Chinese Pork and Squash Soup

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You won’t believe how easy this Chinese Pork and Squash Soup is and how this soup will transport you to your Chinese parent’s home cooking. The soup is known for it’s light flavor, sweet taste and white broth color.

A pot of chinese pork and squash soup with chopped carrots, served alongside stir-fried cabbage, pork in black bean sauce, and rice.

🔍 Quick Look:

What is it? Chinese Pork and Squash Soup is a common dish made in Cantonese households. This soup is served before eating meat and vegetables dishes to open up the palette (like an appetizer!). Try my easy Korean Ox Bone Soup for a quick broth appetizer as well!
🕒 Total Cook Time: 30 minutes
🔥 Cook Method: The soup is made by is boiling pork (usually bone-in for extra collagen) with squash, carrots, apple, and ginger in water. First on high heat and then on low, until the pork is tender and soup is milky white.
👩‍🍳 Flavor Profile: Chinese soups are light, not heavy with fat, and slightly sweet from the apple and carrots. Don’t be mistaken, it’s not a dessert soup and has a savory taste profile.
⭐ Difficulty: Easy! Simply boil the pork and vegetables, add a pinch of salt, and serve.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

This Chinese Pork and Squash Soup (known as ‘dong gua tang’ in Cantonese) is hard to find at restaurants, especially if you’re missing your Chinese family’s cooking. Good thing is that this recipe is super easy to make and you can re-create the taste of your parents’ cooking in your home kitchen. The Cantonese soup is meant to be served family style as an appetizer to open your palette. Pair the soup with steamed white rice, stir-fried vegetables like Chinese Cabbage Stir-Fry, and light meat dishes such as Soy Sauce Chicken In Rice Cooker for a complete Cantonese dinner for the whole family.

If you’re searching for more healthy easy soup recipes, don’t miss my Egg Drop Soup with Tofu, Easy Chinese Tomato Egg Soup or my Kimchi Soup (Kimchi Jjigae).

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🔍 Quick Look:
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Key Ingredients
Substitutions and Variations
How to Make Chinese Pork and Squash Soup
Expert Tips
Chinese Pork and Squash Soup FAQs
More Easy Pork Recipes for Dinner:
Chinese Pork and Squash Soup

Key Ingredients

Here’s a look at what you need to make this Chinese Pork and Squash Soup. I love how most of these ingredients are easy to find and fairly inexpensive at my local grocery (or Asian grocery store). The highlights are here but the full ingredient list and quantities of each are in the recipe card.

Chinese pork and squash soup ingredients laid out on the table countertop inlcuding pork ribs, wintermelon, ginger, carrots, apple and water.

Pork ribs or bone-in pork – Boiling the pork meat and bones will create the signature white color of the broth. Without the bone, the broth is not full of collagen and not as nutritious, however the soup will still taste sweet!
Ginger – used to take out the gaminess flavor of the pork. Using a little bit of ginger doesn’t give the soup a strong ‘spicy’ flavor, yet enhances the sweet pork flavor.
Fuzzy squash or winter melon – The squash is very light in flavor and when boiled, the squash is very soft and sweet. Make sure you peel the skin and give it a good rinse so you don’t have fuzzy texture in your soup. If you can’t find this squash, you may use zucchini!

Substitutions and Variations

For extra sweetness, you can add corn on the cobb! The corn is similar to adding carrots because it adds a nice subtle sweetness to your soup. If you have extra corn, you can make my delicious Korean Corn Cheese dip!
If you can’t find the fuzzy squash or winter melon, you can use zucchini or cabbage. We also substitute with potato as well.
You can add tomatoes, cabbage, goji berries, or jujube to enhance the flavors of your soup. This will make your soup taste extra sweet (the taste Chinese people love!) and nutritious.

How to Make Chinese Pork and Squash Soup

Pork ribs soaking in a bowl under running water.

Step 1: Soak pork in water for 1 hour and rinse in running water until the pork runs clear. Alternatively, you can blanch the pork in boiling water for 5 minutes.

Peeled winter melon on a cutting board with a plate of chopped carrots, sliced apple and ginger beside it.

Step 2: Peel carrots, fuzzy squash, and apple. Chop them in 2 inch pieces. Peel ginger. Rinse the fuzzy squash after peeling.

Pork rib chunks in a large pot of water.

Step 3: In a large pot, boil 6 cups of water. Once boiling, add pork ribs, ginger, squash, carrots, and apple. Add all optional soup ingredients (tomatoes, corn, jujube, goji berries, or cabbage) during this step if you wish.

Chopped winter melon, carrots, half a sliced apple, and pork ribs in a large pot of water.

Step 4: Boil on high heat for 20 minutes, covered.

Skimming oil from a pot of simmering water with chopped winter melon, carrots, half a sliced apple, and pork ribs.

Step 5: Then, turn heat to low and cook for 30 minutes, covered. Skim oil and blood impurities that rise to the top.

Adding a teaspon of salt in a pot of simmering water with chopped winter melon, carrots, half a sliced apple, and pork ribs.

Step 6: Season with salt and enjoy while hot.

Chinese pork and squash soup with chopped carrots simmering in a black pot.

Expert Tips

Prep the pork properly: Soak the pork in water for an hour or blanch it for 5 minutes to remove impurities and keep the broth clear. This also removes the gamy flavor.
Make sure you peel the skin and THEN wash the fuzzy squash or winter melon. The leftover fuzzy texture can get in your soup and make your throat have an itchy feeling.
Season your soup conservatively meaning don’t add too much salt! The soup is supposed to taste mild and slightly sweet, not salty. This keeps the soup healthy and you will be able to taste the flavors of the ingredients (how Chinese people like it!).
This soup is best served hot, as the hot broth is supposed to warm up your stomach and open your appetite before enjoying your family meal.

Chinese Pork and Squash Soup FAQs

What are the different cuts of pork can I use?

You can use pork chops, pork belly, or boneless pork, but bone-in cuts like ribs give the broth that white collagen color and flavor.

What other vegetables can I add in the Chinese Pork Soup?

I recommend adding cabbage and tomatoes to the soup as they are easy to find and inexpensive at the grocery store. This will add a sweet and slightly tangy (from the tomatoes) flavor to the soup. If you have extra tomatoes, you can make my Chinese Tomato Egg Stir Fry to serve with the soup.

How long can I store leftover Chinese Pork And Squash Soup?

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. Reheat gently on the stove before serving. For Chinese people, we recommend drinking the soup within one day as the soup is the most nutritious when made fresh.

What dishes go well with this dish?

You can serve this pork and squash soup with white rice, simple stir-fried vegetables, and light dishes like Easy Chinese Steamed Fish with Ginger and Spring Onion, Tofu With Black Bean Sauce, or dumplings like Har Gow – Shrimp Dumplings.