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When I was a kid growing up in the city, we often had tongsui, a sweet soup, for tea. I always looked forward to the red bean soup or green pea soup my grandmother would boil for hours over the charcoal fire.

I was rummaging through my pantry and found 3 types of beans I didn’t know I had. Often I start out with all the good intentions of cooking this and that, and then I get so busy I’d forget all about them.

So I decided to use up all the bags of beans I had. Drastic, I know but then I’m notorious for coming up with all sorts of weird concoctions with whatever I happen to get my hands on!

I can’t say what proportions of each I used that time. But to make things simple, let’s go with 1 cup of each.

• 1 cup black-eyed peas
• 1 cup green beans
• 1 cup red beans
• water enough to cover the beans/peas twice
• a few pieces of dried mandarin orange peel
• sugar to taste

Simmer on medium heat for approximately 2 hours or until the beans and peas soften and open up. Feel free to add more water if it starts drying up. Again if you want more soup, then add more water.

Add the sugar last. You guys know me, I don’t believe in too much sugar so this is where I usually tend to under-sweeten rather than do a sugar overload.

Sometimes I make this for tea-time on my vegetarian days. You can eat it hot. I like mine chilled either in the fridge or with a couple of ice-cubes if I’m in a hurry. It sure beats the blistering hot afternoons.