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bean sprout soup with herring

2016-04-05

This is a variation on the Korean Kongnamulguk bean sprout soup with some extras. The  pickled herring drastically changes and imo enriches the dominant flavor of the soup.

Vegetarians or doubters, the soup is already delicious without the herring. You don’t have to add it.

INGREDIENTS

This is what you need for 4 quarts / 8 servings:

• 1 lb. bean sprouts
• ½ medium onion, sliced
• 4 small carrots, sliced
• 1 lb. tomatoes, cored, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 tsp. soy sauce salt
• ½ lb. pickled herring fillets
• 4 pickled sweet red peppers
• 1 tbsp. paprika powder
• 1 tbsp. Knorr Chicken bouillon (*)
• 1 cube Knorr chipotle
• 1 cube Knorr cilantro

 

Pic1: bean sprout soup with pickled herring

Directions

• Purchase only bean sprouts that look fresh and crispy.
  Do not buy if the sprouts look wilted with a lot of liquid in the bag.
• Rinse the soybean sprouts in a colander by submerging it repeatedly. Change the water at least 3 times. Remove any sprouts that look wilted or worse.
• Optionally soak the herring in salted water to remove some of the vinegar.
  
• Combine the bean sprouts, onions, carrots and tomatoes in a 6-qt skillet.
• Add up to 3 quarts of water (original recipe: 5 cups)
• Stir in 1 tsp. soy sauce, 1 tbsp. paprika powder, 1 tbsp. powdered chicken bouillon, and the chipotle and cilantro cubes. (Pic5)
• Destem and deseed the red peppers.
• Rinse the peppers in cold water. Chop the peppers small.
• Add peppers and herring to the soup. The herring will fall apart during cooking but will at the same time give the soup a pronounced pickled fish overtone; unusual, but I liked it a lot.
• Cover the skillet; bring to a boil on medium heat.
• When boiling, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes more on low heat.
• Add salt to taste.
• Serve immediately.
  Amazingly, the bean sprouts are still crisp after cooking that long.

Serving suggestions:

• Garnish with some chopped scallions.
• Sprinkle 1 tsp. ground roasted sesame seeds on the soup just before serving.
• Strain or filter the leftover soup—as if having leftovers of this is possible!—and serve chilled.
  Delicious.

(*) I use the Knorr stuff for the MSG it contains. It is hard to find seaweed in the desert.

 

Pic2: ingredients
Pic3: load the pot
Pic4: add water

 

Pic5: hot red chile & pickled herring
Pic6: simmer
Pic7: served

 

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