Pea Soup With Pea Shoots (豆苗豌豆汤)

This past summer, cc2, Mommy, and I went to Beijing to visit our grandmother. On the last day before we departed, we went to the 清华西食堂. First floor is breakfast, second floor is buffet, and 3rd floor is a sit-down dining room. Though the food was rough around the edges, it was incredibly inexpensive and flavorful. A standout to me was this dish with both embryonic and juvenile pea plants. The cafeteria had not picked the shoots but the dish was flavorful and refreshing, a nice change of base from our other heavy meals and courses. I think I have done a pretty good job recreating this dish… since these small pea shoots from Wee were very tough I even recreated the undesirable parts :’)

Ingredients:

• Pea shoots (thin shown in image, thick is better! If thick remember to pick them :))

• 3/4 cup dried split peas, soaked overnight

• ~2 inches ginger, sliced small

• Minced/beaten garlic (I used 3 garlic scapes because all my garlic is currently rotted, it was very good but it’s quite an expensive substitution).

• 3 scallions, sliced with whites separated from greens

• 5 spice powder (I probably used around 2 teaspoons, quite a bit)

• White pepper (not as much, probably a small shake)

• Salt

• Soy sauce

Directions:

• Cook aromatics (ginger, garlic, and scallion whites) in wok with high heat. I went until they blackened, this is probably unnecessary.

• Add 5 spice powder + white pepper, activate for a few seconds but don’t let it burn

• Add water and peas. Amount of water depends on how soupy you want the final product, but should be enough to at least cover the peas

• Add some salt at this step, we want salt to absorb in beans

• Cook until beans are tender but had a bit of bite left. I wanted a combination of firmer beans and “melted” beans, so I used an immersion blender to break up some beans.

• Add scallion greens and pea shoots, cover for a minute or so until these are cooked

• Do the final flavoring adjustment with soy sauce and a little more salt. We want to preserve yellow color so don’t go crazy on soy sauce, but it adds a lot of umami to this otherwise simple dish.

• Serve over rice.