This is a healthy way of eating spinach. No oil. The miso paste also adds more nutrients. Sesame adds fragrant too! My kids who don’t like vegetables love this dish. I learnt it from one of the health book I bought recently.

INGREDIENT
1 pack of spinach
2 tbsp white sesame
1 tbsp miso paste
1 tbsp Thai chilli sauce (甜辣酱)

METHOD
1. Steam or boil spinach (whole) in work till soft.
2. Drain the spinach, keep some water for the gravy.
3. Cut the spinach into about 2″ length and arrange on plate.
4. Dry-fry white sesame till slightly yellow and fragrant. Crush the sesame slightly.
5. Mix sesame with miso paste and chili sauce. Pour onto the spinach and serve immediately.

Hubby doesn’t like it if I use ready-to-eat tomato pasta sauce, like Prego. Kids love macaroni in tomato sauce, occassionally they also ask for angel hair in tomato sauce as well. I have experimented a few times and found this recipe quite tasty. My kids love it!

INGREDIENTS
10-12 red tomatoes
1 tbsp dried basil
1 tbsp oregano
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 onion, chopped
3-4 pips of garlic, finely chopped

METHOD
1. Boil a pot of water, scald the tomatoes for a few seconds. Wash in cold water. Then, the skins can be removed easily.
2. Heat some oil in wok, stir fry chopped onion until translucent. Add in garlic and sugar and stir fry a while.
3. Add whole tomatoes, basil, oregano, pepper and salt. Simmer in wok, covered, for about 30 min until tomatoes softened.
4. Mash the tomatoes with spatula.

This gives you the very basic tomato pasta sauce. Can serve hot immediately with cooked macaroni or spaghetti/angel-hair. I like to cook a lot, and keep them frozen for future usage. If frozen, can keep for a few months (but I usually use within 1-2 weeks).

When used on pasta, can add in other ingredients like meat balls, sausage, etc.

The tomatoes can be roasted instead of boiled, which gives more aroma, but I dislike that because it means more consumption of electric. LOL!

The Chinese believes Winter Melon has cooling effect on our body. When purchase, should look for those covered with white frosts (you just cannot wash it away).

This soup is one very good alternative for vegetarian:

INGREDIENT
100g black beans
100g black eye beans (眉豆)
600g winter melon
8 dried black mushrooms
2 candied dates (密枣)
1/4 dried tangerine peel

METHOD
1. Wash black beans and soak for 1 hour.
2. Wash black eye beans and soak for 30 min.
3. Wash winter melon, remove pith, and cut into chunks together with the skin.
4. Wash mushrooms and soak until soft – throw away the soaking water.
5. Wash candied dates and tangerine peel. Soak tangerine peel until soft and remove pith.
6. Bring 1.5L water to the boil, together with the tangerine peel.
7. Add in all ingredients and bring to the boil again. Reduce to low heat and cook for 2 hours. Season with salt and serve.

This Burdock Soup is very tasty, with all natural taste, and I didn’t add any salt it was already so tasty. Of course, I know, the faux meat is already salted. LOL! Oh, if you are not vegetarian, you can use beef, chicken or pork instead.

Just to re-emphasize, burdock is a very good food. It regulates blood circulation, prevents high blood pressure, heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, stroke and lowers blood sugar. It is also believed to prevent cancer related disease. You can also cut this into thin slices and stir fry with other veggie to eat.

INGREDIENT
1/2 burdock (choose the thick ones)
1 carrot
1 corn
4-5 dried scallops (or 2 only if yours is big)
Some Faux meat (approx 200g)
1 tbsp QiZi (杞子)

METHOD
1. Put all ingredients into 3.5L of water, bring to boil.
2. Turn to slow heat and continue to cook for 4 hours.
3. Season with salt if you like.

Note: If you cook with conventional gas stove, then you need 3.5L water. I cook with induction cooker on power 3, I only use 2L or it will be too ‘watery’.

Since I rejected meat, I have been starving from nice soups. MIL and Mom think boiling soup must use chicken bones or pork ribs, or it will not be nice.

I found a recipe book on vegetarian soups. They are surprisingly delicious. That’s why I have been boiling a lot since early this year. I don’t really use any faux meat like many would guess. Natural vegetable ingredients can make soup even more delicious than meat based soup. And here is one example: Black Eye Beans and Peanuts Soup with Potatoes (马铃薯眉豆花生汤):

INGREDIENTS
100g black eye beans (眉豆)
100g peanuts
500g potatoes
6 red dates
2 slices ginger
1/4 dried tangerine peel
[You may add 6-8 dried oyster if you are not vegetarian]

METHOD
1. Wash peanuts and soak for 2 hours.
2. Wash black eye beans and soak for 30 min.
3. Peel potatoes and cut into chunks.
4. Wash and core red dates.
5. Soak dried tangerine peel until soft and remove pith.
6. Bring 1.5L water with dried tangerine peel to the boil. Add all other ingredients and bring to the boil again. Reduce to low heat and continue cooking for 2 hours.

