I’m a soup lover (though I’m not Cantonese) and my mum would always pamper me with my favourite soups when I go back for dinner at her place. This soup – spinach soup – is definitely one of my favourites (and my mum’s too!). I cooked this tonight for our dinner and had an extra bowl of it! 🙂
Spinach soup recipe
- 1 bunch spinach or baby spinach (heng cai in Cantonese or xian cai in Mandarin) - I prefer baby spinach coz it's easier to prepare and more tender
- 10 fish balls
- 2-3 chicken carcasses
- 250g pork ribs
- 10g dried scallops
- a handful of dried shrimp
- 40g ikan bilis
- 3 cloves garlic (keep the skin on)
- 3L water
- Place chicken bones and pork ribs in a soup pot of water (with enough water to cover the ingredients) and bring the water to a boil. Discard the water (it should be full of scum and impurities) and place the chicken bones and pork ribs in a soup bag together with the washed ikan bilis, dried shrimp and garlic.
- Place all the ingredients (except the spinach and fish balls) into the soup pot of water.
- Bring to a boil then simmer on low heat for at least two hours.
- In a saucepan, bring some water to boil then blanch the spinach for about 30 seconds, just to 'clean' the spinach (spinach is in the dirty dozen list).
- Add the fish balls and spinach only when about to serve as they cook really fast.
- Add salt/fish sauce to taste (only after adding the fish balls as fish balls also add to the saltiness of the soup).
1. Skip the dried scallop and dried shrimp for tots below 18mths
2. Cut the spinach into toddler bite-size before serving to prevent choking.
3. Cut fishballs into small pieces - suitable for tots above 2 years.
Click the link for the full list of soup recipes (with thumbnails).
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Hi can we freeze this soup in batches?
Hi, I would not recommend freezing anything other than the soup. Cooked leafy vegetables should be consumed immediately. You can sieve out the ingredients and freeze the soup.