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I am thankful for the advice my Chinese acupuncturist offered me right before giving birth. She advised me to eat pig’s feet soup with black vinegar, ginger and brown sugar every day for the first six weeks. She also warned me not to drink or eat anything cold and to only consume warm beverages and foods. I believe because of this advice along with eating other nourishing foods like liver, that I had a ton of energy, no problems with milk production and did not experience any postpartum depression.
Ingredients
- 2 pasture-raised pig trotters
- 2 1/2 cups Chinese black vinegar (it can be found at an Asian market) or balsalmic vinegar if you can’t find the Chinese black vinegar
- 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp coconut sugar (helps to balance the vinegar in the recipe)
- 1/2 cup coconut aminos or naturally fermented organic soy sauce
- Filtered water
- 2-inch piece of organic ginger, sliced
- Pastured eggs (have at least 2 per bowl of soup)
- Organic zoodles (spiralized organic zucchini), brown rice noodles or soaked/cooked brown rice (optional)
Instructions
- Get your butcher to cut the pig trotters into one-inch pieces (optional, but extracts the minerals better).
- Cover the trotters with filtered water in a large pot, cover with a lid and bring to a boil for 10 minutes.
- Drain the water, rinse with cold filtered water.
- Fill the pot with the trotters halfway full with filtered water. Add the black vinegar, coconut sugar, coconut aminos and ginger. If the trotters are not covered, add more water until they are covered.
- Cover with a lid and bring to a boil. Once it reaches a boil, simmer for 45 minutes.
- Towards the end of the simmering time, boil eggs to have ready for the soup.
- Add boiled pastured eggs to a bowl and cover with soup. You can add organic zoodles (spiralized organic zucchini), brown rice noodles or soaked/cooked brown rice to the bowl to make this a more complete meal, but it is completely optional. Be sure to drink this every day for the first 6 weeks postpartum. Enjoy!
Can you use chicken feet instead!
Hi Toni – I haven’t tried it with chicken feet, but I’m sure there would still be great benefits! Let me know how it goes.
We’re supposed to eat according to our own ethnic heritage. Is this what your ancestors ate after birthing a child? Just asking.
Chinese black vinegar? Coconut aminos?
I’m not sure what my ancestors ate after birthing a child, but I imagine the concepts would be the same (eating warming foods, staying warm, taking it easy). I’m of mostly European heritage, but unfortunately those traditions have been mostly lost in my family.
The Chinese black vinegar (from what my acupuncturist told me) is to let all the “bad stuff” out after birth. The coconut aminos or soy sauce is more for the taste. Coconut aminos have an almost identical taste to soy sauce, but are a great alternative if you are trying to avoid soy.
Do you eat the 1 inch pieces of pig trotters that are in the soup or are they just to create the mineral rich broth?
They are to create mineral rich broth, but you could certainly eat the fat/meat off the bones. Hope you enjoy it!
How many servings does this recipe make?
I’m not sure, but I would eat at least a cup or more a day in the first 40 days/6 weeks postpartum. Does that help?
Hard boiled eggs?
That’s a LOT of vinegar, I just want to verify the amount of 2 1/2 cups is correct before I make it. That is a whole bottle plus part of another. And how much water do you estimate is being used in a large pot? Thanks.