Vietnamese Pork Meatballs Soup with Winter Melon (Canh Mọc Nấu Bí Đao)

Vietnamese Pork Meatballs Soup with Winter Melon (Canh Mọc Nấu Bí Đao)

A comforting soup with pork meatballs and winter melon (bi dao). This soup is traditionally served with steamed rice and other side dishes for a complete Vietnamese family meal.

Related Post: The Guide to Cooking Perfectly Steamed Rice: Asian Kid Edition

Pork Paste

For the longest time, I’ve been traveling to San Jose, CA to stock up on all of my favorite Viet foods. My go-to store is Duc Huong, located in the Sun Plaza on S King Rd. Here I would pick up Vietnamese steam pork rolls (cha gio), fried sesame balls (banh cam) and raw pork paste (gio song).

Raw pork paste (Gio Song) was always a must because making it at home was such a process and impossible … until recently. I was gifted a high power food processor. And let me tell you. Oh. My. Gaw. It’s great at making pork paste. It’s a pain in the ass to clean … and I have almost died of blood loss a few times because of accidentally swiping on the very, very sharp blade, but it’s awesome at making paste out of anything, which is a base to many Vietnamese recipes.

On occasions, I would bust out the food processor, nick-named Fred, and make a large batch of pork paste to divvy up and freeze for later. When ingredients are pre-plan like this, it makes cooking a more joyous experience.

Winter Melon

Winter melon is part of the gourd family. The outside usually has light green specks on them and some varieties have bit of fuzz on the skin. Winter melon has the texture of a cucumber that cooks up quickly and provides sweetness to soups. Just don’t overcook them, as they will break up and turn to mush. Try finding a young winter melon. The core would be tender so you can use all parts of it. Older winter melon has very hard seeds that you will have to remove before cooking.

Recipe below. Happy cooking.

Vietnamese Pork Meatballs Soup with Winter Melon (Canh Mọc Nấu Bí Đao) - Ingredients

Vietnamese Pork Meatballs Soup with Winter Melon (Canh Mọc Nấu Bí Đao)

Vietnamese Pork Meatballs Soup with Winter Melon (Canh Mọc Nấu Bí Đao)

Other Soups You May Enjoy

Vietnamese Stuffed Bitter Melon Soup
Pork Spare Rib Soup with Opo Squash
Pig Feet Soup with Potatoes and Carrots
Kabocha Pumpkin Soup with Minced Shrimp

Popular Traditional Dishes to Complete the Meal

Vietnamese Caramelized and Braised Pork Belly with Eggs (Thit Kho Tau)
Vietnamese Braised & Caramelized Catfish (Ca Kho)
Vietnamese Caramelized Pork Spare Ribs (Suon Khia or Suon Ram Man)
Vietnamese Caramelized Shrimp (Tom Rim)
Easy & Crispy Pan-Fried Fish

Vietnamese Pork Meatball Soup with Winter Melon (Canh Moc Nau Bi Dao)

Serves 5-7

Ingredients

Pork Meatballs (Moc)

• 1 lb fatty ground pork (chill in freezer until semi-frozen such that you can break apart into big chunks by hand)
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 3 garlic cloves (peel; leave whole)
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons tapioca starch/flour dissolve in 4 tablespoons cold water
• 4 tablespoons cold water
• 1 teaspoon Alsa baking powder

Equipment Needed

• Food processor

Soup

• 2 liters water
• 1 lb winter melon (peel, remove core if not tender and cut into chunks or slice thin)
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce
• 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
• 4 green onions/scallions (remove end; cut into 2-inch segments)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

Instructions

1. Break apart ground pork into small chunks and add to a high-power food processor. Add sugar, salt, fish sauce, black pepper, garlic cloves and oil. Blend for 5 minutes on the highest setting.
2. In a medium bowl (mixture will bubble over so make sure bowl is not too small), mix together tapioca starch and water until dissolved. Add baking powder to the slurry. Add slurry to pork and blend on high again for another 5 minutes. Pork should be a light pink paste. Set aside.
3. In a large pot, heat water (2 liters) on high. Once you reach a rolling boil. Form golf-ball size meatballs from the pork paste and drop them into the boiling water. Lower heat to gentle simmer and cook for 8 minutes.
4. Add in winter melon and cook the melon for 3-4 minutes until tender. Avoid overcooking as melon will break apart into many pieces.
5. Season soup with sugar, fish sauce and sea salt Turn off heat and garnish with scallions and black pepper before serving.