A simple, quick and healthy Malabar Spinach soup recipe

My blog has recently been hijacked by witness and chrome extension subjects lol. Sorry to those of you who are following me for the worm farming, gardening and related topics but I am someone who likes to learn and share about various topics, so I hope it is OK with you.

Today, I will share with you one of the easiest to make Vietnamese recipe: Canh mùng tơi or the Malabar Spinach soup. This soup is very simple and does not require a lot of ingredients but is very healthy and economical.

Canh mồng tơi, the Malabar Spinach soup

The ingredients

500ml of water
15 nice medium to large size Malabar Spinach leaves
10 medium size Ivy Gourd leaves
100 grams of small chicken thigh dices
1/4 teaspoon of salt
optionally some sliced spring onions
optionally some sliced coriander

^{Malabar spinach (bottom left) and Ivy Gourd (top right) leaves}

Malabar Spinach (Basella alba)

We call it “rau mồng tơi” or “rau mùng tơi”, it is a crawling plant that, once settled and happy with the climate, will take over the trellis you have installed for it. I planted the Ivy Gourd on the same trellis and the spinach is the strongest. But the difference being the Ivy Gourd was planted in a pot and the spinach in a bottomless garden bed, so the spinach has access to more resources.

Malabar Spinach is rich in Vitamin A & C, calcium, iron and soluble fiber. Young leaves are best for eating and stems can be used too. You can eat them raw or cooked. You can eat them in a soup, stir-fried, in a sandwich etc... but Vietnamese people eat it mainly in this simple soup.

Malabar spinach can be grown as a perennial if you live in warmer climates. If your winter is cold, any frost will kill the vine so save the seeds!

Malabar Spinach vine

Ivy Gourd (Coccinia grandis)

Considered as a weed or even a pest in some locations, Ivy Gourd is an edible vine. You can eat both leaves and fruits.

The Ivy Gourd is rich in Vitamin B, calcium, iron and fiber. In my family we also tend to consume it exclusively in a soup, combined with the Malabar spinach to add more texture to it because the Malabar Spinach is much softer and a bit slimy.

Ivy Gourd is an invasive perennial (a combination of qualities that not everyone likes lol) but bein edible for both leaves and fruits makes it an interesting plant to grow. The fruit is said to be very tasty, mine has not fruited yet, I need more bees.

Ivy Gourd vine

Making the soup

This is not a gardening post so I’m coming back to the recipe.

Start by adding the cold water to a pan, then add the diced chicken, salt and bring to the boil at medium heat.

Meanwhile, slice the leaves, very roughly 1/4 inch wide (0.50cm).

When the water starts boiling, remove the foam that forms on the surface.

Once the broth is clean, add the leaves and let it cook at medium heat for 1 minute. While it is cooking, make sure the water covers the leaves by stiring with a spoon.

Transfer the soup to a bowl.

Add some fresh coriander leaves and/or spring onion and you are done.

Variations on the recipe

There are many ways to make this soup you can replace the chicken with dried shrimps, add some dice of tofu and many more, have a look on Google.

We regularly eat this soup at home because these plants are easily grown, the soup is easily made and it is both healthy and cheap and it tastes great.