Lotus Root & Pork Bone Soup Recipe (with Video)

Prepare the ingredients
1. Soak the dried mandarin peel, dried scallops, and peanuts in 3 separate bowls of warm water.
2. Prepare the lotus root by peeling the skin. For any uneven parts that are difficult to get with a peeler, use a knife to scrape to remove the skin. Cut the lotus root in half, and then into wedges. Give the lotus root a good rinse to remove any remaining dirt.
3. Slice the ginger. I like to keep them in large pieces since the soup will be simmering for a while, but you could also do thin matchsticks.
4. Once the dried mandarin peel has rehydrated enough to be flexible, use a spoon to scrape off the pith (the inner white fibrous part) of the peel. Pith can taste bitter, so this will prevent bitterness in your soup.
5. Once the scallops are rehydrated a bit (they don’t have to be fully soft, as they will continue softening in the soup), break them apart into separate strands. Keep the water they are soaking in, as we’ll use that in the soup!
Blanch the pork bones
1. Bring a pot of water to boil, then add the pork bones. Blanch for a few minutes (until you see a lot of gunk in the water), and pour out the water. Give the pork bones and pot a good rinse.
Make the soup
1. Bring a large pot of water (I'm using a 4 qt pot) to boil with new water, tangerine peel, rehydrated scallop and its soaking water, ginger slices, pork bones, lotus root, and yellow rock sugar. If you don’t have yellow rock sugar, just omit it — don’t substitute with white sugar as it won’t be quite the same.
2. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and cover. You don’t want to cook this on high heat, as too much liquid will evaporate during cooking. Simmer for 2.5 hours.
3. After 2.5 hours, add in the peanuts (without the soaking water). Let simmer, covered, for another 30 minutes or until peanuts are softened.
4. Once the peanuts have softened, skim off excess oil off the surface of the soup. Then season with salt, white pepper, and chicken bouillon powder. Start with less seasoning than the recipe calls for and then season to your taste! This soup is best enjoyed hot!