The Refreshing Chinese Soup Believed To Cool Down The Body

According to traditional Chinese medicine, when one eats too much greasy, oily, excessively salty, and spicy food, the body builds up in heat or hot air, leading to an excess of yang energy. The Cantonese term for this is yeet hay (or jit6 hei3, 熱氣). In Western medicine, yeet hay is comparable to inflammation. To remedy the effects of yeet hay, which can manifest as a sore throat, acne, or rashes, per Chinese medicine, one should eat more cold or cooling food, such as winter melon soup (冬瓜汤). Winter melon (also known as wax gourd or 冬瓜) has been a Chinese medicinal ingredient for centuries.

Interestingly, winter melon has a misleading name, as it's usually harvested during summer and fall. The winter in its name may denote how it is a cool ingredient, one that replenishes yin and counterbalances the yang or heat in the body. Chinese medicine considers a healthy body with a balance of yin and yang energy; one should be neither too hot nor too cold. After eating fried skewers at a Malaysian night market, one should gulp down some delicious winter melon soup to help restore yin and cool down the body. 

Winter melon soup is commonly eaten during dinner time, before consuming the main dishes with rice. It is a common dish during the wintertime, especially during Dongzhi Festival or Winter Solstice. However, it's not uncommon to enjoy winter melon soup during the summertime too, thanks to its cooling effects.  

The Cantonese, like our mother, often label American junk food and fast food as yeet hay, so growing up, we drank a lot of her homemade winter melon soup all year long. Winter melon, as an ingredient, is quite accessible in Asian and Chinese supermarkets. It's also a great vessel for carrying other flavors.

Thus, there is no one recipe for winter melon soup, although the base is usually a clear broth, flavored with chicken or vegetable powder or stock. With each spoonful, you get tender cubes of winter melon, with its flesh bursting and melting in the mouth. We recommend you try incorporating winter melon in your next vegetable-based soup, such as our shiitake mushroom soup recipe, as traditional winter melon soups often contain this ingredient. 

Other times, you'll find other veggies and boiled-down chicken or pork ribs. Then there are also winter melon soups loaded with seafood or dumplings. Finally, you can also find winter melon candies and winter melon as a boba tea option in boba shops.