Spring Lunar New Year's Eve Buddha’s Delight with banana peels, bamboo fungus, daylily buds

30 minutes to prep
15 minutes to cook 
3–4 servings

Description

Many families, such as Buddhists, eat vegan on Lunar New Year's Eve. They don’t eat chives, garlic, leeks, onions, and scallions because they’re too stimulating. 

My twist on this traditional dish is to not include black moss. It’s banned from export from China because it can turn farmable land into deserts (desertification).

This dish features:

• Banana peel “noodles. The way bananas are grown is bananas: with child labor, and environmental and human rights abuses, even with fair trade and third-party certifications. Organic banana plantations do not typically improve wages or other working conditions for workers. So ask your grocer to sell organic bananas certified by Equal Exchange, or ones grown by Coliman, Earth University, or Organics Unlimited/GROW. Banana peels have more sleep-inducing chemicals than bananas. They’re used in Brazilian and Venezuelan recipes as substitutes for animal flesh. If you have a latex allergy, maybe avoid eating banana peels. 
• Fresh or dried arrowroot, which studies show can reduce alcohol dependence, menopausal symptoms, and headaches. Before you eat it, read the latest studies and precautions on arrowroot.
• Daylily bulbs have antioxidants and can relieve gloom, improve sleep, and promote lactation.

Equipment

When cooking with herbs, such as those in this recipe, try to use ceramic or clay (first choice), stainless steel, or glass cookware. Herbs can react to other cookware. Glazed and unglazed clay pots can have toxic heavy metals. The only ceramic cookware that Mamavation tested and found no toxic chemicals is Xtrema. If you can, avoid non-stick pots because they can have toxic PFAS. 


Where to get more affordable, sustainable ingredients

You might be able to get ingredients below more affordably without plastic packaging if you forage or grow them, or get them from bulk bins at places below. Also, it’s legal to put unpackaged food in your own containers at food providers, such as stores, restaurants, farmer’s markets, and food trucks (at least in California and Maine).

Grow low-maintenance Stella D'oro day lily bulbs. For a stinking good time, forage ginkgo nuts.  


Chinese bulk herb shops (like the ones at San Francisco’s Chinatown on Stockton between Broadway and Washington):

• All dried ingredients in this recipe

Natural food stores:

• Fresh or dried mushrooms and seaweed
• Salt (brands with the least microplastics and heavy metals)
• Soy sauce
• Untoasted sesame oil​

If you can't find day lilies, you can get pesticide-free ones in plastic from Heartland Natural Foods. 

Ingredients

Dried ingredients :

• 1/4 cup dried ginkgo nuts (yínxìng guǒ “銀杏果) (ginkgo is a Japanese word). Don’t eat too much because they can cause seizures. Or use roasted peanuts. 
• 8 dried, whole bamboo fungus (zhú shēng 竹笙)

Fresh or dried ingredients:

• 1/4 cup black wood ear mushrooms (hēi mù'ěr黑木耳)
• 8 shiitake mushrooms (xiānggū香菇)
• 1/4 cup dried daylily buds (huánghuā 黄花, hemerocallis citrina). Pick buds with a darker color and stronger stems because they have a stronger flavor. 
• 3 tablespoons seaweed like kombu (hǎidài 海带), wakame, nori, or dulse (which tastes like bacon), broken into bite-size pieces. You can be zero waste and forage fresh seaweed or buy dried seaweed in bulk bins and put it in your own container at your local natural food store or apothecary. Or the only places I could find dried seaweed in plastic-free packaging are the silkiest, unprocessed, sustainably-harvested, whole nori from Strong Arm Farms at Three Stone Hearth in glass jars they'll reuse or organic seaweed flakes from Ocean's Balance. Flakes come in a metal tin, though it might not arrive in used or plastic-free shipping packaging unless you request it.
• 2 servings thin vermicelli mung bean noodles (粉絲Fěnsī) or peels from 2 fresh or frozen bananas with brown spots (ideally organic). Or try super chewy, grain-free, purple sweet potato noodles. I couldn’t find them without plastic packaging. The only organic brand I could find that has less plastic packaging is by BGreen. 
• 3 teaspoons fresh, chopped arrowroot (gégēn葛根) or its dried powder. (It’s also called kudzu, a Japanese word).

Fresh produce:

• 1 tablespoon minced ginger
• 1 lotus root, sliced into rounds
• 1 cup snow peas (if in season), bok choy, or napa cabbage

Sauce:

• 4 tablespoons oil safe for medium to high heat, such as untoasted sesame oil (which is rich in polyunsaturated omega-6 fatty acids)   
• 1 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon vegan oyster sauce

Instructions

Soak dried ingredients:

1. Place each ingredient (except noodles) in a separate bowl and pour boiling water on top until the ingredients are submerged. Soak for 20 minutes. Remove ingredients with your hand or ladle strainer. Save water for the noodles.
2. If lily buds feel tough on one end, chop them off.
3. If you’re using dried shiitake mushrooms, gently squeeze out water from the mushrooms, then slice into halves. 

Prep noodles:

If you’re using banana peels:

1. If they’re frozen, thaw them.
2. Peel the bananas. Remove and compost the hard stalks from the top of the banana peels.
3. Shred peels with a fork.

If you’re using store-bought noodles, follow the instructions on the packaging.

Clean produce:

Save water by putting it in a bowl and adding water until the level is above those ingredients. Remove ingredients with your hand or ladle strainer. Water plants with that water.

Stir-fry:

1. Heat oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. I use a cast iron wok (naturally non-stick) for this recipe. If you can, avoid other non-stick cookware because they can have toxic PFAS. 
2. When oil is hot but not smoking hot, add ginger. Stir until it’s cooked but not burned.
3. Add dried ingredients except noodles, stirring each time. Cook for about 3-5 minutes.
4. Add produce and optional banana peels, stirring each time.
5. Cover and cook over medium heat for 3 to 5 minutes or until vegetables are cooked through. 
6. Turn off heat.
7. Add sauce ingredients and optional cooked store-bought noodles.

Leftovers

If you have leftover cooked dumplings, refrigerate and consume leftovers in general ideally within three days. 

Updated August 20, 2026

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