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Vietnamese Meatball and Watercress Soup (Canh)
Watercress adds a peppery note to the soup; look for “live” watercress, which is packaged with its roots attached. It stays fresher longer and is easier to clean. To prep it, trim off and discard the roots, rinse and drain the greens, then cut them into 1½-inch lengths, discarding any stems that are thick or tough. If you prefer, substitute an equal amount of baby spinach for the watercress, but roughly chop the leaves before using. We also liked this soup made with chicken bouillon paste instead of chicken broth; use 2 tablespoons of paste dissolved in 2 quarts of water.
4
Servings
Tip
Don't leave the meatballs at room temperature after shaping them. Chilling firms them so they hold together when added to the simmering broth.
40 minutes
Ingredients
-
1
pound ground pork
-
6
scallions, white parts finely chopped, green parts thinly sliced
Directions
-
01Line a rimmed baking sheet with kitchen parchment and mist with cooking spray. In a medium bowl, combine the pork, scallion whites, egg white, 1 tablespoon of the fish sauce, 2 teaspoons of the ginger, ¾ teaspoons kosher salt and 1 teaspoon white pepper. Mix with your hands. Lightly moisten your hands with water and form into 20 balls, each about a generous tablespoon, and set on the prepared baking sheet. Cover and refrigerate.
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April 22, 2023
Delish
My husband and I both were pleased with this soup and we’ll certainly make it again. We replaced the watercress with baby arugula and it tasted great. It’s also good with some cooked rice added to the bowl before adding the soup.
April 6, 2023
So good
This is my favorite Milk Street soup recipe. I always make it with dark meat ground turkey and it’s fabulous.
January 13, 2023
So tasty and easy!
I rarely have watercress available so I used baby spinach and placed it in the bowl before spooning the soup on top. The hot soup was enough to wilt the spinach.
October 18, 2022
Always good!
I make this a few times a year between fall and late spring. The first time I made it my kids deemed it a regular for the seasonal menu. When the weather changes in the fall it is one of the first request. I think everyone should try making it at least once. Easy to make and put together.
January 19, 2024
Easy, delicious and fun to make
Followed the recipe to the letter and served over fresh rice noodles. It was simply delicious and filling without being heavy. Perfect cold weather meal!
I made the canh. It is good stuff! I will make it again. I picked up three bunches of watercress (@$1.29 each) just to be safe and have enough. I used two of them in the soup. I also got two lbs of ground pork.
I followed the directions in the recipe, more or less. I made the meatballs with exactly one lb (454 g) of the ground pork, and overall I used a bit more ginger than the recipe called for though not a lot. Seven scallions instead of six, seven garlic cloves instead of four, and so on.
Here are my calculations:
Vietnamese Chicken Watercress soup (Canh) 11/21/2020
Cals/g Ingredient used weight used g weight oz cals used
Stock
0.80 ginger 8 0.3 6.4
8.57 grapeseed oil 25 0.9 214.3
0.40 Onion 197 6.9 78.8
1.50 garlic 27 0.9 40.5
3.33 scallion greens 30 1.1 99.9
0.11 Watercress 243 8.5 26.4
0.02 chicken stock 1753 61.5 35.1
0.35 fish sauce 38 1.3 13.3
0.24 lime juice 32 1.1 7.7
Meatballs
2.63 ground pork 454 15.9 1193.3
0.52 egg white 36 1.3 18.7
0.38 scallion whites 54 1.9 20.5
0.80 ginger 17 0.6 13.6
0.35 fish sauce 17 0.6 6.0
0.00 salt 10 0.4 0.0
2.52 pepper 2 0.1 5.0
Ingredient weight 2914 102.2 1768.5 Total calories
final wt (H2O loss) 2506 87.9 0.71 calories/gram
20.11 calories/oz
All in all, this tasty soup is low calorie. I have enjoyed it as is, and with cooked rice added. One could substitute prepared frozen meatballs for the homemade and this soup would be even quicker indeed to make. A Vietnamese friend makes this with tofu vs meatballs. Maybe I will try it with tofu and using Tone's Chicken or Minor's Chicken base + water to make the stock.
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Good job Maynard!!! Just happened to have everything on hand... Love