Red stemmed emperor vegetable (王帝菜) soup

 This is one of my favourite soups probably because of the salted egg which gives it a distinct flavour and taste. I find that the red stemmed variety is more suitable for soups than stir frying.

 王帝菜 in Chinese means emperor's vegetable and it used to be a rare vegetable prepared only for the emperor. It is known as Basella or Malabar Spinach also vine spinach and there are two types, basella alba which features dark green leaves and green stem while basella rubra feature purplish stems and deep-green leaves with pink veins. A distinct feature of this vegetable is the succulent mucilage which helps to remove mucus and toxins from the body. 

Ingredients  

1 bundle of the red stemmed emperor's vegetable

1 salted egg

1 chicken stock cube

Separate the leaves from the stems

Wash and drain the vegetable

Prepare the stock using the chicken stock cube

Add the vegetable

Break the salted egg into a bowl

Cut the yolk into small pieces

Add the egg into the soup

Season with salt and pepper and it is ready to be served