White pepper, lotus seed & pork tripe soup
A peppery, stomach-warming Cantonese soup with tender pork tripe and soft lotus seeds — just right for damp, chilly evenings.
- 2 hr 25 min
- Serves 3
- Simmer
- Medium
Why it suits you: Yang Deficiency means feeling the cold, often with a chilly stomach and loose stools, and Rain Water brings damp and chill together. Pepper and ginger warm the middle, while pork tripe and lotus seeds strengthen digestion — warming the stomach and clearing damp.
Method
Prep 25 min · Cook 120 min- 1Turn the tripe inside out, rub all over with the cornflour and coarse salt for 2–3 minutes, snip off excess fat and rinse. Do both sides.
- 2Start the tripe in cold water with 2 slices of ginger, boil for 5 minutes, then rinse and scrape off any white film.
- 3Rinse the lotus seeds and crush the peppercorns with the flat of a knife. Add both to 2.5 litres of boiling water with the tripe, red dates and remaining ginger.
- 4Boil hard for 15 minutes, then simmer gently for 1½–2 hours until the tripe is tender. Salt just before serving.
- 5Lift out the tripe, cut into strips and dip in soy sauce; serve with rice and the soup.
Cautions
- Pepper is hot — pause this soup when you have a sore throat, mouth ulcers or other signs of heat.
Chef's tips
- Ask the wet-market pork stall to clean the tripe for you, then give it one more cornflour rub at home.
- Not keen on heat? Start with half a tablespoon of peppercorns and add more if it isn't warming enough.
The TCM view
White pepper is pungent and hot; it warms the middle, dispels cold and clears phlegm. Pork tripe is sweet and warm and strengthens the spleen and stomach; lotus seed is sweet, astringent and neutral and firms loose stools; ginger and red dates are warm and settle the stomach. Pungent, sweet and warm, it lifts spleen yang so cold damp can clear.
