4 Collagen-Rich Asian Recipes to try at home

Look around and you will find many food products for your meals at home. What about collagen-rich Asian recipes?

Collagen is the substance in our body that provides strength, stretch and support to our skin. With the exposure of sun, changing hormones and ageing, the body’s level of collagen changes. This would explain the boom in ‘collagen talk’ and the rise of skincare products containing collagen.

Fortunately, access to collagen is much closer than you think, where it can be found in a wide variety of ingredients. Below are 4 collagen-rich asian recipes which we strongly recommend to try and remember to look out for these ingredients when shopping for your groceries!

1. Chicken Collagen-filled Asian broth

Try cutting up a chicken and you will notice the amount of connective tissue you are cutting through. This poultry is a rich source of dietary collagen and is easily accessible in supermarkets around. Prepare a broth by simmering a chicken bones, and consume all the collagen goodness with some noodles!

Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken carcass
• 3 chicken wing tips
• 6 chicken legs
• 1 large pork bone
• 4L of water
• Salt
• Soya Sauce
• Chicken meat (from the whole chicken)
• Scallions
• 1 Onion
• 1 Carrot
• Clear noodles

Steps:

• Under cold running water, rinse the chicken, wing tips, legs and pork bone and set aside.
• On medium to low heat, boil the bones in a large pot for 3 minutes.
• Lower down the heat and remove bones. Put under cold running water again.
• Place bones back into the large pot and fill 4L of boiling water in the pot.
• Leave heat on medium to low and leave soup to boil for 6 hours.
• Remove skim on the surface of the soup when necessary.
• Top up soup should water level decrease.
• Season with salt or soya sauce when soup turns milky and thick.
• Split the pot into 2 and cool one to store for future use.
• In the other pot, add sliced onion, carrot and chicken meat. Allow to boil for 2 minutes.
• Add clear noodles in the soup and boil for 1-2 minutes (depending on the noodles)
• Serve in bowls when noodles have softened. Sprinkle chopped scallions over to serve.

2. Soya sauce Steam Fish with ginger and scallions

Fish is another common and accessible way to consume collagen. Fish or marine collagen is found in the skin, bones, swim bladder and scales of marine life. As these parts may be considered as waste products during fish processing, using them helps to reduce environmental pollution. Fish collagen is encouraged as it is known to have the best absorption rate and bioavailability due to its low molecular weight. This is important as it determines the efficacy of any nutrients one ingests.

Recipe

Serves: 4

Cooking time: within 1 hour

Ingredients:

• Whole white fish (We recommend barramundi)
• Scallions
• Salt
• Oil
• Shao Xing Wine
• Ginger
• 1 tsp Sugar

Steps:

• Rinse and pat dry the descaled whole fish.
• Make diagonal incisions on the top of the fish.
• Cut scallions and ginger (about 4-5cm long).
• Slice scallions and ginger thinly.
• Lightly salt the fish and sprinkle Shao Xing wine over.
• In a small bowl, mix the sugar and soya sauce.
• Place fish on the plate and pour sugar and soya sauce mixture over.
• Place cut scallions and ginger over the fish.
• Steam for 7 minutes.

3. Collagen-Rich Asian Pork bone soup with watercress

Porcine collagen is known to be the collagen found in pork bones and skin. A more commonly heard term, pork gelatin, is derived from porcine collagen and is used in confectionary and jello. You may have also heard or seen popular Japanese dishes such as ramen and pork stews around, and popular pig trotters dishes from China. How does one prepare a porcine collagen-rich dish you may ask? Below is our favourite way to consume the collagen.

Recipe

Serves 4

Cooking time: 3 hours

Ingredients:

• Watercress
• Pork Bones
• Chinese Honey dates
• Salt
• 3L Water

Steps:

• Rinse and soak the water for 15 minutes. Was them a few times in between.
• Wash the pork bones under hot water.
• Place pork bones in a large pot and bring to a boil for 3 minutes.
• Remove bones and wash with cold water.
• Place bones back in the large pot and pour water into the pot.
• Turn heat to medium to low and allow water to boil. Boil for 2hrs
• Remove skim on the surface of the soup when necessary.
• Top up water when necessary.
• After 2hrs, add watercress and Chinese honey dates in. Leave to boil for another 15 minutes.
• Salt for taste.

Vietnamese Pho- Beef broth soup noodle

Yes, you are right. Vietnamese pho has made it on this list. Pho is a popular beef bone broth based noodle dish in Vietnam and can be found in most Vietnamese restaurants. Beef bone broth is known to be good for gut health as it consists of the amino acid, glycine. Glycine help fight gut inflammation by laying new connective tissue. It too plays a part in helping you relax and improve quality of sleep. Hence, making this dish our top collagen-rich asian recipe we recommend.

Recipe

Serves 2

Cook time: 5 hours

Ingredients:

• 2 large onions
• 150g Ginger
• 7 star anise
• 4 cinnamon sticks
• 4 cardamon pods
• 3 spice cloves
• 1tbsp coriander seeds
• 2tbsp white sugar
• 1tbsp salt
• 3tbsp fish sauce
• 50g dried rice sticks
• 30g beef tenderloin, thinly sliced
• 3-5 brisket (for broth)
• Thai basil
• Coriander
• Lime wedges
• Sliced red Chili

Steps:

• Heat skillet over high heat until smoke can be seen.
• Place onion and ginger in pan to char. Set aside.
• Toast spices lightly over medium to low heat for 3 minutes.
• Rinse bones and brisket and place in large pot with water.
• Boil for 5 minutes and drain water.
• Rinse each bone and brisket under running water.
• In a clean large pot, add 3/4 water to boil.
• Add bones and brisket, onion, ginger and spices.
• Cover lid and simmer for 3 hours.
• Remove tender brisket and simmer remaining soup (uncovered) for 45 minutes.
• Strain broth in another pot and remove bones and spices to obtain clear broth.
• Add fish sauce, salt and sugar (if needed).
• Assemble with noodles, beef tenderloin slices together with Thai basil, coriander, lime wedges and red chilli on top.