Simple Tomato and Ham Soup!

This soup is what I made out of the chicken bones, removed from the chicken breast (my homemade chicken breast sandwich meat). I had some sandwich ham from last week so I threw that in.

When use the sandwich ham or the cooked chicken breast slices to pump up the protein, don't put in too early and overcook them. Add them lastly after everything else is fully cooked to your desired doneness.

There are many vegetables that can add natural savory flavors to your soups or dishes. (I will talk about that later.) Tomato is one of them. The dried Chinese yam and longan also help to bring more complexity to the result, with a touch of sweetness.

The soup is infused with all the natural flavors released from the ingredients that I add no other seasoning to my soup, but if you like it, season away with some salt.

Ingredients (yield 2 servings):

• 1 cup of cut or diced tomatoes
• three longan pulp or with pit (out of shell)
• 3 to 4 pieces of dried Chinese yam (huai shan, what?), rinsed and drained
• one scallion, cut to short sticks
• 1/4 cup enoki mushrooms, cut into shorter strips
• 3 cups of water
• 2 teaspoon of goji berries, rinsed
• 1 slice of ham.
• salt to season (optional)
• ground white pepper (optional)
• chopped scallions (or green onions) to garnish

Directions:

1. Place tomatoes, longan, dried Chinese yam, scallion sticks, enoki mushrooms and water in a soup pot. Bring to boil and cook at least for 30-40 minute. I cooked for 1 hour. 
2. Lastly, put in your ham or chicken to warm up before serving. 
3. Put the rinsed goji berries in. At this point you can turn the heat off and let it seep for 5 min.
4. Serve with chopped green onions and ground white pepper. 
5. Season with salt if desired.