Crab soup with water spinach is one of the soup dishes that reflects the essence of rural cuisine. With its rich, delicious, and refreshing flavor, anyone who has tried it will want to have more. Today, let’s join TasteVN to the kitchen to immediately cook a hot bowl of crab soup with water spinach to invite the family using the following 2 recipes!
1. Crab soup with water spinach
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Preparation
30 minutes
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Processing
35 minutes
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Difficulty
Easy
Ingredients for Crab soup with water spinach Serves 3
Ground crab 300 gr Crab roe 50 gr Taro 1 kg Water spinach 100 gr Wild water spinach A little Dried onion 100 gr Common spices A little (Salt/ sugar/ monosodium glutamate/ seasoning powder)
How to choose fresh and delicious taro
- Prioritize choosing taro that grows in clusters compared to single taro bulbs.
- The small taro bulbs are usually sweeter and stickier, round or egg-shaped, with rough skin, many roots, and fresh bulbs that often have a lot of dirt stuck to the skin.
- Avoid choosing taro bulbs with many black spots, rot, and those that are long and large.
How to make Crab Soup with Water Spinach
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Prepare the ingredients
After buying the taro, wash it thoroughly to remove the dirt on the surface, and cut off any rotten or damaged parts. Taro can be slightly itchy, so it’s advisable to wear gloves while handling it.
For the water spinach, pick the young stems, discard the damaged leaves, and cut them into pieces about 2 fingers long – around 4cm. Then wash the water spinach thoroughly and let it drain.
Similarly, for the water morning glory, pick the young stems and remove the older ones. Wash them well and let them drain.
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Boil and peel the taro
After washing the taro, place it in a pot, cover it with water, and boil for about 5 – 7 minutes. Then turn off the heat and transfer the taro to cold water to cool it down.
Use a knife to peel the taro and then cut the taro into 3 pieces. Wash the taro with water again to remove any remaining skin.
How to peel taro without itching:- One of the simplest ways is to prepare a pair of gloves for peeling the taro; this will limit the contact of taro sap with your hands.
- After buying the taro, do not wash it immediately; instead, keep the layer of dirt on the outside and peel it with dry hands. Then soak the taro in diluted salt water for about 10 minutes, and wash it again with water.
- You can also grill the taro briefly on the stove to slightly dry the skin, which will help limit the sap from leaking out.
- Additionally, keeping the taro dry will also reduce the sap leakage and lessen the itching sensation.
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Filter and cook crab paste
After buying the crushed crab, put it in a pot, pour about 2 liters of water into the pot, and stir well to dissolve the crab fat and meat into the water. Then wear gloves and squeeze the crab fat while stirring evenly to filter out as much fat as possible.
Next, filter this crab fat water through a sieve, discarding the crab shells. The clear water in the pot should be brought to a boil over medium heat, while boiling continuously stir to prevent the fat from sinking to the bottom of the pot!
When the water starts to boil, and the crab fat floats on the surface, turn off the heat and gently scoop this crab fat into a bowl, set aside the cooking water to make soup!
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Cooking crab soup with water spinach
Place a pan on the stove, add 100g of sliced shallots and sauté over medium heat until the shallots are fragrant and golden crispy, then add 50g of raw crab meat and stir-fry over medium heat until fragrant.
After about 5 minutes, turn off the heat. Next, turn on high heat and boil the broth, scoop 1 ladle of broth to evenly splash onto the sautéed crab meat and pour it into the soup pot.
Add the taro into the pot and reduce the heat to medium, simmer the taro for about 20 minutes until it is soft. When the soup starts to boil, add the water spinach and rice paddy herb and cook for about 3 – 5 minutes until the water spinach and rice paddy herb are cooked, then remove the water spinach to prevent it from becoming mushy.
Taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking, then turn off the heat, scoop into a bowl, and add the water spinach and crab meat. Sprinkle a little ground pepper and enjoy immediately.
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Finished product
Crab soup cooked with water spinach has the rich sweetness of crab meat, the creamy texture of taro, and the fatness of the crab roe. This dish is not only delicious but also helps to cool the body, so try cooking it right away for your family to enjoy!
