Mustard greens, salted egg and pork soup
Winter mustard greens simmered with salted egg and lean pork in minutes — clean, gently bitter-sweet, no extra salt needed, served with brown rice.
- 30 min
- Serves 3
- Quick soup
- Easy
Why it suits you: Phlegm-Dampness brings heaviness and phlegm, and in Major Snow you hardly sweat. Pungent mustard greens clear phlegm and move qi, lean pork nourishes lightly and salted egg seasons instead of salt — a clear, low-fat soup with brown rice, eaten to 70% full.
Method
Prep 10 min · Cook 20 min- 1Wash the mustard greens and cut into large pieces. Slice the pork and marinate with the soy sauce, cornflour and oil for 10 minutes.
- 2Crack the salted egg and separate the white from the yolk; dice the yolk.
- 3Bring the water and ginger to the boil, add the mustard greens and boil hard for 8 minutes until soft, then add the diced yolk and boil 3 minutes more.
- 4Add the pork and cook for about 2 minutes until it changes colour. Stir in the egg white just before turning off the heat, taste, and serve with the brown rice.
Cautions
- Salted egg is high in sodium; with high blood pressure or kidney disease, half an egg is enough.
Chef's tips
- Boil the mustard greens for the full 8 minutes and the bitterness mellows into sweetness; for less salt, leave out the egg white.
The TCM view
Mustard greens are pungent; they open the lungs, clear phlegm, warm the middle and move qi. Ginger is pungent and warm and dispels cold-damp; lean pork is sweet, salty and neutral and nourishes without heaviness; a little salted egg, sweet, salty and cool, seasons and softens the pungency. Light and gently warming, it clears phlegm without upsetting digestion.
