It’s all about balance
Feeling off kilter? You might need to think about the yin and yang on your plate, as Ching-He Huang tells
CHING-HE HUANG switched to plant-based eating after seeing how it could dramatically change people’s lives. Her husband, Jamie Cho, started Ching-He on a “journey of self discovery”, the 42-year-old chef and presenter explains. Within a month of trying it himself, Jamie noticed improvements in his asthma, eczema and psoriasis.
Of course, everyone’s body is different and may react differently – it’s worth checking with a medical professional if you’re considering big diet changes, especially if you have existing health conditions – but for them, Ching-He says it was “quite a revelation”.
It encouraged her to experiment with plant-based foods, which initially felt at odds with her background. “Being a Chinese chef, we experiment, and being a Chinese food connoisseur you’ve got to try everything,” she confesses. However, Ching-He did find plant-based eating aligned well with the Chinese philosophies she’d been brought up on by her family in Southern Taiwan.
“I’ve always believed in ‘you are what you eat’, and a balanced diet,” she explains. “I grew up with my parents and my grandparents, and they eat seasonally.
“Think about yin and yang; balancing hot and cooling foods depending on your body, a little bit like the Indian Ayurvedic principle of eating. If you’re tired and stressed, your body’s very yang – if you’re always cold and shivery, then your body’s too yin, you’re having too many yang and fiery foods.”
So how do you balance this? Firstly, Ching-He says: “You literally just need to listen to your gut” – then you’ll be able to properly judge what your body needs. She remembers her grandmother saying if
“you eat too many vegetables, you need to have ginger because vegetables are yin and ginger is very yang – it’s fiery, so it balances your body.
On a vegan diet, you need to have more garlic, ginger, chillies – more yang dishes,” she explains. “Mostly, yang ingredients are from meat.”
How you cook your meals also plays a part. “Steaming is more yin and stir-frying is more yang,” says Ching-He. “Overall, we’re trying to create the perfect balance. I think it’s really hard in the modern day to create this balance – to even understand it – but food is a conduit to that.”
Ching-He says she feels
“Much healthier and lighter, I just have more energy – but obviously everyone should do what’s right for them”.
The chef doesn’t just think about the personal reasons for going plant-based, but the bigger picture as well. She says: “If we look at ourselves as an entity, then look at ourselves in a greater picture, in a way it is a reflection of what we’ve done to this planet – the way we pollute the planet and the way we over-consume.
“Everything is about balance, so if we’re out of balance, then we’re going to be ill. The same thing; if we over-pollute the planet, it’s not going to create the best environment for us.” Ching-He’s personal journey led her to write Asian Green. It might be her first fully vegan cookbook but it’s her 10th overall, and stays true to her food ethos of getting “maximum flavour with minimum fuss”.
Her recipes are democratic, she says. “Not all of us are from the same background, but we all love food and we want it to be a simple process. If you cook something and it works and you feel happy and satisfied about it, then you’re more likely to cook again.
Ching-He might look at things philosophically but she does so with a light touch – and without any judgement.
She says simply: “Whether it’s for animals, or your health, or you just want to try something new, I think people should celebrate more veg.” Asian Green: Everyday Plantbased Recipes Inspired By
The East by Ching-He Huang, photography by Tamin Jones (Kyle Books, £20) available
February 11
200g dried ramen or udon noodles; 1tbsp toasted sesame oil; 2 garlic cloves; 2.5cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled; 3 shallots; 2 red chillies, deseeded; 1tbsp cornflour
1tbsp rapeseed oil; 200g smoked tofu, drained, rinsed in cold water and sliced into 2cm cubes; 400g firm tofu, drained and sliced into 2cm cubes; 200g fresh shiitake mushrooms; 1tbsp shaohsing rice wine; 2tbsp dark soy sauce; 150g long-stem broccoli, florets sliced lengthwise and stalks sliced into 0.5cm rounds; 2tbsp vegetarian mushroom sauce; 1tbsp clear rice vinegar; 1tbsp tamari or lowsodium light soy sauce; 2 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced on the angle into 1cm slices noodle seasoning (per bowl): 1tsp dark soy sauce and chiu chow chilli oil;
1tbsp each tahini and sweet chilli sauce; sprinkle of shichimi togarashi pepper flakes
METHOD:
Cook noodles according to instructions. Rinse under cold water and drain well, then drizzle over the toasted sesame oil to prevent them from sticking. Set aside.
Blitz the garlic, ginger, shallots and red chillies in a food processor to form a paste. Mix the cornflour with two tablespoons water to make a slurry. Set aside.
Heat a wok until smoking and add the rapeseed oil. Once hot, cook the aromatic paste, stirring, for a few seconds until fragrant. Add the tofu and mushrooms. Season with the rice wine and dark soy sauce and toss together well for one to two minutes until all the ingredients are coated.
Add the broccoli and cook, tossing, for one minute. Stir in the mushroom sauce, rice vinegar and tamari/light soy sauce. Pour in the cornflour slurry to thicken, and toss to mix well.
Pour boiling water over the noodles in a colander to reheat them, then divide them between four bowls.
6. Place a ladle of the tofu, mushroom and broccoli mixture on one side of the noodles in each bowl, and top with the sliced spring onion. Dress the noodles by drizzling over the dark soy sauce, Chiu Chow chilli oil, tahini and sweet chilli sauce, followed by a generous sprinkle of shichimi togarashi pepper flakes.
Serve immediately.