Name: Winter Melon Soup with Smoky Ham
Total time: 40 min
Yield: Serves 4 to 6
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Ingredients: 1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp minced fresh ginger; 2 tsp sugar; 1½ lb [680 g] winter melon or chayote squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into ½-in [12-mm] chunks; 3 oz [85 g] smoked Canadian bacon, cut into matchsticks 2 in [5 cm] long; 1½ cups [360 ml] boiling water; 6 cups [1.4 L] vegetable or chicken broth; ⅛ tsp ground white pepper; 2 tsp cornstarch; 4 dried shiitake mushrooms; 2 medium green onions, thinly sliced; Soy sauce, for seasoning; ½ cup [45 g] canned bamboo shoots, cut into thin matchsticks

Preparation info

Serves
4 to 6

Difficulty
Easy
Ready in
40 min

Appears in

Easy Soups from Scratch with Quick Breads to Match

By Ivy Manning

Published 2017

About

I fell for this soothing Cantonese soup years ago at an upscale restaurant in Chinatown in San Francisco. When I was seated, the waiter presented me with the customary cup of soup and a menu. I was relieved to discover that instead of egg drop soup, he had brought me winter melon soup—rich chicken broth with chunks of silky, almost translucent winter melon floating in it. Though the winter melon didn’t have much flavor of its own, it absorbed the flavor of the rich broth and had a soft, soo