Fresh Smilax (Tu Fu Ling) and Grass Turtle Soup

Why people make this soup

When autumn and winter dry the skin, many of us start to itch. For others it is the opposite — too much rich, fatty, “heaty” food plus too little sleep lets internal “damp-heat” build up, and the skin reacts with itchiness, boils and breakouts. Grass turtle is a humble, affordable cousin of the prized money turtle, but it is still a fine soup ingredient that traditionally nourishes yin, moistens dryness and clears damp-heat. Paired with smilax root, it is a soup folks have long reached for when heat-type itchiness flares.

Method

1. Clean and chop the turtle, blanch it, then pan-fry briefly in a little oil until fragrant.
2. Peel the fresh smilax root and slice it thin.
3. Put everything in a pot with 2.4 L of water.
4. Simmer about 3 hours, reducing to 0.9–1.2 L. Serve.

Nourilo’s Tips

Ask the fishmonger to clean and dress the turtle and the smilax for you. The whole family can drink this. To strengthen the damp-clearing effect, add honeysuckle (jin yin hua) and dandelion (pu gong ying), 11 g each, plus 4 g licorice (gan cao). But fish those herbs out once the soup is done, so the turtle essence is not soaked up by the spent herb dregs. Note: not for pregnant women.