Snakehead fish and hyacinth bean soup with stir-fried cabbage
Snakehead fried until golden, then slow-boiled with white hyacinth beans, foxnuts and tangerine peel into a milky, sweet broth that strengthens digestion — with stir-fried cabbage alongside.
- 2 hr 20 min
- Serves 3
- Slow-boil
- Medium
Why it suits you: Phlegm-damp types feel heavy and tired with a thick tongue coating, and although Hanlu is dry, a damp spleen still needs strengthening without anything too drying. Snakehead supports the spleen and drains water, hyacinth beans and foxnuts strengthen the spleen and resolve damp, and tangerine peel clears phlegm. Frying the fish first gives a milky, clean-tasting broth, and cabbage keeps dinner light.
Method
Prep 20 min · Cook 120 min- 1Rinse the hyacinth beans and foxnuts and soak for 1 hour. Soak the tangerine peel and scrape off the pith.
- 2Clean the fish, pat dry and cut in two. Heat 1 tbsp oil and fry the ginger and fish over a medium heat until golden on both sides.
- 3Bring the water to the boil, add the fish, beans, foxnuts and tangerine peel and boil hard for 20 minutes until milky, then simmer over a low heat for 1½ hours; season with salt.
- 4Tear the cabbage into pieces. Heat the remaining oil, fry the chopped garlic until fragrant, add the cabbage and stir-fry over a high heat until just soft; season with a pinch of salt.
Cautions
- Snakehead has plenty of fine bones, so boil it in a soup bag and take care when eating the fish.
Chef's tips
- Ask the fishmonger to clean the snakehead. Pat it dry and fry it on a bed of ginger so the skin doesn't stick — a well-browned fish gives a whiter broth.
The TCM view
Snakehead is sweet and cold, entering the spleen and stomach, supporting the spleen and draining water, and frying tempers its coldness. White hyacinth bean is sweet and slightly warm, strengthening the spleen and transforming damp — the Bencao Gangmu says it 'stops diarrhoea, warms the spleen and stomach and clears damp-heat'. Foxnuts strengthen the spleen; tangerine peel dries damp and resolves phlegm; cabbage settles the stomach.
