Vegetarian Bak Kut Teh

Bak Kut Teh or Pork Rib Tea （肉骨茶） is a soup that is a local delicacy. It is said that this soup originate from the creation of poor coolies in Southeast Asia. They are very poor and whenever able will gather whatever herbs they could get hold of and make into soup together with pork rib. The herbal soup is delicious and is said to boost their constitution. There are many version of pork rib tea, herbal type and the teochew more peppery version. But here I will introduce the herbal version but vegetarian style. If you want you could substitute the bean items with pork ribs.

Ingredients

3 sticks of Tau Kee ( Bean Stick) soaked for half hour

1 can Button Mushrooms

Other Vegetarian ingredients like tau pok, mock meat (optional)

Soup Base

1/2 piece shu di (chinese herb)

1 slice danggui (chinese herb)

1 stalk of dang sheng (chinese herb)

1 piece of bei qi/huang qi(chinese herb)

1/2 stick of cinnamon

1 star anise

1 honey date

1 tsp of white peppercorn

1 tbsp of black sauce

1 tbsp soya sauce to taste

4 Cloves garlic (optional)

Method

1. Boil 800 ml of water, add in the ingredients for soup base and bring to a boil, then switch to small fire for 40 minutes.

2. Add in the tau kee and cook for another half hour, then add in the button mushrooms and soya sauce to taste, bring to a boil.

3. Switch off the fire and serve the soup hot with rice.

Note: 1)You can add in 2 cloves of garlic into the soup base if you want but garlic will not be added to strict vegan dish .
2) If want to use pork ribs instead, add the pork ribs into the soup base when it boils and cook at low fire for 45 minutes.