Pork Meatball and Vermicelli Soup

Pork Meatball and Vermicelli Soup does not use soup stock or dashi stock. The broth is made by cooking pork meatballs that are full of flavours. The addition of vermicelli and bok choy completes the soup, making it suitable not only as a soup but also as a light main dish.

Pork Meatball and Vermicelli Soup is surprisingly tasty even if it does not use soup stock. Despite a good amount of meat in the soup, it feels very light, perhaps because it is a clear soup and the meatballs are soft.

The method of making meatballs in this recipe is just like how I made Tsukune (Japanese Chicken Meatballs). Instead of rolling mince mixture to form a perfect ball, the mince mixture is squeezed out of my hand to form a ball.

When you don’t need to present a perfect meatball shape in your dish, you can use this method of making them – it is much faster. I also like the irregular shape of these meatballs – they have more interesting character than smooth, perfectly shaped ones.

What’s in my Pork Meatball and Vermicelli Soup

The flavouring of the meatballs is the key to the soup today, because the good broth comes from cooking the meatballs in boiling water.

Meatball

• Pork mince
• Dried shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated and finely chopped
• Green onions finely chopped
• Soy sauce
• Cooking sake
• Grated ginger
• Egg white (or beaten egg)
• Corn flour/cornstarch
• Sesame oil

You can substitute pork mince with chicken mince if you prefer, but naturally the flavour of the broth will be different. I would recommend that you use chicken thigh mince or breast mince mixed with some chicken fat, just as you would to make Tsukune (Japanese Chicken Meatballs).

Soup

• Water (not in the photo)
• Green bean vermicelli (I halved the length)
• Bok choy, cut into 7cm long, 1.5 wide sticks (white part)
• Cooking sake
• Salt
• Pepper.

I used green bean vermicelli, which is also called cellophane noodles and glass noodles. It is called ‘harusame’ (春雨) in Japanese. I talked more about it in my post Japanese Vermicelli Salad (Harusame Salad).

In my Harusame Salad post, I said that Chinese vermicelli is very long and folded a few times to make a big bunch and it was a challenge to take a small amount of it. Most of Chinese vermicelli is sold like this, but there are a couple of brands these days that look just like the Japanese vermicelli, i.e. straight strand and cut to 22cm/8 11⁄16” long. Incidentally, the Japanese harusame is 17cm/6 11⁄16” long.

Left: Japanese vermicelli (harusame). Right: Chinese vermicelli.

Instead of green bean vermicelli, you can also use mung bean vermicelli or rice vermicelli. But they become whitish when cooked.

Instead of bok choy, you can use choy sum, mustard greens, or spinach.

How to Make Pork Meatball and Vermicelli Soup

1. Mix the Meatball ingredients well until it becomes sticky.
2. Bring water in a pot to a boil.
3. Grab the mince mixture in your hand. Squeeze out the mice through the thumb and index finger to form a ball, then drop it into the boiling water. Repeat for the rest of the mince mixture.
4. Add salt, cooking sake, and pepper to the broth. Then the rest of the Soup ingredients to the pot. Cook for a few minutes.

The amount of salt to be added to the broth varies depending on your palate and the quantity of the broth in the pot. It is wise to start with ½ teaspoon and taste-test the flavour before adding more salt.

Pork Meatball and Vermicelli Soup is a filling harusame soup, and it is low in calories and hearty. It is also quite easy to make. Apart from the mince, you can choose the type of vermicelli and the vegetables to go with it.

You can keep it in the fridge for a couple of days, but do not leave the vermicelli in the broth, as it will absorb liquid and lose its texture. If you are keeping the leftover overnight, remove (or eat) the vermicelli from the soup. You can add fresh vermicelli when reheating next day.

Yumiko

4 from 1 vote

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Pork Meatball and Vermicelli Soup

Prep Time

8 mins

Cook Time

7 mins

Total Time

15 mins

 

Pork Meatball and Vermicelli Soup does not use soup stock or dashi stock. The broth is made by cooking pork meatballs that are full of flavours. The addition of vermicelli and bok choy completes the soup, making it suitable not only as a soup but also as a light main dish.

Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.

