16 cups water or vegetable or grain or meat stock
16 – 32 cloves Garlic, peeled, whole
2 inches fresh Ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 Tablespoon Black Peppercorn whole (or use Long Pepper, a Chinese herb called Bi Ba)
½ oz Astragalus Root (comes either in little pieces or long slices which easily can be broken up with your fingers)
½ oz Atractylodes Root (Bai Zhu)
½ oz Eleuthro Root (Siberian Ginseng)
½ oz Marshmallow Root
Place all of the above in large pot and simmer covered for 2 hours. Recipe can also be halved and made in a medium size pot.
Strain or take out all herbs with slotted spoon.
Saute finely chopped or minced fresh Garlic and Ginger in cold pressed Sesame oil. Use as much or as little as you want.
Add any amount, chopped any size of the following vegetables:
Carrot Mustard Greens, wash leaves and cut off tougher, lower part of stems before chopping leaves to desired size
Simmer as long as desired. Place tougher vegetable pieces in first, simmer and then add more delicate vegetables later so all are tender but not overcooked.
Add any amount of cooked Black Beans
Add the following seasonings as desired:
Sea salt or Tamari or Soy Sauce Fresh Cilantro Leaves
Add cooked Barley at last minute. If grain sits in soup for longer periods of time the grain can soak up all or most of the broth.