Chinese Peanut Lotus Root Soup/花生莲藕湯 [huā shēng lián ǒu tāng]

Recipe from Jannie Sze Silfverberg

Serves 4

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 5-8 hours

Ingredients:
- 1 fresh whole chicken or 500g of pork ribs
- 1 cup peanuts
- 5 pieces of lotus roots (I use the dried ones available in Copenhagen)
- 8 red dates
- 8 pieces of dried scallop or 1 dried cuttle fish (to give sweetness to the soup)
- 1-1.5 litres of water
- 1 medium size carrot, cubed (optional)

Directions:
1. Dump all the ingredients into the electric slow cooker and cook for 5-8 hours.

Tips:
1. To prevent choking hazards, blend the peanuts for toddlers. This also aids digestion.

2. Puree the left-over peanuts from the soup and freeze it in cubes. I will spread it on J's rye bread for lunch in the day care.

Nutritional Value:
Peanuts have a high source of nutrients with over 30 essential nutrients. They are high in protein and energy and have a high content of unsaturated “good” fats. Excellent for brain health and circulation and blood flow. Peanuts also contain a high amount of anti-oxidants that help slow down the process of aging.

For Babies:
This soup is NOT for babies under 1 year old, as peanuts are known to be high allergen food. However, boiled peanuts have a lower risk of causing an allergic reaction over roasting (as some studies have shown). Furthermore, generally speaking Chinese babies are not so prone to allergies compared to European babies, probably because the Chinese genes are used to all kinds of food through the centuries... haha. I tested it on J by giving him a little bit of the meat at 11 months, and he took it well, in fact, he loves it so much and asked for more. He has no allergic reactions to it.

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Additional Information:
This is a very nutritious soup. Instead of making rice, when I don't have the time, I dish out the ground peanuts, puree it and feed it to J on a separate bowl.

This is a very traditional Chinese soup, a Chinese delight not many Europeans will like. This is not my Significant Other's favourite. I didn't like this soup as a child when my mother made it in our home, but love it as an adult and I miss it so much when I am in Denmark. I drink and eat it quite often now. J, perhaps due to his half-Chinese genes, loves it even as a toddler :

Updated 26 January 2011:

After almost 11 years of being marrid, I am pleased to say that I was pleasantly surprised that he said it tasted very good when I made it today. I know he didn't say it just to please me, because he took 1 big bowl and asked for second helping. It must either because my Significant Other's taste buds have finally converged towards me, or that my cooking skills have improved tremendously :-P