Shark's Fin Melon Soup

Let me introduce you to the flavorful shark’s fin melon soup: a hearty Chinese soup cooked with chicken, carrots, corn, and a simple mix of Chinese herbs like honey dates, red dates, and goji berries.

This delicious soup is easy to prepare with just a few simple ingredients. If you’ve ever wondered what to do with a shark’s fin melon, now is your chance to pick one up from the market and dive into this delightful recipe.

Use shark's fin melon instead of shark fin

Instead of using real shark fin, you can use shark’s fin melon. Similar to spaghetti squash, the flesh of a shark’s fin melon (Cucurbita ficifolia) becomes stringy and thread-like when cooked.

After cooking, the melon’s flesh changes from white to translucent, resembling the texture of a cooked shark’s fin.

These qualities make shark’s fin melon a great alternative to real shark fin in many shark fin recipes.

Ingredients for shark's fin melon soup

Shark’s fin melon

A shark’s fin melon can be quite large, and we need only about 1.5 kg of melon for this soup. A small melon weighs about 2 kilograms, and most averages about 3 kilograms.

You can usually buy just a section of the melon instead of the whole melon. Plus, the skin of the melon can be difficult to cut even with the sharpest knife.

It is safer and more efficient if you can get the melon cut up for you when you buy it. Try getting the melon cut up into two halves or four quarters.

Chicken

I use half a regular chicken to prepare this soup, but you can use a small young chicken (or a spring chicken), a black silky chicken, or even a cornish hen.

Chinese herbs: honey dates, red dates, and goji berries

Honey dates, red dates, and goji berries are some of the most common Chinese herbs you can get. These ingredients lend natural sweetness to the soup and a most unmistakable Chinese herbal soup flavor.

If you cannot find these ingredients, the soup can do without them, but I suggest doubling the amount of carrots and corn from the one in the recipe.

Vegetables: carrot and corn

Both carrots and corn give natural sweetness to the soup, so they have a similar role to the Chinese herbs.

If you use only these two ingredients and opt out of the Chinese herbs, your soup will have a different flavor from the intended recipe. But don’t worry, it will still be a delicious soup!

How to cook shark's fin melon soup

1. Prep melon

With a very sharp knife, remove the skin from the melon. Remove the seeds, and then cut the melon into big chunks.

2. Prep chicken

Cut the skin and trim the fat from the chicken.

3. Cook the soup

Add the chicken, carrot, corn, honey dates, red dates, and melon chunks into a soup pot. Add water to the pot, cook until boiling over medium-high heat, and continue boiling for 5 minutes.

4. Simmer the soup

Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for another 90 minutes.

5. Add goji berries

Add goji berries and season the soup with salt. Cook for another 10 minutes.

6. Serve the soup

Turn off the heat and serve the soup with steamed rice.