During the hot summer day, Ben would yearn for a cooling Chinese drink like Ching Po Leung. Ching Po Leung can be cooked as a savory soup or as a sweet soup depending on what ingredients you add in. For the savory soup, meat like lean pork or skinless chicken is added in and season to taste with salt.
For the sweet soup version, rock sugar and more longan meat is added. This Chinese concoction is supposed to have a cooling effect to the body.
Ching Po Leung can be bought from Chinese herbal or groceries stores. It came packed with all the ingredients except the meat or rock sugar.
Ingredients
- from top clockwise, barley, lotus seeds, lily bulb, Solomon’s Seal Rhizome, Euryale seeds, longan meat, Chinese Yam and rock sugar in the middle
Click on the following link to check out the nutritional values of the individual components of this concoction.
Instructions
 Simply rinse the ingredients and place in a pot with 10 bowls of water and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 2 to 3 hours. The sweet drink can be served at room temperature or chilled. |
 Wild Chinese Yam (Huai Shan)Medical functions:
Source: http://www.healthline.com/health/chinese-yam#Overview1 |
 BarleyRich in protein, vitamins, minerals and amino acids essential for our health. Barley is one of the richest sources of both soluble and insoluble fiber. Insoluble fiber aids in helps to prevent constipation, while soluble fiber (known as beta glucan) mixes with liquid, binds to fatty substances and allows them to leave the body. Barley is also rich in tocotrienols, which is an antioxidant which helps lessen risk for contracting heart disease and cholesterol problems.
Source: http://www.nutritional-supplements-health-guide.com/barley-nutrition.html |
 Lotus SeedLotus seeds are classified as astringents, being sweet and neutral, and benefiting the spleen, kidney, and heart. The sweet taste and nourishing qualities of the seed are responsible for the benefit to the spleen; this helps stop diarrhea associated with qi deficiency. The astringent quality helps prevent loss of kidney essence, so the seeds are used to treat weak sexual function in men and leukorrhea in women. The seed also has calming properties that alleviate restlessness, palpitations, and insomnia (more so in the whole seed with embryo).
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 Lily Bulb (Bai He)-moisten lung, clear heat – stop cough, sore throat
-clear heat, calm spirit – low fever, insomnia, restlessness, irritability Source: http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/herbcentral/lilybulb.php |
 Solomon’s Seal Rhizone (Yu Zhu)-nourish yin, moisten dryness, lung and stomach dry heat with cough, dry throat, thirst, irritability, steaming bone disorder, excess hunger, constipation
-clear wind, nourish sinews – moistens sinews, spasms, dizziness Source: http://www.solomonsseal.net/abouttheplant.html |
 Euryale Seed (Qian Shi)strengthen spleen – stop diarrhea
-stabilize kidney – nocturnal emission, premature ejaculation -expels damp – damp heat or deficient leucorrhea Source: http://www.chineseherbshealing.com/euryale/ |
 Longan Meat (Long Yan Rou)-tonify heart and spleen – nourish blood, calm spirit, insomnia, palpitations, poor memory, vertigo
Source: http://www.powing.com/products/dried-longan-meat |
 Rock sugar to provide sweetness. |
Wow. I never knew that Ching Po Leung could be made as a drink. My grandma used to make it all the time for me as a soup, my favourite soup I might add.
I’m definitely going to try making this as a sweet drink come summer. Thanks Suanne!
I’ve always loved drinks like these – but I don’t think I’ve drank this version in particular ^^
How much did that pre-packed ingredient cost? I’ve always been weary buying my own herbal ingredients because I don’t know how to tell real from fake ><
My package of Ching po lung cost 99 cents at a chinese market in Des Moines.
Thanks for posting, I really like drinking it as a soup, never really thought of it as a summer drink. I find it very Gum Gum Day (sorry, not sure what the direct english translation is).