Pear soup is a common Tcm recipe, eaten especially in the fall for its lung and immune boosting benefits. This is a spin on the traditional soup, with herbs you might be more familiar with, swapping honey in place of traditional cane sugar for added lung support. You can make this as a straight sweet soup, eaten as dessert after meals, add oats to it for breakfast or use the broth for canning your pears for the winter months. Pears are used for their lung supporting, moistening quality, making this an especially relevant food for wild fire season. I was lucky and got 3 lbs of pears for 2$ in the ugly fruit section of my grocery store. There are also many wild pear trees around the southern island making this quite accessible medicine too.

Ingredients:

6-8 pears sliced or cubed - whatever is in season near you is best

1/4 cup raw honey

1 cinnamon stick

2 slices ginger

3-4 star anise seeds

Optional and highly recommended:

3-4 Chinese jujube or honey dates

2 tbsp goji berries

2 - 4 slices of dried astragalus root

For soup:

Bring all herbs to a simmer for 10 - 15 minutes. Reduce heat to medium low and add pears for another 5 - 10 minutes. Take off heat and add honey. Serve warm & eat the dates and goji in the broth!

For canning:

Prepare herbs as above. Coat your pears in honey and add to your clean sterilized jars. Add your steaming broth to jars covering pears at least 1 inch. Add a few decorative herbs if you wish and seal for canning bath. Store as usual and serve warm or cold as desired.