2. Crab soup with water spinach (Recipe shared by a user)
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Preparation
30 minutes
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Cooking
15 minutes
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Difficulty
Easy
Ingredients for Crab soup with water spinach (Recipe shared by a user) For 2 people
Freshwater crab 250 gr Water spinach 200 gr (1/2 bundle) Spring onion 15 gr (bulb) Lemon 1/2 fruit Cooking oil 1 teaspoon Salt/msg A little
Ingredient image
-800x450-5.jpg "2 Ways to Make Delicious and Flavorful Crab Soup with Water Spinach for a Meal 19")
How to make Crab soup with Water Spinach (Recipe shared by a user)
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Prepare the crabs
After purchasing the freshwater crabs, to clean off the mud and dirt, you should place the crabs in a basin filled with water for about 10 – 15 minutes. Then, rinse the crabs under a tap until they are clean.
Next, place the crabs in a plastic bag and put them in the refrigerator for 20 minutes to make them unconscious.
After 20 minutes, take the crabs out and proceed to separate the shells. Remove the shells and discard the abdomen, then scoop the crab meat into a bowl.
Next, add the separated crab meat and 2 spoons of salt into a mortar and start to pound it into a paste. After pounding, add filtered water to extract the crab juice. You need to extract it twice to get all the crab meat.
Tip:- Adding salt while pounding the crab will help the crab meat coagulate into lumps and float to the surface when cooked.
- You can use a blender to puree the crab meat in one go to save time, but it won’t be as tasty as hand pounding.
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Preparation of other ingredients
For water spinach, you should pick the tender tops and leaves and wash them clean. To make the water spinach soft and delicious, twist the vegetable into 4 – 5 cm sections.
For shallots, wash them thoroughly, crush them, and then chop finely.
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Cooking crab soup with water spinach
You place a pot on the stove and add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil. When the oil is hot, add the chopped shallots and sauté until fragrant.
Once the shallots are fragrant, add the crab meat and stir evenly for about 2 minutes before pouring in all the crab water. Cook over medium heat to prevent the crab meat from settling at the bottom of the pot; occasionally use chopsticks to stir until you see the crab meat floating, then stop stirring.
When the water in the pot boils, slowly drop in the water spinach to avoid breaking the crab meat. Continue to cook for about 3 minutes, then season the pot with 1/2 teaspoon of MSG, squeeze in 1/2 a lemon, and adjust the seasoning to your taste, then turn off the heat.
Your soup is now complete; just ladle it into a bowl and enjoy.
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Final Product
A bowl of hot water spinach crab soup, with clear broth, pieces of crab meat floating, retaining its natural sweetness and richness, and the water spinach remains intact.
You can enjoy this soup with pickled eggplant to enhance the flavor!
How to choose fresh, delicious river crabs
- Choose river crabs that have a dull grayish-purple color, with the shell being a lighter color. If you want to select crabs with a lot of meat, choose male crabs with small, pointed bellies; for crabs with a lot of roe, choose females with larger bellies, commonly referred to as flower bellies.
- Select those that are still moving quickly, with claws and legs intact and agile. Pressing on the belly shell producing bubbles indicates that the crab is still fresh.
- To make delicious crab noodle soup, the crab must be pounded by hand; the crab meat foam will be soft, smooth, and retain its characteristic flavor. If you don’t have time, you can use a blender, but the crab foam tends to be fluffy and gritty.
- Avoid selecting river crabs with red eyes, a furry underside, or a back with star-like spots.
How to choose fresh, delicious water spinach
- Choose bundles of water spinach that are of moderate size (the size of a chopstick), as these are naturally fresh. Avoid buying bundles with abnormally thick stems.
- “Eat in season” is a widely applied principle for selecting clean food; you can buy water spinach in the summer from April to June, which is when it grows the most.
- Avoid buying bundles of water spinach with dark green leaves; if the stems snap easily, you should also limit your purchase.
See more:
With 2 recipes for crab soup with water spinach that are not fishy, refreshing, and incredibly delicious yet very simple above. TasteVN hopes you will succeed!
