Mai

The typical Vietnamese family meal consists of several communal dishes: one or two protein dishes (my family normally does 2: one lighter steamed or poached dish and one braised or sautéed dish with stronger flavors), a boiled or sautéed vegetable dish, and a bowl of canh.

The canh is a soup. Most of our canh options are leafy green-based, but there are some exceptions like this beautiful purple yam soup.

Commonly known in the U.S. as “Ube” – not to be confused with purple sweet potato, this purple yam is called “khoai mỡ” in Vietnamese. Khoai refers to potato and most tubers and mỡ means “fat” – this may be because if you cut a cross section of the yam, it has a dotted pattern that looks like bits of minced fat or because of its creamy texture when cooked. I grew up calling it “khoai tím”, which just means purple tuber. And purple it certainly is- such a striking color whose vibrance surprises me every time I cook it.

You can either use whole or frozen grated yam. Important note: the raw skin of the yam has a skin irritant (which doesn’t cause issues once cooked). So if you have sensitive skin, I would recommend wearing gloves while handling it or using the frozen kind.

While the yam is the star of the show, this soup cannot be complete without ngò gai and/or ngò om (culantro and rice paddy herb, respectively). If you absolutely cannot find them in your local Asian grocery store, add extra green onions.

Canh khoai mỡ • Purple yam soup

Course: Soups, SidesCuisine: VietnameseDifficulty: Easy

Makes

4

servings

Prep time

30

minutes

Cooking time

40

minutes

Total time

0

minutes

Ingredients

• 500 g 500 purple yam – not purple sweet potato (khoai mỡ)

• 200 g 200 minced pork, shrimp, or chicken

• 2 stalks 2 green onion

• 1 tsp 1 bouillon powder (for marinating meat)

• 1/2 tsp 1/2 sugar (for marinating meat)

• 25 g 25 shallot

• 1 tbsp 1 vegetable oil

• 800 ml 800 water (+ more)

• 35 g 35 culantro and/or rice paddy herb (ngò gai – ngò om)

• 2 tsp 2 bouillon powder (for soup)

• Fish sauce

Directions

• Cut the green onion to separate the green and white parts. Chop both parts and keep separately.
• Marinate minced pork/shrimp/chicken with the white parts of the green onion, bouillon powder and sugar. Set aside.
• If using whole yam: peel, then mince, grate, or cut into chunks then pulse with a food processor (you want small pieces rather than a paste for better texture).
  If using frozen grated yam: defrost.
• Thinly slice shallot.
• Heat a large pot on medium and add oil.
• Add shallot and sauté until fragrant (about 30 seconds)
• Add pork/shrimp/chicken and sauté, breaking up any chunks, until no longer pink (less than 1 minute for shrimp, 1.5 minutes for pork or chicken)
• Add the yam, water, and bouillon powder.
• Bring to boil and reduce heat to medium low.
• Simmer, stirring often to prevent sticking, until yams are soft and creamy. Fresh yam will take longer to cook than frozen (about 15-20 minutes vs 10 minutes, respectively).
• Add more water if your soup is too thick. You will need to add more water for fresh vs frozen yam.
• If using culantro, slice crosswise into small strips.
  If using rice paddy herb, pick the leaves off the stem.
• Season to taste with fish sauce.
• Add in green onion greens and culantro/rice paddy herb (save a few pieces for garnish), mix, and turn off heat.
• Add to bowl, garnish with the reserved herbs and serve!

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @mmbonappetit on Instagram