Again, without any seasonings, this soup is very delicious. You may add some salt if you like.

Tell you what… this is the best-est soup I have made so far. Happened that my in-laws were here for dinner when I made this soup. Father-in-law keep saying that it was delicious.

Then DH came home without much appetite. He didn’t eat much, but he told me the soup was very nice.

Here comes the red radish, tomatoes and apples soup!

Well, I was supposed to use beetroot instead of red radish, but I bought the wrong one. Turned out it was okay and I am happy!

INGREDIENTS
1 large red radish
2 tomatoes
2 red apples
1 corn cut
2 stalks celery
2 potatoes
2 slices ginger

METHOD
1. Peel the skin of red radish, potatoes, tomatoes and cut into pieces.
2. Wash apples, remove core and cut into pieces (keep the skin).
3. Wash and cut celery into pieces.
4. Remove corn leaves, wash and cut into 3 chunks.
5. Bring 1.5L water to boil. Add all the ingredients and bring to boil again.
6. Reduce to low heat and cook for 2.5 hours.

I did not add any seasonings, and it tasted so well. I think you should not add any salt to help reducing sodium intake. It is so good that, if you add, it might even spoil the soup.

The other day when I boiled the Chinese Burdock (Cobo) soup, I used only half of the very large radish. Trying to clear my fridge, I took out whatever ingredients left from previous cooking and made this pot of soup. This can be made vegan if you omit the dried mussels – it tastes equally good (I added because I wanted to eat it!).

Ingredients
1 corn cut into 3 segments
1 medium radish or half a large one, cut into large pieces
1 tomato wedged
2 stalks of celery, cut into chunks
1/2 carrot, cut to chunks
1 pc (150gm) pumpkin sliced
6-8 dried mussels, washed and soaked (can be obmitted to turn this into vegetarian soup)

Method
1. Bring 1.5L water to the boil.
2. Put in all ingredients and bring to the boil again.
3. Turn to low heat and boil for 2 hours.

If you like, you may add some salt to taste, but my family prefers it this way without seasonings. The soup is very tasty with natural sweetness. Again, Isabel gobbled up the corn!

My 2 children, each like different veg. Isabel loves broccoli, and Ian loves spinach. But both of them love these veg for the same reason – they believe these veg can help them to grow tall!

I just want to let them get used to a variety of vegetables, so I have been trying to push for asparagus lately.

This asparagus is similar to the previous stir fry asparagus, with very small differences.

In this one, I used stuffed taopok (豆腐干) instead of the fuchuk. I also used a different seasoning –> nutritional yeast flake.

Nutritional yeast flake is very tasty and yes ‘nutritional’! It is often used as cheese substitute in vegan dishes. I once tried it but didn’t really like the fake cheese. Still prefer the real cheese. LOL!

Anyhow, the use of nutritional yeast here, to substitute salt or other seasoning is surprisingly good. My mom came for dinner and she specifically mentioned this asparagus very tasty.

I have been wanting to cook this dish since before CNY. But since I wanted to make my own dried cabbages, it took me so long to be able to make it!

Ya, I made my own dried cabbages, but I think you better buy them from the market. A lot easier and faster! :p

Well, to be honest, I think this soup is a failure. I think I used too much dried cabbages and too much of luohanguo (罗汉果). The soup became too dark and too thick. The taste isn’t that pleasant so I seasoned with some salt, and I ended up dislike the salt taste (been liking the natural un-salted soups all these while!).

Will share the recipe only when I get it right next time. :p

I read about Burdock somewhere, that it is a ‘heath’ food for Chinese, used to remove toxins from body as well as to prevent cancer. I finally saw it in Tesco, and apparently it is widely sold in the market. I just didn’t pay any attention to it before.

I used it, together with some coriander, pumpkin and carrots, and made this soup. This is a vegan recipe. For more savory or ‘meaty’ result, you may add in chicken or beef chunks.

INGREDIENTS
1/2 stalk burdock (roughly 250g)
4 stalks coriander
600g pumpkin
1 large carrots (or 2 medium)
1 tbsp QiZi (杞子)
4 red dates

METHOD
1. Wash burdock, peel and cut into chunks.
2. wash and drain coriander.
3. Remove pumpkin skin and pith. Cut into chunks.
4. Peel carrot and cut into chunks.
5. Rinse red dates and core. Rinse QiZi.
6. Boil 1.5L water. Put in all ingredients. Boil over high heat for 30 min. Reduce to low heat and continue cooking for 1 hour. Season with salt and serve.