Chinese Baby Spinach Soup
With only spinach, garlic, mushroom stock and salt, this Chinese baby spinach soup is simplicity at its best. Although I call this a spinach “soup”, this is actually more like a “soupy stir-fry”. You can make a more sumptuous dish by adding more ingredients such as seafood, carrot or mushroom to this basic recipe. This version here is what I cooked most often due to its simplicity of flavours and ease of effort.
More Chinese Spinach Recipes:
- Red spinach (Amaranth Greens) Soup Recipe
- Chinese Spinach in Superior Broth Recipe
- Stir-fried Chinese Spinach Recipe
Recently the new supermarket in my area is having crazy sales on its local spinach – I bought two bags of Chinese baby spinach for only $1 (that’s like half price). So I have been cooking all varieties of local spinach (amaranth greens, round & sharp spinach) almost nightly.
This is what Chinese baby spinach (苋菜苗) looks like. It is not to be confused with the western baby spinach which is often eaten raw in salads. The local baby spinach resembles sharp spinach (苋菜) but with shorter, thinner stems.
Prepping the baby spinach is easier than other types of local spinach. Unlike sharp or round spinach, there is no need to pull and discard the “strings” of the stems. I simply snip the stems to shorter lengths with kitchen scissors (pic above), discarding the bottom most 1-2 cm near the roots.
Chinese Baby Spinach Soup Recipe
In this recipe, mushroom stock is used, making this dish meatless. You can substitute mushroom stock with chicken stock, vegetable stock, plain water with simple seasonings (such as soy sauce or salt), or any clear Chinese soup you are making that day.
Ingredients:
- 1 bag (about 200 grams) Chinese baby spinach (小苋菜)
- 1/2 tbsp cooking oil
- 3 cloves garlic thinly sliced
- 150 ml mushroom stock# use more stock if you like it very soupy
- 1/8 tsp salt to taste
# Make instant mushroom stock by dissolving 1 tsp mushroom seasoning powder in 150ml hot water
Directions:
- Prep spinach. Separate the spinach leaves from the stems. Using kitchen scissors, snip the stems into shorter lengths. Wash and spin dry the spinach in a salad spinner.
- Stir-fry the spinach. Heat oil in wok and stir-fry garlic until they just turn light golden. Add spinach stems and stir-fry for about 30 seconds. Then add the leaves and stir-fry until they start to wither.
- Simmer and serve. Add mushroom stock, cover wok with lid and simmer contents for 2 minutes. Season to taste and serve.