Watercress, Carrot, Fig and Pork Rib Soup

Why people make this soup

Nourilo has a personal fondness for watercress — he routinely buys it and uses the tender young tips as a filling for wontons and dumplings, finely chopped and mixed with minced pork, egg, and seasoning. The remaining stems, he says, are perfectly suited for this long-simmered soup. Watercress has a lovely mild bitterness that is familiar to anyone who has used it in salads, but when blanched in boiling water first and then added to a slow-cooking pot, that slight bitterness becomes a clean, refreshing sweetness in the finished broth.

In Cantonese food culture, “re qi” (loosely translated as excess internal heat) is the very common concept behind symptoms like a dry scratchy throat, mouth ulcers, constipation, or general irritability after a period of eating rich or fried food. This soup is a go-to in many households for exactly that situation — bringing the body back toward balance gently, without anything overly strong or medicinal.