Ingredients
| 1 cup brown jasmine rice, lightly rinsed | |
| â…“ cup yellow split chickpeas/chana dal | |
| 1 litre vegetable stock | |
| 4cm piece ginger, sliced | |
| 10g kombu or other chunky seaweed | |
| ¼ teaspoon salt (optional) | |
| tamari or light soy sauce, to season | |
| ¼ cup sunflower or other plain oil | |
| 10 cloves garlic, finely diced | |
| 200g garlic shoots/scapes or other green vegetable, cut to stir-fry | |
| 3 spring onions, thinly sliced |
This is a more nourishing version of a congee or rice soup. The brown rice and split chickpeas add a nuttiness and lovely texture. You can add any number of extra toppings to go along with the soup, some suggestions are chilli oil, chopped coriander, white pepper, togarashi, bok choy or other steamed green vegetables, pickled mustard greens, shredded chicken or pork, boiled egg, chopped roasted peanuts, sesame seeds, sesame oil, youtiao/bread sticks, fried shallots.
Garlic scapes/shoots have a sweet, garlic flavour and are available in Asian speciality supermarkets and some supermarkets, but you can replace them with any other green vegetables suitable to stir-fry such as broccoli stems, bok choy or spinach.
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Instructions
| 1. | Put the rice and split peas in a saucepan with 1 litre water, stock, ginger, seaweed and a little salt if your stock is unseasoned. |
| 2. | Bring to the boil, reduce to a low simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the rice is very soft, about 1 hour. If you think your soup is too thick you can add boiling water at any time. |
| 3. | Starting about 15 minutes before the end of cooking, stir gently but frequently, as the rice may start to catch on the bottom. You want to end with a loose porridge- like soup – I always find I need to add about a cup of water at the end of cooking, just to loosen it up. |
| 4. | Remove and discard the ginger slices then season the soup to taste with soy sauce. |
| 5. | While the rice simmers, heat the oil in a wok, add the garlic and fry gently until golden brown. Scoop out and set aside. |
| 6. | Add the garlic shoots to the oil and stir-fry for about 3 minutes until tender, adding a splash of soy sauce in the last minute of cooking. Set aside. |
| 7. | Serve into bowls and garnish with the garlic shoots, fried garlic and spring onions along with any other toppings you like. |
Recipes & food styling Fiona Smith / Photography Aaron McLean / Styling Fiona Lascelles