Chinese Recipes | Cooking Tips | Good Eats

The arctic winds have swept across the Bay Area and it is freaking cold today, with temperature lows of 20’s and highs of 50 degree F. I have to think of ways to counter the chill factor and I have to act fast.

Will a bowl of instant noodles warm my soul? Yeah, perhaps the ones that come in the soupy version will, but but… I want more taste, more flavor, more ingredients… MORE MORE MORE!

I recently learnt that there is such a thing called Spinach Soup. I can make it from my usual soup ingredients (dried shrimp, dried mini scallops and pork) and just add spinach. I found that spinach, unlike watercress, does not give a strong taste to the soup. Spinach Soup is a very very light soup, if you ask me.

PabloPabla (hey what does that name mean anyway?!?) used wolfberries as an ingredient in his soup base. I did not want to go and buy a big bagful of wolfberries (remember how things in the US all come in BIG packets) so I substituted that with red dates.

I made my Spinach Soup with meatballs and… wait! Is this post about Spinach Soup or Instant Noodles? Patience my friend. I am getting there…

You see, sometimes the seasoning in Instant Noodles is very salty so for a twist, I added the Spinach Soup ingredients to my Instant Noodles and did without the Instant Noodles seasoning.

Ingredients (Makes 2 bowls of hot Spinach Soup Instant Noodles):

Ingredients for Spinach Soup:
- 1/4lb ground pork
- 1 tsp dried shrimp
- 1 tsp dried scallops
- 8-10 red dates
- 1 thin slice ginger
- 1 bunch (about 4 cups) spinach (thoroughly washed)
- 6-8 cups water
- salt to taste

Seasoning for ground pork:
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp corn flour
- 1 stalk green onions, chopped

Additional ingredients to add more zing zam, va-va-voom! to the Instant Noodles:
- 2 packets of your favorite instant noodles
- Dodo fishballs (as many as you wish)
- Cuttlefish balls (as many as you wish)
- sesame oil

Preparation and Cooking Method:

1. Add seasoning to ground pork and massage the pork well so that the seasoning is mixed well. (I already have my ground pork thawed in a plastic bag so I just add my seasonings inside and massage the pork in the plastic bag. Less one plate to wash.)

2. Make meat balls within the plastic bag. Use a teaspoon to help if necessary. (I could make about 6 medium sized meat balls.)

3. Boil water and add meat balls, shrimp, scallops, red dates and ginger into the boiling water. Allow water to boil then lower heat and simmer for about 1 hour. Add salt to taste.

4. Cook Instant Noodles and frozen fishballs and cuttlefish balls in a seperate saucepan. (The frozen balls need about 10 minutes to cook, so cook these first before cooking noodles.)

5. When noodles are almost cooked, add spinach into soup base and allow to cook for 1-2 minutes.

6. Transfer noodles only into bowls. Add meatballs, spinach, fishballs, cuttlefish balls and Spinach Soup to the Instant Noodles.

7. Add a few drops of sesame oil to the soup.

Zing zam, va-va-voom! Instant Noodles kicked up a notch with Spinach Soup!