Chinese Winter Solstice Soup Tong Yuan
When I think of Savory Chinese Winter Solstice Soup, I think of my childhood as a Chinese-American gathering with my family to celebrate the start of the Winter season and Lunar New Year. Growing up, my grandparents would make this soup for our whole entire family to enjoy during each celebration. The comfort and warmth of the soup were perfect for cold winter days and the rice balls (Tong Yuan) signified unity & togetherness. I hope that my family’s savory Tong Yuan recipe will bring you joy, comfort, nostalgia & the chance to gather with loved ones!
Note: I tried my best to list out exact measurements but with homecooked meals like this my grandparents often measured based on feeling, so please feel free to tailor it to your own taste buds! Also, you can never have too many toppings for this soup, so if you want to add more of a particular topping like Chinese sausage - then go for it! :)
Ingredients
Homemade chicken broth (5 drumsticks, ginger + water)
5 Chinese Sausages
1/2 LB of Chinese Cured Pork Belly - Cantonese Lap Yuk
1 LB of Chinese Daikon Radish
8 dried Chinese Mushrooms (Shitake)
16 oz of Fish Cake - I prefer the Minced Dace Fish Cake with Scallion
1/4 cup of Dried Shrimp
5 garlic cloves minced
1 bag of Glutinous Rice Flour
~12 cups of water
Green Onion & Cilantro for toppings
White Pepper Powder
1/2 tsp of Soy Sauce
Vegetable Oil
Prep Work
Mince the garlic
Soak the dried mushrooms in warm water for an hour or until they’re soft enough to mince into cubes
Steam or boil the Chinese sausage & cured pork until soft so it’ll be easier to cut.
Peel the daikon and slice it into thin sticks
Making the Rice Balls
Mix 2 1/2 cups of glutinous rice flour with 1 1/4 cups of warm water (the warm water is essential because it’ll make it easier to mix and it also creates a soft chewier rice ball)
You’ll want the consistency to feel like soft Play-Doh, not too sticky and not too dry.
Create blueberry-sized rice balls
If you want to add more rice balls to your soup, feel free to make the rest of the bag of glutinous rice flour using warm water. Start with smaller portions of water until you find the perfect consistency. It’s a lot of trial and error but you’ll know once you have it!
Steps
Make homemade chicken broth (please don’t use storebought broth as the seasonings don’t complement this dish). In a large pot, add 5 drumsticks, thumb size piece of ginger, and water until it covers all of the chicken (usually around 12 cups). Let it boil, then reduce to medium heat for at least 2 hours so the flavors come through. Make sure to skim off any debris to create a clean broth once it’s done. Note: I just eyeball and add more water to the pot if I notice that the water level is looking low during cooking.
Pan-fry all of your ingredients separately on medium heat using vegetable oil and return to the bowl.
Note: Strain off any excess oil from the Chinese sausage & cured pork belly bowl before adding it to the broth, you don’t want your soup to be oily.Minced garlic with dried shrimp
Chinese sausage (fry with a little bit of soy sauce for extra flavor)
Cured pork belly
Fish cake
Add all of the ingredients to your chicken broth (daikon, mushroom, Chinese sausage, cured pork belly, fish cake, garlic, and dried shrimp) and bring it to a boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer for 30 minutes stirring occasionally so ingredients won’t stick. Note: Feel free to add more water to make sure that it covers all of the ingredients before boiling.
When you’re ready to eat, add the dough balls in! Once they’re done, they’ll float to the top! I like to cook mine for at least 5-10 minutes to really let it soak into the soup as it cooks!
Garnish each bowl with green onion, cilantro & a dash of white pepper powder. Enjoy!
Extra notes
Leftover soup with rice dough balls tends to get softer and sometimes mushy in texture which still tastes delicious! But if you would prefer a chewier texture, I would recommend cooking a small batch of soup and rice dough balls at a time versus adding all of your dough balls into the main soup pot.
The soup can keep in the fridge for 3 days.
