Watercress (Xi Yang Cai) Soup

I believe that making soup is probably one of the easiest and not to mention healthy way to start learning how to cook. I started out my first cooking adventure with a soup dish (herbal chicken soup) and I hope that this can be your first as well!!

I went to the market this morning to get the ingredients that I used for my soup and I've listed the prices of my items cause I thought it will be very useful for my readers to gauge the expenses used for cooking a simple meal. =)

Ingredients: (Serve 2~3)

1 chicken breast ($2.30/piece) (you can request them to remove the skin of the chicken and have it cut into pieces)

1 chicken bone ($0.50/piece)

2 carrots ($0.80) (cut into small chunks)

1 bundle of watercress ($0.80)

A handful of wolf-berries

A pinch of salt

2~3 big bowl of water (around 1000ml)

Directions:

Rinse breast meat and bone with running water and removed any excess fats from the meat

Boil a pot of water and place the meat and bone into the pot once the water starts to boil

Boil for a minute and replace the water with a new pot of water (this is to remove those top layer of the meat and bone which might "dirty" your soup)

Once the new pot of water starts to boil, place breast meat, chicken bone, carrots and wolf-berries into the pot.

Continue to let it boil under medium heat for 20~30 mins

Reduce to low heat, put in the watercress and let it simmer for 60~80 mins
Add a pinch of salt for seasoning (you can skip this step if you wish to cut down on salt intake)
Dish out and serve!! (you can just serve with a bowl of white rice and "chilli-padi" for a meal!)

For those who prefer pork to chicken, you can replace the breast meat with spareribs.

The total damage for this dish is $4.40 only!! And it serves 2!! So, easy, healthy and economical!!  

Update: I've updated this post by adding some red dates 红枣 (4~5 pieces) in my soup. Red dates are said to have medical benefits such as protecting your liver and strengthening your muscles, so add a few into your soup to improve your health!