家常便饭 － 清甜玉米菜丝汤 (Sweet Corn & Vegetable Soup)

I am not one of those who loves slurping up hot soups or broths for my meals. Soupy noodles, porridge, steamboats – these are the least of my favourite dishes, be it at home or when I eat out. It’s probably due to the humid and hot weather in Singapore that makes for such a preference in me.

These days, with the obligation to have to eat lots of vegetables for the growth of the young one, soupy dishes have suddenly jumped the ranks to become one of the most preferred and convenient dishes to prepare at home. In goes all the vegetables, condiments and broth and the meal is ready in an hour or two – it is that simple. It does not even require constant monitoring or stirring.

To get my fill of vegetables for the next week, I have decided to prepare this sweet corn and vegetable soup over the weekend. It is quite similar to how my mum cooks this soup, except that she prefers using pork ribs to chicken bones for the soup base and there aren’t potatoes in hers as well.

Ingredients:

• Water: 3 liters
• Chicken bones: 300g
• Sweet corn: 3, husk removed, chopped into 3cm chunks
• Carrot: peeled, sliced into 2cm chunks
• Shark’s fin melon (optional): 200g, sliced into chunks
• Potato: 800g, peeled & quartered
• Cucumber (optional): 1, peeled, core removed & sliced into 2cm chunks
• Salt: 2 tbsp
• Sugar: 3 tbsp
• Chinese parsley: 1 stalk, chopped finely

Method:

1. Bring water to a boil in a big pot.
2. Add in chicken bones, corn, carrot & melon chunks.
3. Leave to simmer on low heat for 1.5 hrs.
4. Add in potatoes and cucumbers, as well as salt and sugar to taste.
5. Leave to simmer for 30 min more.
6. Garnish with parsley to serve.

Tricks:

• Although the soup is naturally flavoured by the sweetness of the meat, vegetables and corn, it is still mostly bland and hence necessary to add in sugar and salt to taste. Adjust according to your own preference.
• I added potatoes so that a bowl of soup could make for a full meal in itself (additional carbohydrates). Do not add these in too early as the soup would become too starchy and rich.

Serving:
8 – 10 persons