Hezha Ground Soybean Soup 合渣
Hezha Ground Soybean Soup is featured among the local specialties of Hunan.
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Hezha Ground Soybean Soup (合渣) is a Tujia (土家族) dish featured in Zhangjiajie (张家界) cooking. It keeps the finely ground soybean pulp together with the soy milk, forming a mixture that cooks with greens and seasonings.
How it is made
Da Xiangcai Bao describes soaking soybeans and grinding them on a stone mill. The milk and pulp flow out together and remain unstrained. Cooks add salt, chilli and leaves, then boil or stir-fry the mixture according to taste.
The basic boiled version includes chopped pumpkin leaves. More elaborate versions gain peanuts or sesame scattered over the cooked hezha, an egg, minced meat, or chopped chicken cooked into the mixture. Chopped scallions may finish the chicken version.
Where it comes from
Also called vegetable tofu or lazy bean pulp, hezha is a Tujia home-style food that also appears in restaurants as a speciality. Its range of additions lets the same soybean base take on the flavours of greens, seeds, eggs or meat.
Sources & reading
Written from the linked sources and fact-checked against them on 2026-09-27. Recipes and servings vary between kitchens.