Soup of Spinach, Basil, Onion

Ingredients: fresh English spinach, fresh basil, onion, salt, egg, Chinese Five Spice powder.

Method: Cut greens from stems, stack, cross cut into thin strips.  Slice onion into thinnish rings.  Ripe fresh basil into smaller pieces.  Break egg into a small dish.  Simmer greens till soft to your liking (I like 3- 4 minutes);  increase temperature to a rolling boil and drop in the egg, fast whisk with a fork to set into strands; drop temperature back down to a simmer, throw in the onion and basil and spice. Simmer around a minute then take off the heat.  Add salt to taste (I’ll add salt till any bitterness from the greens has almost gone – little salt, taste it, little more salt, taste it.  I will leave it perhaps a tiny bit bitter.  Try less.  You can always add more).

Variations: add chicken per the centre photograph.  Beef, prawns, fish, squid would also work.

Soup of Chicken, Egg, Corn, Greens

Ingredients: chicken, corn, Chinese five spice powder, salt, whole raw egg, greens

Method: boil water, pop in the shredded chicken, corn, bring to a rolling boil, make space in the centre of the pan and whisk in the raw egg to shred it out into strands as it hits the hot water; cut the heat as soon as you see the egg string out, then add spice and greens and simmer till the greens are to your liking.  Salt to taste.

Tips: Chicken – store your baked or pan fried leftovers in zip-lock bags in the freezer for days such as this.  Corn – can be fresh or frozen or even canned. Spice – I buy mine cheaply and in bulk, see the reasons why here and also here.