Winter Melon Meatball Soup

Needs touch of fish sauce and Chile flakes What substitutes for winter melon?

My friend from China grew a melon plant in the cracks of her patio! Lol! She had so many melons and gave a whole one to me. We had to translate the name she knew so I could find this recipe. Delicately flavored, nourishing and possibly one of the most interesting dishes I’ve served in most recent times. My family loved it 4 times! There is an Asian grocery that sells these in quarters, so we will have this again and again. Thank you for this wonderful addition to our traditional recipes collection! ?

Just finished cooking this soup. 1st i boiled pork bone to add more flavor to the soup. Then Instead of using ground pork i used lean ground chicken (more healthy). It still tasted very good. I also added some baby carrots, it made the soup more sweet. I Followed the recipe on here along with my additions and it came out great!

Thank you for this recipe. It was a good introduction to cooking winter melon, which my husband bought when we saw it at the Asian market. It reminded him of meals his Chinese father used to make and I had to go hunting to find out how to prepare it. I used ground chicken (we don’t eat pork) mixed with water chestnuts, just one egg and added some flour to stiffen the mixture. It was still quite goopy so I dropped small amounts into a small layer of oil in the pot first to stiffen and brown the meatballs so they wouldn’t just disintegrate in the soup. I took the meatballs out and added the vegetables to the pot and hot water. In addition to the winter melon, I used rehydrated black fungus, carrots and at the end, fresh parsley. I really just used what I had on hand and btw, didn’t use any sugar in the recipe. To add oomph to the broth, I added some homemade beef stock but it really was not necessary. This is a nice, simple dish and perfect for fall/ winter. I can just drop the chicken balls in next time but the browned chicken, while not traditional, was tasty and made the dish look less bland.

My parents make this and add black pepper to it. It’s so yum! You can really have any meat you want. I prefer chicken and for added flavor, I added chicken broth. No matter what, it’s delicious!

I really enjoyed this soup and my family did too.

only good if you like ginger…we ended up not finishing it because the ginger was overwhelming

This is a wonderful recipe and very easy to make. You can also add egg drop (beaten egg) and or rice vermicelli into the soup to add some more body to the broth. Will definitely make it again! 🙂

Very good, although 2 eggs is definitely too much as others have mentioned, it just turned to a pile of goop so I had to add more pork. The salt was fine for me, I don’t know why so many said it was too salty.

Very good soup. I’ve made it for my in-laws and they enjoyed it. I had to change a few items. I only use 1 egg because with 2 eggs the pork mixture became runny and the meatballs fell apart in the soup. I boil the soup first then add the winter melon in because I find that if you add the winter melon at the beginning, the melons become too soft for my taste.

I am from Japan and we have different ways of cooking Winter Melons. However, being in the US, I decided to try this Chinese version. I changed the recipe slightly by substituting the cilantro with minced green onion, omitted sugar from both the meat balls and the soup, and omitted garlic from meat balls. I also added Chinese soup bouillon (do not use American soup stock because they use different spices) and sake in the soup to add more taste, added sliced fresh Shiitake and frozen taro potatoes (satoimo in Japanese) in the soup. The result was delicious. My son who does not usually like vegetables (if Winter Melon is considered a vegetable) ate two servings. I boiled the cut Winter Melon and the frozen taro potatoes for 10 – 15 minutes and drained the water before putting them in the soup stock because I like softer melon and potatoes. I will definitely make this soup again.

Being the typical American, I find most Chinese soups a bit bland, however this one was quite good. It’s a traditional Chinese soup and the taste was great and the meatballs were excellent. There was a bit missing, even after adding Chinese mushrooms, water chestnuts, and some tofu (I like “stuff” in my soup too). The pickled eggs would have been a perfect addition and will be sure to add them next time. My roommate normally hates traditional Chinese foods, however I sold her on this one. I do suggest adding a pinch of white pepper when you dish up.

I didnt like the sweetness and i used only 1/2 the sugar called for in the meatballs. I will make it again but i think i will omit the sugar all together and use only egg whites in the meatballs.

I was a little surprised when I came home with my winter melon from the Asian market. I opened it up in the morning, expecting a melon, but instead got this. So thinking of what I would do with this, I went on this website and found this website. i had all of the ingredients and it was very simple to make. I was still afraid about how this would come out because of the cucumber smell and taste of the squash. But I love this! It is absolutely delicious. I recommend it to everyone, even if you don’t like cucumber because it ends up tasting like potatoes and broth with meatballs. I will probably make this again with my other half of my melon.

Thanks for bringing back memories of my parents cooking this when I was growing up! I used Chinese turnip instead of winter melon (couldn’t find any at the store this week). I halved the meatball ingredients to 5 servings, keeping the soup base at 10 servings. I also threw several sprigs of cilantro into the soup base toward the end. Very flavorful and delicious!

My first attempt at cooking with bitter melon! The soup is very good – I used lean ground pork and only 1 egg in the meatballs, and followed the suggestions of others and added sliced rehydrated dried Chinese mushrooms, tofu and dried shrimp in during the initial phase of cooking, and then cracked in a salted duck egg (chopped the yolk up first, as it was hard) after I added the meatballs. Just before serving, I stirred in 3 sliced green onions. Everyone thought it was delicious, though I agree with a previous reviewer that it might be a tad too salty. Next time, I will try adding chopped water chestnuts to the meatball mixture to add crunch. I found that the meatballs themselves were very very soft and somewhat hard to form – any suggestions on how to make firmer meatballs?

I just made this soup. WOW what a wonderful flavor. I felt like I was in a fancy restaurant. I add some spring onions after the main soup had cooked and before I added the meatballs. WONDERFUL!

I enjoyed this winter soup but the second time I made some adjustments: Used 1 egg as found the meatballs didn’t stick together well. I also added chopped water chestnuts to the meatball mixture as I enjoy a little crunch. Used half the amount of salt as I found it too salty the first time or you can add more water. I also added dried chinese mushrooms soaked in water, drained & sliced.

I’ve been trying to find a winter melon soup recipe like mom makes and this one is very good. Thanks for sharing! The broth is missing some complexity of flavour however, and I’m not sure what it is. Perhaps next time I will try adding some dried mini shrimp and crack a salted duck egg into the broth. Since I like “stuff” in my soup, I also added some cubed medium-firm tofu during the last couple minutes of cooking. This was a very healthy meal. Thanks again!