Aside from that healing property, I discovered that the soup was pretty tasty. I detected a bit of bitterness and the broth looked a bit cloudy but they didn’t concern me too much. My photo was not very enticing if I may say so but perhaps someone would like to try the recipe and I’ve proved that yes, ginseng soup could be quite delicious.
Chicken-Ginseng Soup
Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1 1/2 cups)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups chopped onion
2 tablespoons diced peeled fresh ginger
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 cups water
3 (14 1/2-ounce) cans fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
3 cups fresh or frozen yellow corn—I used a combination of corn and peas
4 bags ginseng tea or 2 sliced ginseng roots
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion, ginger, and garlic cloves; saute 2 minutes. Add chicken; saute 4 minutes. Add water and broth; bring to a boil. Stir in corn and ginseng tea; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 20 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper
Source: adapted from Cooking Light, January 2002
