A bowl of steamed rice topped with finely chopped vegetables — long beans, dried radish, tofu, greens — served with a vivid green soup made by grinding tea leaves, basil, mint, and nuts into a fragrant paste.
Ingredients
2 cups cooked rice
Tea paste: 50g green tea leaves, 30g Thai basil, 20g mint, 30g roasted peanuts, 2 tbsp sesame seeds, 500ml hot water
Toppings: 100g long beans finely diced, 100g firm tofu diced and fried, 50g preserved radish (chai poh) chopped, 100g kai lan or choy sum chopped, 50g dried shrimp (optional), 2 cloves garlic minced
2 tbsp vegetable oil
Salt to taste
Instructions
1Pound or blend green tea leaves, basil, mint, peanuts, and sesame seeds into a fine paste. Add hot water gradually to create a vivid green soup. Season with salt.
2Finely dice all vegetable toppings into small, uniform pieces.
3Heat oil in a wok, stir-fry each topping separately: garlic and chai poh first, then long beans, then tofu, then greens. Keep each component distinct.
4Arrange cooked rice in a bowl, top with neat piles of each stir-fried vegetable and tofu.
5Serve the green tea soup in a separate bowl. Pour the soup over the rice and mix everything together before eating.
Did You Know?
The "thunder" in thunder tea rice refers to the thunderous pounding sound made when grinding the tea leaves with a mortar and pestle — a sound that once echoed through Hakka villages.