Peanut Root Soup For Growth

The big princess has been obsessed with gaining some inches to her height, no thanks to some insensitive people who always harp on her height. To me, I think she's perfectly fine with her height. At 13 years old going on 14 in December 2017, she is about 156cm. I am only 158cm and her dad is not a 6-footer. So blame in on the genes! Why do these people like to comment on her height and compare her with her peers? DUH!!

As a result, the girl has been skipping rope 2-3 times a day, doing sit-ups and bicycle crunches several times a day, playing tennis (once a week), running, gymming and swimming (occasional) and spot jumping every single day with the hope that these exercises will encourage a spurt in her height.

Her loving grandma is trying to help too by boiling peanut root soup, a popular old folks' remedy  for children's growth. It is the 'Grow Tall Soup' very popular amongst the Chinese community.



Cleaning the roots is a tedious and time consuming part in the the preparation of this soup. Soil clings to the roots and you will need to soak and scrub them thoroughly, else the soup will be murky and sandy. When you buy peanut roots from the market, it comes with leaves and stems which are not required. Only the roots and peanuts are used to make soup.

Ingredients:
Peanut roots
Meat (pork or chicken)
Red dates (optional)
Wolfberries or goji berries (optional)
Dried mushrooms (optional)

We only used peanut roots and lean pork.





Method
 1. Soak, scrub and rinse the roots several times to remove all dirt and grit.
 2. Blanch the meat in some boiling water to remove dirt, blood and bad smell. Discard water.
 3. Bring water to a boil, add all ingredients and bring to boil at medium heat. Once it boils, simmer for about 2-3 hours or longer.
 4. Serve warm. The peanuts can be eaten - they are soft and  yummy.

Though peanut roots are widely used by the Chinese folks to aid in the height development of children, to be frank, I am not 100% convinced that they work. I had drank loads of peanut roots soup when I was a kid but still  I am only 158cm tall  😁 Nonetheless, there is no harm trying as the soup is both delicious and nutritious. The whole family can drink it.  To grow tall and healthy, I strongly believe that genes play a crucial part. Next is a balanced diet and exercise.