When I was growing up, my mom would always cook one soup plus a couple of stir fry veggies for dinner. This wintermelon pork meatball soup is often on our dinner table. This soup is incredibly easy to make and I can see why my mom made this growing up. The taste is light and refreshing while full of flavour. It’s also one of my favourite soup to have when I come home from school.
What is Wintermelon?
Wintermelon or wax gourd is a type of gourd that typically grows on vines. It forms these huge fruits. It’s a very common ingredient in Chinese cooking because it is native to South and Southeast Asia (found in a . It’s used in a lot of soups combined with beef or pork. In addition, wintermelon is used in sweet dishes like pastries and candied for new year snacks. The actual wintermelon is quite big, about 30 inches and can weigh a few kilograms. Usually the grocery store will only sell a small section of it. Sometimes even a small section of wintermelon is enough to use for multiple meals.
Ingredients
There are only 2 main ingredients, wintermelon and pork meatball. All the flavours come from the seasoned pork meatballs. Thus, pork meatballs will need to be seasoned. The seasoning are simple as well. All you need are ginger, scallions, soy sauce, dark soy sauce (optional), oyster sauce, salt and bit of oil.
How to make it
You need to season the ground pork as bulk of the soup flavour comes from the ground pork. Add in minced ginger, chopped scallions, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt and oil. Let it sit for 10 minutes. Cut the outer layer of the wintermelon peel and remove the seeds. Cut it in half lengthwise and slice them.
If short on time, you can marinade ground pork ahead of time. Once it’s time to cook, form the meatballs and boil with wintermelon later when you have time.
Put either stock or water with a bit of chicken stock powder (optional). Once the water is simmering, use a spoon and scoop the ground pork (like scooping an ice cream) and roll it slightly to form a meatball. Alternatively, use your hand to form the meatballs. Make them about 1 inch in diameter. Once the stock boils, put the wintermelon in and let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Once the wintermelon is soft and meatballs are cooked, it’s done. Top with scallions and serve.
Pro-tip
- Make sure to take out some of the foam that floats to the top as the meatball boils. It will keep the soup clear
- Cut the wintermelon about 0.25 inch thick so it can cook faster.
- Keep the meatball small (bite size) so it cooks faster.
Wintermelon Pork Meatball soup
Ingredients
- 1 lbs cut wintermelon
- 1 lbs ground pork
Ground pork marinade
- 2 tbsp ginger minced
- 2 tbsp chopped scallion
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce. optional
- 1 tsp oyster sauce
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp neutral oil
soup base
- 6 cups water/chicken stock
- 1 tsp chicken powder optional
- scallions greens optional
Instructions
- Remove the wintermelon peel and remove the seeds. Cut the wintermelon into ½-¼ inch thick and about 1½ inch wide
- Cut scallions and mince up some ginger.
- Put scallion and ginger into the ground pork. Add in soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, oil and salt into the pork
- Mix the pork until all the ingredients are evenly distributed.
- In a pot, put chicken stock or water with a bit of chicken powder
- Bring the water or chicken stock up to a boil
- Use a spoon to scoop up the ground pork like you would scoop for ice cream.
- Drop them into the pot and boil. Repeat until all of the ground pork is done. Once the soup is boiling, take off some of the foam floating on top.
- Add in the wintermelon to cook on medium until tender, it should be about 10-15 minutes. At this point the meatballs should also be cooked
- Have a taste and add salt as needed. Top with scallions.
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