Old Cucumber Soup[Pressure Cooker Recipe]

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If you follow us on Instagram, you’ll know that Chinese soup is a staple in our household. In fact, we cook these on a regular basis.

We enjoy Chinese soup because it is so easy to cook (just dump everything into the pot) and it’s so delicious, healthy and nutritious. You get everything – protein, fibre and carbs from the meat and vegetables. In fact, our typical dinner comprises a bowl of soup, stir-fry vegetables and rice.

It is also a very comforting dish after a long, stressful day.

Easy with pressure cooker

Pressure cooking is really great for soup because it only takes around 20 minutes to yield the most flavourful soup and tender meat. Of course, you could boil these on the stove-top (over high heat for 3-4 hours) or slow cook for 6-8 hours (over low heat).

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Adding carrots and goji berries

We usually like our old cucumber soup (lou wong kua thong or 老黄瓜汤 in Cantonese) pure but we added carrots for this recipe for extra sweetness, fibre and nutrients!

Some like to add dried cuttlefish or mussels, but we sometimes find them to be overpowering. Instead, we like to add goji berries and red dates (for most of our Chinese soups, actually).

Expect a sweet, flavourful soup with creamy, soft cucumber texture and tender chicken/pork.

Old is gold (and healthy!)

Old cucumber is considered a ‘yin’ food in Chinese culture with cooling properties. It is traditionally used to treat cough or sore throat and is said to have anti-aging properties. Old cucumber also contains vitamins A, B6 and C, calcium, iron and fibre. However due to its cooling nature, pregnant or menstruating women are advised to avoid old cucumber.

Other similar recipes

Old Cucumber is one of three Chinese soups that we regularly boil in our home – the other being ABC Soup and Lotus Root with Peanut Soup (click to see their respective recipes).

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We would also occasionally cook Ginseng Chicken Soup, Garlic Pepper Chicken Soup and Korean Doenjang-Jiggae.
Find or soup recipes here, and pressure cooker recipes here.

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Key Steps in Pictures

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Key Tips

* Pressure cooker is great for soups because you can really extract the flavours from the ingredients in less than 30 minutes (vs. 3-6 hours over the stove). And you get very tender meat.

* For this recipe, we used half chicken of parts (about 600g) and 200g of pork ribs. Of course, you can use whatever cuts you like (we sometimes just use chicken drumsticks or add pork bone soup) – but we recommend cuts with bones because you want to extract the essence and nutrients from the bones. It also adds depth to the soup. Drumsticks are great because you get both meat and bones.

* Obviously, you can just use only chicken/pork but we sometimes like to combine both meat (not the usual case for most households). Simply omit the meat if you are a non-meat eater.

* Regardless of what soup we cook, goji berries (about 1-2 tbsp) and red dates (5-6 big ones) are our staple additions for extra sweetness and nutrients.

* For pressure cooker, fill the pot with water until it just covers the ingredients. Remember that liquid is retained in the pressure cooker (vs. liquid being released for stove-top boiling). To save time, I usually boil a pot of water in a kettle and pour it into the pressure cooker (to reduce the heating up time) before pressure cooking.

* We usually add about 2-3 tsp of salt and dash of pepper into the soup before cooking. After cooking, taste and adjust to your preference.

* Let the cooker naturally release the pressure if possible. It should take about 10 minutes after pressure cooking is done.

* Soups can be kept in the fridge for the next 2-3 days. The soup becomes more flavourful the next day.