Mimi’s Bean Soup with Tender Leaves

A friend named Mimi introduced me to this beautiful soup. She uses large butterfly beans (bei leikpya in Burmese), which are pale green beans tinged with pink that look like exotic limas. You can substitute fresh or frozen lima beans. The beans are cooked in water with lots of shallots to make a mild, slightly sweet soup. Near the end, handfuls of fresh greens or leaves are added.

In Mimi’s garden in Rangoon, we gathered the delicate tips of a cucumber-like vine and other ten