“Healthy & Light Meal for the Family tonight! Tasty Macaroni in Clear Soup!”
“Special delivery” to Ray, my reader. He requested a Macaroni soup recipe, and I thank him for liking my recipes!
Soup-based Macaroni suits all diets. It’s a low fat and healthy! Easy to make, it takes me less than 30 minutes to get it served. No long hour boiling is required.
I added mixed peas. These mixed peas make the dish much more appetizing and presentable. Kids love colours, don’t they. Not just that, these mixed peas complement the taste of the bland macaroni. Scope and eat them together makes your soup macaroni meal more interesting!
Why pork meatballs and seaweed? Pork balls are our all-time favourite, and they were one of the food ingredients available in my freezer, always… I added them to my Macaroni recipe! Seaweed, “Zicai” (Chinese translation: 紫菜), enhances the taste of the soup. It gives taste of pleasant and natural sweetness in your palate. Eating seaweed is definitely benefiting your health (so-far) and it’s super low-fat! I personally love seaweed in the soup.
Ingredients
1 big bowl of macaroni (about 300 gram)
12 – 16 pieces of pork meat balls
2 small pieces of dried seaweed (about palm-size each)
200 gram of lean shoulder pork meat, thinly sliced
1 cup of frozen mixed peas
1 chicken stock cube
1 pot of water, 50% filled (about 1500 ml)
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Pinch of salt and white pepper
1 tablespoon of soy sauce (for seasoning of sliced lean meat)
1 tablespoon of cornstarch (for seasoning of sliced lean meat)
A bowl of ice water (for blanching of macaroni for its greater texture)
A small pot of water and salt (for boiling macaroni)
Method
1) Season lean meat with soy sauce and coat with cornstarch for 10 min.
2) Heat a pot with oil. Add garlic and stir fry till fragrant and lightly browned. Quickly add in water, and bring it to a boil over high heat. Add chicken stock cube into boiling water.
3) Add meat balls and seasoned and coated meat. Bring it to a boil again. Reduce heat to low fire. Simmer for 10 – 15 min.
4) Add mixed peas and seaweed into the pot. Simmer for another 5 min. Add salt and pepper to taste. Heat off.
5) To blanch macaroni for creating firm and chewy texture: Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add pinch of salt and sprinkle olive oil or sesame oil into the boiling water. Rinse macaroni and add into the pot. Boil macaroni for 10 min over medium – high heat. Strain and put macaroni into ice water, for 1 min. Bring it back to boiling water for another 1 min. Drain, and divide macaroni among bowls.
6) Pour soup and ingredients over macaroni. Serve hot.
A bowl of macaroni soup counts less than 300kcal.
Tips: The purpose to coat lean meat with cornstarch is to create smooth and chewy texture on the meat.
*To make the dish more colourful and likeable to the children, add crab meat sticks!
*To save time, boiling a pot each of soup and macaroni on separate stove can be done concurrently.