Spinach Pork Porridge

I learnt from a wet market vegetable stall auntie that local baby spinach (苋菜苗) is great for making porridge. It is slightly different from regular sharp spinach (苋菜) in the way that it is leafier with tenderer stems.

See Also:

• Spinach Egg Drop Soup Recipe
• Chinese Baby Spinach Soup Recipe
• More Chinese Spinach Recipes

Adding spinach provides a generous amount of greens in a porridge for a change, making this spinach pork porridge (苋菜猪肉粥) a balanced and convenient one-pot dinner.

See Also:

• Seafood Porridge Recipe
• Pork Udon Noodle Soup Recipe
• Shrimp Millet Porridge Recipe

As a huge time-saver, I takeaway cooked rice from the fish soup stall the night before to make this porridge. It saves me time & effort to cook porridge from scratch, plus rice from the fish soup stalls has the most perfect texture (slightly mushy) for making rice porridge. You can cook the porridge from scratch on the stove or the rice cooker, if there is no takeaway option.

This is my packet of local baby spinach (苋菜苗 in Chinese literally translates as sharp spinach shoots). You can use any variety of local spinach, including round spinach and even puay leng (菠菜).

This is the last step of cooking, where I added prepared spinach to the pot of porridge. How to prep the spinach: I blanch them in a pot of boiling water, rinse under tap water to cool down in a colander, wring out excess water & roughly chop them to bundles (pictured above). I like prepping the spinach in this way instead just dumping them into the porridge, as the spinach looks & tastes better this way.

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Chinese Spinach Pork Porridge Recipe

Local baby spinach (aka sharp spinach shoots/苋菜苗) is recommended for this porridge, as the leaves & stems are more tender. However, they can be easily substituted with regular sharp spinach (苋菜) or any local varieties of spinach with good results.

Serves: 3-4

Prep Time: 15 mins

Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

• 1 packet (200g) local baby sharp spinach (苋菜苗) or any variety of local spinach
• 400g cooked long-grain white rice
• 3/4 cup (80g) diced carrot
• 750 ml water top up whenever needed
• 2 tsp mushroom seasoning powder or substitute with any seasoning such as soy sauce
  
• salt to taste; only if needed
• shallot oil or crispy garlic oil optional

(A) Minced Pork

• 150g minced pork
• 1 tsp Chinese wine
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 3 dashes white pepper powder to taste

(B) Lean Pork

• 100g lean pork sliced thinly, diagonally & against the grain
• 1 tsp Chinese wine
• 2 tsp light soy sauce
• 2 dashes white pepper powder to taste

Directions:

1. Marinade (A) minced pork and (B) lean pork for 15 minutes or up to overnight in the fridge.
2. Prep spinach. Trim and discard the bottom one-third layer of stems. Rinse the spinach. Bring a pot of water to a rapid boil. Add spinach and cook until soften, about 1 minute 30 seconds. Rinse cooked spinach under tap water in a colander. Wring out excess water from the cooled spinach, then roughly chop the spinach to smaller pieces.
3. Cook porridge. Add rice, carrot and water to cooking pot. Simmer for 3 minutes, then add the minced pork and pork slices. When the meat is cooked, season the porridge with mushroom seasoning powder and salt. Finally stir in the prepared spinach and cook for 2 more minutes. Garnish each bowl with shallot or garlic oil. Serve immediately.

Ingredients Used: carrot • chinese baby spinach • Chinese spinach • Chinese wine • garlic oil • mushroom seasoning powder • pork • rice • shallot oil • soy sauce (light) • white pepper powder