This is a classic Chinese home soup stripped down to its bare essentials: ground pork and dried seaweed in a light, clear broth. The seaweed gives it a gentle savory, slightly briny flavor, and the pork makes it just substantial enough to feel like a meal. It is subtle rather than bold, the kind of quiet, warming soup Chinese families make on a weeknight without thinking about it.
It might be the easiest Chinese soup you can make. Two ingredients, one pot, almost no prep, and nearly impossible to mess up. It is cheap and comforting and it is what you want on a cold day when you have no energy. It also scales down to a single serving, so it works as an “I just want soup” solution for one.
What you need #
- Ground pork. Any Chinese supermarket has it, cheapest in Chinatown.
- Dried seaweed. Same place.
- Salt, optional, to taste.
That is it. Two ingredients give you a good, subtle flavor on their own. Salt if you want more.
The steps #
- Put the dried seaweed in the pot.
- Add the ground pork right on top. Straight from the bag into the pot, no fuss.
- Add water. You want the level just a little above the seaweed and the pork. More watery, add more. Thicker, use less. The seaweed also drinks up water as it cooks, so top it off as you go.
- Turn on the heat and cook until the pork is done. Stir now and then so the ground pork breaks up and does not clump together.
- Season with salt to taste. Keep it simple, that is the whole idea. Let it cool a little and drink it down.
Swaps and substitutions #
This recipe is already about as simple as cooking gets, so most of these are add-ons rather than substitutions.
Any dried seaweed made for soup works. Wakame and the thin purple laver (zicai) are the usual ones. They rehydrate and expand in the pot, so a little goes a long way.
Ground chicken or turkey work if that is what you have. Thin slices of pork also work, they just take a bit longer to cook through.
Beat one egg and stream it into the simmering soup at the end for an egg-drop version. Almost no extra effort, noticeably more filling. A few cubes of soft tofu, chopped green onion, or a couple of slices of ginger round it out. A drop of sesame oil or a pinch of white pepper at the end adds a little depth.
Salt is the traditional, simplest seasoning. A splash of soy sauce or a little chicken bouillon works if you want it more savory. But the two-ingredient version is the point. If you are tired and hungry, do not add a thing.
Tips #
Break up the pork early. A stir or two as it heats keeps it from cooking into one big lump.
The seaweed keeps drinking water. Do not be surprised if you need to add more partway through.
Salt last. Taste first, because the pork and seaweed already bring their own flavor.
Two ingredients, one pot, warm soup. It does not get more frugal than that, which is the whole theme over in Frugal SF. For another lazy soup, try the minestrone or the chicken noodle soup.