Spinach and sweet corn soup with pork spare ribs – Recipe

The theme for the day – healthy dinner. So I decided to make soup! When I see or hear the word spinach, I think of POPEYE! Nope not Popeye fried chicken but the cartoon character Popeye. When he ate a can of spinach, he turns into a muscle man that can overcome the strongest and meanest.

According to this source, Spinach is world’s healthiest food! Spinach is rich in Vitamin C and antioxidant, that we are well aware. This green also contain glycoglycerolipids, a compoung from spinach that can help protect the lining of the digestive tract from damage — especially damage related to unwanted inflammation. They have anti-cancer molecules too! Spinach showed evidence of significant protection against the occurrence of aggressive prostate cancer.

I am so so convinced! On practical front, spinach is rather cheap! I bought a bag from NTUC Fairprice. The price ranges from SGD0.75 to SGD1.75 for a bag.

Anyway, below is the recipe.

A few tips on preparing spinach for cooking. I separate the leafy portion from the root by plucking them. In a deep bowl, fill tap water to cover spinach. Using your hands, swirl the spinach a couple of times to dislodge dirts and soils. Repeat this 2-3 times. Do not soak because the nutrients might leech into the water.

Serving: 2 pax

Ingredients:

• Sharp leaf spinach (good for 2 people)
• 1 sweet corn, washed and chopped into smaller size
• Pork rib. Marinade with salt and pepper for at least 30 mins in the fridge
• 3-4 seedless red dates
• a handful of wolfberries.
• 2/3 Chicken stock cube
• 600ml of water
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Bring water to boil in a soup pot. Dissolve the stock cube into boiling water. To cook soup, always bring water to boil before putting in the ingredients. Do not dump all ingredients into plain room temperature water and boil everything together. The outcome will be different and the flavor will not be as rich.
2. Put into the boiling water marinated pork rib. Bring to boil for another 2 mins or until the outer layer of the meat is well cooked.
3. Put in sweet corn and spinach, lower the fire to simmer for 1 hour. Check the soup mixture to ensure it remains at simmer state instead of rapid boiling state.
4. At the end of 1 hour, put in red dates and cover the pot and let it simmer for another 15 minutes
5. Season with salt and pepper and taste to ensure the right level of saltiness. I put in a pinch of chicken powder to enhance the flavor.
6. For the last step, put in wolfberries and cover the pot and let it cook for another 5 minutes. At this stage, spinach should be really soft and sweet. Enjoy while it is still hot!

Look at the pot of goodness! Yummm