Difficulty: 1/5 | Prep: 10 min | Cook: 15 min | Serves: 3-4
When my mom was young, fresh vegetables weren’t something you could count on. Preserved greens sat in a jar on the shelf because they lasted, they were cheap, and they turned a plain meal into something with flavour. Nobody called it a “superfood.” It was simply what you had.
Mom made do with what she had. A block of tofu, because it was nourishing and didn’t cost much. A small fish, or a big one cut into pieces, whichever the market could offer that day. She didn’t need the finest fish. She only needed that fishy sweetness in the broth, and the nutrition to keep her family strong. Her soup was a way of saying “I will always find a way to feed you.”
Years later, I was far from home, in a different country, missing that taste. I tried to make her soup and it wasn’t quite right. Mom never measured anything. “A little of this, until it looks right.” So I asked, I watched, and I tried again. Some pots were too salty, some too bland. But I kept going, because I wasn’t only chasing a recipe. I was chasing a feeling: the warm bowl, Mom in the kitchen, the sense of being home.
The day it finally tasted like hers, I stood at the stove and my eyes went misty.
Now this soup is on my own table. Even my husband, who doesn’t love fish, asks for a second bowl. We have quietly inherited Mom’s taste. What she made from very little turned out to be a gift that crosses oceans and generations.
Sometimes the humblest ingredients carry the deepest love.
Ingredients
- 200 g fish, any kind, big or small, cut into pieces or left whole (tilapia, basa, small yellow croaker)
- 1 block (about 200 g) tofu, cut into thick slices
- 120 g preserved mustard greens (鹹菜), rinsed, soaked 10 minutes, then sliced
- 4-5 slices ginger
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- 6 cups (1.5 L) water, boiling
- White pepper to taste
- Chopped scallion to finish (optional)
- Salt only if needed, since preserved greens are already salty
Method
- Prep the greens. Rinse well, soak in water for 10 minutes to draw out excess salt, squeeze dry, and slice.
- Sear the fish. Heat oil in a pot, add ginger, and lightly pan-fry the fish until just golden on both sides. This step removes any fishiness and helps make the broth milky.
- Make the broth. Pour in the boiling water, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add the rest. Add the preserved greens and tofu and simmer another 10 minutes.
- Season. Taste first. Add white pepper, and salt only if needed. Top with scallion.
Tips
- Not sure about the saltiness? Soak the greens longer, and taste before adding any salt.
- Any fish works. It’s the flavour and nourishment you’re after, not the price tag.
- Pairs well with a bowl of plain steamed rice.
Cook along with us on YouTube 🎥
Watching the fish sizzle with ginger and the broth turn milky is even better than reading about it. On our YouTube channel, we share short, easy Asian home-cooking recipes, each one paired with the story behind it, so you can cook, taste, and feel a little closer to home. If this soup brought back a memory of your own mom’s kitchen, come join us. Subscribe here so you never miss a new recipe, and tell me in the comments: what dish did your mom make best?
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