Summer Mung Bean Sweet Soup (Vegan)

    

In Chinese medicine, all foods have a so-called “charge” of hot, cold, or neutral. This is not to be confused with temperature. It’s hard to define the metrics from a Western scientific lens, and often I’m left calling up my mom to ask a particular food is hot or cold. Typically, anything fried or baked tends to be categorized as “hot”, and most fruits and veggies are “cold”. In general, you want to keep your bodily hot and cold “qi”, or energy, in balance. When you get sick, it’s said that you’ve either got too much hot or cold qi.

The West coast has been unseasonably warm this year, to the point that we woke up this weekend to a forest fire cloud overhanging all of Metro Vancouver. Apparently there are about 150 forest fires currently burning up in BC. Keep your ciggies away from the woods, folks!

PSA aside, one of my favourite summertime cool-down snacks is sweet mung bean soup. It is super simple to make – just 3 ingredients – and you can make a whole pot at a time, perfect for a tea party or to keep for several days. Mung bean is one of those quintessential “cool” foods in Chinese cuisine, and I’ve added some dried lily leaves for some neutral texture.

*The photos look a little pink because I added some rose petals – gives a floral scent to the soup.

INGREDIENTS

Makes 8-10 servings

• ½ cup mung bean
• ¼ cup lily leaves
• 5 cups water
• 3-5 tbsp sugar, to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Wash and soak the mung beans and lily leaves in separate bowls, for about 5 minutes.
2. Pour in the washed mung beans and lily leaves with the water into a pressure cooker. Add sugar.
3. Heat on high for 15-20 minutes after boiling, until your mung beans get mushy.
4. Let soup cool for 5 hours or overnight in the fridge.
5. Serve and enjoy!

Brussel Sprouts Apple Salad with Sriracha and Lime (Vegan, Gluten-free)

Thanks A.C. for bringing this to my potluck! I am amazed at how dishes evolve as recipes migrate from person to person and across time and locations. This salad has roots (*pun intended*) in some swanky NYC restaurant. My friend A.C. ordered a sans-apple version of this salad at said restaurant, liked it, but decided to add apples when he recreated it at home. He brought it over to mine one night, I loved it, but decided to play around with the vinaigrette recipe and with roasting the sprouts instead. And so, three generations of salads later, this recipe was born:

One of the perks/quirks of growing up in an immigrant family is that I never ate Brussel sprouts as a kid. Or if I did, it would have been in an experimental bhaji doused with spices. So come adulthood, I did not retain any sort of Pavlovian aversion to these veggies.

But if you still wrinkle your nose at sprouts…try this recipe and tell me what you think. I first pan-fry the sprouts and then pop them in the oven so that they are more caramelized and not too bitter or fibrous.The apples provide a nice, cool crunch contrasted with the zesty kick of the vinaigrette and the warmth of the sprouts. Perfect transition for spring: phasing out the roasted vegetables and spices and bringing in fresh fruit and citrus!

INGREDIENTS:

Serves 2-3 (Appetizer-size servings)

• 1 packet of Brussel sprouts (~20-30)
• 1 apple (I used Fuji)

Sriracha Lime Vinaigrette:

• 2 tablespoons lime juice
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tablespoon Sriracha (add more or less depending on spice preference)
• Cracked pepper, to taste
• Sea salt, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
2. Wash sprouts, and slice off bottoms and cut in half.
3. Heat a pan to medium-high and add sprouts Season with salt and pepper.. Cook for 5-7 minutes or until sprouts are lightly brown around the edges.
4. Transfer sprouts to oven and roast for another 7-10 minutes.
5. Thinly slice an apple and cut into small pieces.
6. Combine Sriracha, olive oil and lime juice in a bowl/container and whisk well till blended.
7. Take sprouts out of oven and mix in apples. Drizzle a little bit of vinaigrette (you’ll only use about half).

Pair this with an open faced sandwich like beet avocado toast or some artichoke antipasto (shown below). After a ridiculous morning of essay-writing, I needed this clean, relaxing, quiet lunch for one.