When the day is getting short, I start to make black eyed peas soup often since it requires only limited prep work and effort. Although no meat is used, I don’t miss anything.
HK-Style Black Eyed Peas Soup Without Meat
Over a decade ago, while I was living in Hong Kong, Mom always make Chinese soup for us. We grow up drinking a lot of soup, and we believe Chinese soup help nourishing and maintaining good health as well. But the downside is you need quite a lot of different dried herbal-like ingredients (and meat!), which I never buy in Japan or Germany.
Luckily, I found this black eyed peas soup is super easy to make, and more importantly, I almost had all the ingredients already. They are:
- Black eyed peas
- Dried shiitake
- Dried bean curd
- Cashew nuts
- Peanuts
I only need to buy dried dates/figs to infuse the soup with some subtle some sweetness. (You can easily find them in Oriental supermarkets nowadays.)
This black eyed peas soup requires no skill at all. All you have to do is to bring everything to a simmer and let the ingredients do their job. Another extra ‘ingredient’ is required, which is a little bit of patience, as a nice soup takes time to cook!
Ingredients
Serves: 2
- 50 g black eyed peas
- 5 dried shiitake
- 350 g soaked shiitake water
- a handful cashew nuts
- a handful peanuts
- 1 dried bean curd
- 6 dried dates (seedless)
- 4-5 slices ginger
- ⅔ tsp salt
- 350 g or more water
How to Make Chinese Black Eyed Peas Soup
- Prep work: Soak black eyed peas and shiitake overnight. Retain the shiitake water. 2-3 hours before cooking, soak the bean curd as well, then cut into 5 cm long pieces.
- Stir fry: Heat a little oil in a pot and pan-fry the ginger until fragrant, followed by soaked black eyed peas, also stir fry for a minute.
- Cut shiitake and dates: Remove the stems from the shiitake, then cut the shiitake caps into half(leave whole if small). Cut the dates into half.
- Add everything: Add shiitake, cashew nuts, peanuts, bean curd, dates, shiitake water, normal water and salt to the pot.
- Boil: First, bring them to a boil, then turn to low heat and cook for 1 hour. Add more water if it has been evaporated too much. The soup should turn to milky colour. Have a taste and adjust the seasoning. Enjoy while it’s hot!
