Teczcape-An Escape to Food

We are heading towards soup season here, as temperature starts to drop. So it's soup dish today-Winter Melon Soup.


Abeit the word "winter", winter melon is actually not a winter squash. Named winter melon because of the "sugar" concentrated on the outer green skin that resembles frost, thus the term "winter".

Winter melon is perishable when already cut and sold in wedges; compared to hairy melon/fuzzy squash typically sold whole and can keep for up to 2 weeks in the fridge. You can also use hairy melon/fuzzy for this soup if you prefer, depending on what's available in your local market.

When cooked in soups, winter melon is typically added in bigger chunks or smaller cubes. I have even "pulverized" it before but not to this extent that you cannot even see them.


Winter melon is mildly sweet and when the "puree" is added to the chicken soup at the last leg of cooking, it balances the chicken soup to perfection; more importantly, retain as much nutrients (e.g. Vitamin C) as possible. The winter melon "puree" also acts as a natural thickener to the soup - slightly thick, not as thick like a "cream-based" soup.

My quest for melon and squash continues...


Winter Melon is considered "cooling"/Yin food - cooling and/or moistening for the body. Apart from Vitamins C, B1, B2, dietary fiber, calcium, it also contains a unique compound - tartronic acid, that neutralizes the food-carbohydrates in the body and prevent the carbo from turning into fats. Another vegetable/plant that contains tartronic acid is cucumber. As a result, there are people who consume cucumber as a form of dieting. This acid is destroyed under heat though, so by cooking these plants/vegetables, I reckon the "diet-effect" is gone. But you still get the other benefits. You can get Winter Melon from Asian grocery stores in the US such as 99 Ranch.

Love the snowy white flesh