Vietnamese
Canh Cua Mong Toi (Hanoi Field Crab Soup with Malabar Spinach)
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Canh Cua Mong Toi (Hanoi Field Crab Soup with Malabar Spinach) is Vietnamese home cooking, eaten at lunch and dinner. On the plate it is the soup. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.
Ingredients
The quantities follow this count.
How to cook it
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Stir the ground field crab into 3 cups of the water, squeeze it well and pour it through a fine sieve into a pot; repeat with the remaining water, pressing the shell pulp to get all the liquid out, then discard the pulp.
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Add the sliced shallots and a pinch of the salt and set the pot over medium heat, stirring slowly in one direction until it is hot so the crab does not catch on the bottom.
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Stop stirring as it nears a simmer; the crab rises and gathers into a soft cake on top, about 8 minutes. Lower the heat so the cake stays whole.
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Slide the malabar spinach and the peeled, sliced luffa in around the crab and simmer until tender, about 4 minutes.
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Season with the fish sauce and the remaining salt, keeping it lightly salted for anyone watching salt, and serve with rice and a dish of ca phao. Hanoi markets sell the field crab already ground.
Serve it with
A Vietnamese dinner is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Canh Cua Mong Toi (Hanoi Field Crab Soup with Malabar Spinach), read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.
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The dish at the centre
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The cooked vegetable
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What it is eaten with
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Something cool and fresh
Safe at your table
Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Canh Cua Mong Toi (Hanoi Field Crab Soup with Malabar Spinach) carries shellfish and fish. It is free of the remaining 8 allergens on that list.
| Allergen | In this dish | Cook this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Peanuts | No | |
| Tree nuts | No | |
| Dairy | No | |
| Gluten | No | |
| Shellfish | Yes | Bap Cai Luoc (Boiled Cabbage) |
| Eggs | No | |
| Soy | No | |
| Fish | Yes | Canh Rong Bien Dau Hu (An Chay Seaweed and Tofu Soup) |
| Sesame | No | |
| Coconut | No |
These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.
What it brings to the plate
Estimated, per serving
- Calories
- 100 kcal
- Protein
- 12 g
- Carbs
- 8 g
- Fat
- 2 g
- Fiber
- 2 g
- Sugar
- 2 g
- Sodium
- 630 mg
- Saturated fat
- 0 g
Estimated values. Actual nutrition varies with ingredients, brands, and how you cook.
When to cook it
Canh Cua Mong Toi (Hanoi Field Crab Soup with Malabar Spinach) takes about 40 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is a fair bit of work. It is eaten at lunch and dinner. It is at its best in summer, which is when what goes into it is worth buying.
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Cook this with your whole family
Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.
Meal suggestions support your goals. They are not medical advice. Please ask your doctor about your family's health needs.