Armed with the information that saluyot is slimy, I combined the saluyot leaves with spinach to make a chunky saluyot and spinach soup with pork that wouldn’t be too slimy that Speedy and Sam wouldn’t touch it. As it turned out, Sam ate a little, then balked at the sliminess but at least she tried it. Next time, I’ll add other vegetables to make the sliminess of the saluyot really negligible.
Packed with nutrients but not short on meat, the bits of pork used in this dish were picked from scrap soup bones. Of course, it goes without saying that I had scrap meat because I made the broth from scratch.
If you don’t intend to do that but still want to try making this soup, you’ll just have to use whatever cooked meat you have. It doesn’t have to be pork — it can be beef, chicken, turkey or whatever you have, even fish or some other seafood.
The one ingredient that you can’t do away with is ginger. It is the ginger that really gives this soup its wonderful rich flavor and aroma.
As to the proportions, there really are no strict rules in that department. You can use more saluyot than spinach or more spinach than saluyot. You can use a lot of meat if you like your soup really meaty or you can just add a small amount to make the vegetables really stand out.
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger
- 1 red onion thinly sliced
- 2 to 3 tomatoes diced
- diced cook meat
- 6 cups bone broth preferably homemade
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
- 1 bunch saluyot leaves
- 1 bunch spinach leaves
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Prepare all the ingredients before you start cooking. This soup cooks in a very short time and you really don’t want to get caught still chopping and slicing while something in the pot is overcooking already.
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Heat the vegetable oil in a pot. Add the garlic, ginger, sliced onion and tomatoes. Cook over medium-high heat until a bit softened and aromatic.
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Add the meat. Pour in the broth. Taste. Add salt and pepper, as needed.
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Bring the soup to the boil. Add the saluyot and spinach leaves, pressing them down into the hot broth. Continue boiling for a minute then turn off the heat. Cover the pot and allow the leaves to finish cooking in the residual heat.
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Taste the saluyot and spinach soup again before serving. Add more salt and pepper, if needed.
