Under the spring sunshine, the lush green rows of chrysanthemum greens sway in the breeze. The fragrant aroma of chrysanthemum green soup wafts from the kitchen – a rich, rustic scent that is hard to forget.
Anyone who spent their childhood in the countryside is probably quite familiar with the taste of chrysanthemum greens. My villagers spend all year working in the fields and gardens, so chrysanthemum greens are a familiar vegetable to them.
Chrysanthemum greens are easy to grow and don't require much care, but based on experience, the best time to plant them is usually at the end of December, when the long rainy seasons have ended. With watering in the late winter and early spring sunshine, and careful cultivation, within a few weeks the chrysanthemum sprouts will burst forth with new shoots.
When I was a child, I used to harvest chrysanthemum greens early in the morning. After a night of damp rain, the chrysanthemum greens absorbed the essence of the earth and sky, becoming plump, glossy, and refreshingly cool. This was also the time when the chrysanthemum greens were at their best, not wilting like they did in the late afternoon.
Dishes made from chrysanthemum greens, though simple and rustic in the countryside, also have medicinal properties, treating many ailments, including cooling the liver, promoting bowel movements, and preventing mouth ulcers. Freshly picked chrysanthemum greens are crisp and fresh; after washing them, they can be eaten raw with other vegetables, or added to fish hotpot to help cool the body.
The most popular dish is chrysanthemum greens soup. There are many ingredients; just a bunch of chrysanthemum greens from the hedge, a few sweet potato shoots, and a few fresh prawns are enough to make a flavorful, clear, and refreshing green vegetable soup.
During busy harvest seasons, my mother would pick chrysanthemum greens from the garden, wash them, pour water into a pot, wait for it to boil, then add the greens, a little salt and pepper, and take it off the heat—and voilà, it was soup.
It's so simple yet delicious, all feelings of heaviness and fatigue seem to disappear. As life in the village gradually stabilized and the economy improved, families added lean meat, crab, shrimp, etc., to the chrysanthemum greens soup to increase its nutritional value.
Live, wriggling shrimp are cleaned and seasoned. For the chrysanthemum greens, select tender stalks. Place a pot on the stove, sauté onions and garlic in oil, add the shrimp and stir-fry until cooked, pour in boiling water, then add the chrysanthemum greens and season to taste. Wait until the soup boils again, then turn off the heat. The cook must be careful; undercooked or overcooked vegetables will spoil the flavor of the soup. As with other vegetable soups, adding some herbs like scallions and cilantro, and sprinkling a little pepper, will make the soup even more appealing.
Those who try this soup for the first time will find it slightly pungent, with a slightly rough texture and a naturally sweet (not from MSG) flavor from the home-grown vegetables. More precisely, it's the taste of the earth, the sun, and the wind of the homeland that permeates each vegetable, creating a light and refreshing bowl of soup. Perhaps it is this very flavor that is powerful enough to evoke memories of home?
Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/xanh-muot-tan-o-ngay-xuan-3149024.html
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