Leaf mustard green

Small leaf mustard, sold in loose bundles, its stems and leaves separated for the pot — stems first, leaves after. Sharply bitter-pungent when raw, it mellows in rolling soup with salted egg, tofu or fish slices, always tempered with smashed old ginger.

TCM properties

Nature · cooling　Flavour · pungent、bitter　Meridians · lung、stomach

Traditional food therapy

In Cantonese soup practice mustard greens are taken to clear heat, bring down fire and cut stagnation — the household down-fire quick soup, though herbal texts also record a warmer reading of the plant.

Cautions — read first

• Cantonese food therapy treats mustard green as cooling, so if you run cold or cough easily you must boil it with big bruised slices of old ginger
• Those with a weak, cold spleen and stomach should drink only a little
• People with an underactive thyroid should take note before eating large amounts long term (brassicas contain goitrogens)

Preparation

Pull it apart and wash it clean, keeping stems and leaves separate: stems in first, leaves after. A quick-boiled soup (滾湯) must have old ginger in it to hold down the cold.

Origin

廣東、潮汕栽培廣泛 — Leaf-mustard bundles observed at Umall; Australian Asian-grocer stock is locally grown

Availability in Australia

Common at Asian grocers · A$2.09–2.09 / bunch
1 bundle, sale price (was $2.99)

Pairs well with