Recipe Type: Main, Soup

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: Japanese soup recipe, meatball recipe, vermicelli recipe

Serves: 3 - 4 Servings

Author: Yumiko

Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)

Meatballs

• 250g/0.6lb pork mince (note 1)
• 2 dried shiitake mushrooms (medium size), rehydrated and finely chopped
• 30g/1.1oz green onion finely chopped (slightly less than ½ cup)
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• ½ tbsp cooking sake
• ½ tsp grated ginger
• 1 egg white (note 2)
• ½ tbsp corn flour/cornstarch
• ½ tbsp sesame oil

Soup

• 1.2L/2.5pt water
• 100g/3.5oz bok choy (note 3)
• 40g/1.4oz green bean vermicelli (note 4)
• ½ -1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp cooking sake
• A pinch of pepper

Instructions

Making Meatball Mixture

1. Put pork mince, shiitake mushrooms, green onions, soy sauce, cooking sake, and ginger in a bowl. Mix well until the mixture becomes sticky.

2. Add egg white to the bowl and mix well. The mince initially splits into chunks coated in egg white, but they will come together. Put your hand into the mince mixture with fingers apart and move your hand in a circular motion to mix the mince.

3. Add corn flour to the bowl and mix well, then add sesame oil. Mix well in the same way as above until the mixture becomes very sticky.

Preparing Bok Choy

1. Cut the bok choy in half to separate the thick white stems and the soft green leaves.

2. Halve the white stem parallel to the first cut so that the length of the white stem becomes 5-7cm/2-2¾" long. If your bok choy is very small, you don't need to halve the white stem.

3. Cut each white piece perpendicular to the previous cut, making 3-4 battens.

4. Halve the green leaves if leaves are very long.

Cooking

1. Put 1.2L water in a pot and bring it to a boil.

2. Grab mince mixture with the left hand (I am a right hander) and squeeze out mince through the thumb and the index finger. The mince will come out forming a round shape (note 5).

3. Use a knife or a spoon to take the meatball and drop it into the boiling water. Repeat this for the rest of the mince mixture.

4. Remove the scum as it rises.

5. Add ½ teaspoon of salt, sake, and pepper to the pot. Then add the white part of the bok choy pieces to the pot (note 6).

6. After cooking for a minute, add the remaining bok choy pieces and vermicelli to the pot. Cook for a couple of minutes.

7. Taste-test the broth and add some more salt if required (note 7). Turn the heat off.

Recipe Notes

1. You can substitute pork mince with chicken mince, although the flavour of the broth will be different. It is best to use chicken thigh mince or breast mince with some fat added to it, like Tsukune (Japanese Chicken Meatballs).

2. My egg white was about 30g/1.1oz. You can use beaten egg or egg yolk instead. A slight difference in the weight of the egg is not a big issue in this recipe.

3. Instead of bok choy, you can use other Asian greens such as buk choy, choy sum, and gai choy. You can also use spinach.

4. As an alternative, you can use mung bean vermicelli or rice vermicelli, but they are not translucent like green bean vermicelli when cooked.

5. This is the same method used in my recipe Tsukune (Japanese Chicken Meatballs).

The size of the circle made with your thumb and index finger determines the size of the meatball, and therefore the number of meatballs. I made 18 meatballs.

6. If you are using different green leafy vegetables, the timing of adding them may vary depending on how quickly the vegetables get cooked. For example, if you are using chopped spinach, you add them at the very end.

7. I only needed ½ teaspoon of salt. But if you are used to a stronger flavour, you may need a bit more salt. It also depends on how much water is in the broth.

8. The soup keeps for a couple of days in the fridge, but do not leave the vermicelli in the soup because it will absorb liquid and lose its texture.

If you are intending to have it the following day, add more vermicelli when reheating the soup.

9. Nutrition per serving assuming 3 servings.

serving: 178g calories: 326kcal fat: 20g (26%) saturated fat: 6.9g (35%) trans fat: 0.0g polyunsaturated fat: 2.6g monounsaturated fat: 8.8g cholesterol: 60mg (20%) sodium: 772mg (34%) carbohydrates: 17g (6%) dietary fibre: 1.3g (5%) sugar: 1g protein: 17g vitamin D: 0mcg (0%) calcium: 66mg (5%) iron: 1.7mg (9%) potassium: 456mg (10%)