Luóhàn zhāi (罗汉斋)

30 Oct 2012 - Luóhàn zhāi

Luóhàn zhāi - The dish consists of various vegetables and other vegetarian ingredients (sometimes with the addition of seafood or eggs), which are cooked in soy sauce-based liquid with other seasonings until tender. The specific ingredients used vary greatly both inside and outside Asia.

It is traditionally served in Chinese households on the first day of the Chinese New Year, stemming from the old Buddhist practice that one should maintain a vegetarian diet in the first five days of the new year, as a form of self-purification. Some of the rarer ingredients, such as fat choy and arrowhead, are generally only eaten at this time of year. It is also considered auspicious to eat this dish during Chinese New Year.

I made it with:
shiitakes (opportunity), 
mung bean noodles (longevity), 
wood ear (longevity), 
Napa cabbage (prosperity), 
carrots (wealth / gold coins),  
Daylily buds (wealth), 
fried tofu (blessing to the house), 
dried bean curd sticks (blessing to the house), 
ginkgo nuts (good fortune), 
peanuts (birth), 
red jujube, 
fermented red beancurd, garlic, salt, sugar...addictive