Winter greens hairy bitter gourd eggy soup

My friend gave me some of her home grown winter greens and my sister friend gave her a huge hairy bitter gourd and she gave me half. I decided to make soup as it’s a cold day today. Also, I want to finished off my last 3 eggs. I am having this soup with rice.

Google: “Winter greens are green leaved vegetables, closely related to the cabbage, that are seasonably available in winter. Common vegetables described as winter greens are chard, collards, rapini, and kale. winter greens are also wonderfully versatile. The peppery heat of turnip greens are pungent and sharp when compared to the subtle grassiness of Swiss chard or the aggressive vegetal flavour of kale. One troublesome aspect of cooking these nutritional powerhouses is that winter greens can be quite gritty.”

Google: “Hairy bitter gourd is also known as Hairy Melon, Mao Gua or Fuzzy Gourd. An early maturing, vigorous F1 hybrid producing small green fruit of 20-22cm in length. Very delicious in stir-fry and soups. Hairy gourd is best grown on support for maximum yields and easy harvesting. Extremely productive in warm climates. Pick young fruit for best flavour. Very young chi quas can be eaten raw, but the vegetables are more usually cooked. They have a mild, pleasant flavour not unlike zucchini.”

I am glad to combined the two vegetables to make soup. They are great nutrition and so easy to cook. I have added eggs as I don’t have pork ribs to go with it. It’s a simple healthy, comfort warming and delicious soup for cold days. Let’s cook!!!

Ingredients

1 bunch winter greens, about 500 g, removed stems, and washed
1 hairy bitter gourd peeled, washed, seeds removed, cut into bite-size chunks
8-10 dried anchovies
4 c chicken stock
3 eggs
1-2 c water
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
2 Tsp chicken stock powder
oil
salt
pepper

Method

Bring the kettle to boil. Once boiled pour into a big metal bowl. Blanched the winter greens leaves for 1-3 minutes. Then transfer to another metal bowl with ice cold water to retain the green colour.

In a big pot, on medium heat, add 2 Tbs oil till heat up. Next add in the dried anchovies, stir cooking till light brown and softened. Now add the garlic, toss around for about 30 seconds. Slowly add in stock; oil will splatter, don’t worry. Next add in hairy bitter gourd, cover pot with lid; lower heat and let simmer for at least 1-2 hours, until hairy bitter gourd is cooked and softened.

Now add in 1 c of water, chicken stock powder and winter greens, bring to boil on low heat for a further 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. At this stage if you want more soup add in another 1 c of water. Stir to mix well. Crack one egg straight into the soup, stir quickly breaking the yolk to have small white egg. Followed by the second egg, repeat stirring quickly and breaking yolk and followed by the third egg, stir quickly and break yolk. Cook for until white eggs are white small pieces. Turn off heat and serve with a bowl of rice and a glass of white wine. Enjoy the hot comforting delicious healthy soup!!!!

Note: How to remove the hair from hair bitter gourd: Using a knife, run it along the side of the hairy gourd to remove the hairs. Then rinse it off and use a vegetable peeler to remove the skin. Chop off the stem end of the gourd and then slice them into bite-sized pieces. You can add pork ribs, goji, dried scallops, or dried red dates instead of eggs.