Mustard Green Soup with Meat Balls

If you had ever tasted Cai Xin soup, you should get acquainted with his green leafy vegetable today because you are going to love it as much as I do!

What is Cai Xin

Mustard Greens is fondly known as “Cai Xin” among the Chinese community.

It is one of the cousins of the Bok Choy but with a larger green leaves and taste a bit bitter.

In Malay language; it is called “Sawi”, one of the most used green vegetable in stir fry noodles, soups and noodle soups.

Mustard Greens are relatively cheaper compare to broccoli cousins.

For a bunch of mustard greens that cost 90 cents, you could whip up a wonder pot of Mustard Green Soup with Meat Balls for your whole family.

How to choose fresh mustard greens

• look for pretty dark green, large leaves
• avoid yellow spots of lines
• avoid brown edges- left on the shelf for many days
• leaves should be lively and crisp, not limp and dry
• it is alright to buy leaves with holes because this indicate that the pests like “non pesticides ” vegetables
• do not buy mustard greens in big bulk -unless you can finish them in 2 days

How to keep mustard greens

• Do not wash the mustard greens unless you plan to cook them on the same day of purchase
• Keep the mustard greens into a ziplock bag
• Store in the fridge not the freezer
• mustard greens could last up to 2-3 days

How to prepare mustard greens

• cook the mustard greens before it started to turn yellowish leaves
• soak mustard greens into a tub of water to keep the green leaves crisp and fresh
• Change the water a couple of times in order to remove the pesticides and mud/dirt
• separate the leaves from the stems but cutting off
• tear leaves into large pieces or cut into vertical length, 3 inch wide

How to cook Mustard Green with Meat balls

Ingredients you need

• 500g minced meat
• 1 carcass of chicken bones-remove fats and skins
• 1 small onion-chopped
• 1 garlic- chopped
• 1 slice ginger chopped
• 1 tomato-quartered
• 1 bunch of mustard greens-washed, separate from stems, use leafy greens only, tear into bite pieces
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• dash of pepper
• water

Boiling steps

1. Add 1.5 L of water into a soup pot, bring to boil
2. add in the chicken carcass and simmer for 1 hour.
3. When the stock is ready, remove the bones and strain the stock, remove the bits and chicken pulps.
4. In a mixing bowl, mix minced pork with onion, garlic and ginger.
5. Marinate with light soy sauce, fish sauce and pepper
6. Shape the prepared minced meat into small golf balls,
7. Bring the chicken stock to boil.
8. Add in the meat balls, one by one into it.
9. Once the meat balls begin to float to the surface, that means they are cooked.
10. Add in the mustard greens and the seasonings.
11. Before turning off heat, toss in the quartered tomatoes and close with a lid.

Yield: 3-4 persons

Tips and tricks

1. If you do not have chicken carcass/bones, you could use chicken stock / granules
2. Replace pork minced meat with chicken meat, white fish fillet, minced beef or minced mutton.
3. You can combine 2 different types of meat for the meat ball
4. Mix 250g chicken fillet with 250g pork meat
5. If you are vegetarian, replace meat ball with mocked meat balls

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