In the dog days of summer, stop drinking cold drinks and make sour plum soup for your family to strengthen your spleen and relieve the heat.

In August, the weather is still very hot. Friends who work outdoors these days are very irritable. In addition to their skin being red from the sun, their clothes are always wet. If you are not careful, you can easily suffer from heatstroke. Loss of appetite, etc.

Some people like to drink cold drinks in summer, thinking that this way can quench their thirst. However, this approach is really not advisable. It can easily damage the spleen and stomach, and can also cause acute gastroenteritis and so on.

Drinking more light and nutritious soups in summer can clear away heat and relieve summer heat. What can be compared with hot pot in winter is probably sour plum soup in summer, and its nutritional value is also very high.

It can not only calm down liver fire, but also help digestion of the spleen and stomach and nourish the liver. The remaining ingredients such as licorice, tangerine peel, and osmanthus are very mild and can help us regulate qi and strengthen the spleen when combined with the black plum.

Sour plum soup has a long history. The original name was "Shigong Meijian". It was a summer heat-relieving and thirst-quenching drink specially made by the Qing court for the emperors. Later it became popular among the people. After improvement, the current sour plum soup was created. .

Although the name is sour plum soup, I think of it more as a drink. During the dog days of every year, my family will make a large cup of sour plum soup every now and then and store it in the refrigerator. Pour it into a glass of water when you go out.

The taste is sweet and sour, very delicious.

Many people say that the sour plum soup bought from outside tastes better than the homemade soup, because the homemade soup does not taste as good and is a bit astringent. In fact, I have not mastered two important skills. Let me tell you about it based on my experience.

Black plum, dried hawthorn, dried tangerine peel, dried roselle, licorice slices, rock sugar

The ingredients are not expensive. The ingredients used in one soup only cost a few yuan, and can cook many people. of portion.

The first step:

First clean the ebony plum and licorice, put them into clean water and soak them for about 10 to 20 minutes. Rinse it with clean water. This step is very important.

This is because, in addition to soaking out impurities, it can also reduce the bitter taste of medicinal materials. Without this step, the sour plum soup will not taste good.

Step 2:

Put all the ingredients in the pot and add enough water at one time. It would not taste good if added separately. First bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to medium to low heat and simmer for 40 minutes. You will smell the aroma of the ingredients.

Step 3:

Add rock sugar. The amount depends on personal taste. If you like sweeter, you can add more. The right time to add is to wait until half of the water in the pot is boiled.

Because one of the ingredients in the sour plum soup is licorice, if you want the taste to be more like a drink, you can omit the licorice, but you still have to add the other ingredients. Otherwise, the sour plum soup will not be authentic enough.

After the sour plum soup is cooked, simmer it for 10 minutes to make it taste better.

Put the sour plum soup cooked in this way in the refrigerator and drink it if you like. Or take it with you when you go out to cool down and quench your thirst. It’s a delicious and healthy drink in the dog days of summer.

I once invited friends to cook Tom Yum Goong at home. I cooked a pot of sour plum soup. After it cooled down, I added ice cubes. Everyone was full of praise.