[Vietnamese Recipes] Crab & Asparagus Soup (Soup Mang Cua)

A perfectly light meal and a great summer soup, this Vietnamese crab and asparagus soup or sup mang cua is what summer is all about.

Vietnamese crab and asparagus soup is a fancy, luxury dish that you always find at weddings or special occasions. The soup is served as a first course in wedding reception dinner or special celebrations. It is wonderful with hearty vegetables and all the fixings in it. The broth is thicker than most Vietnamese soups; the soup is silky, flavorful with a combination of crab meats, asparagus, egg whites, and quail eggs.

A refreshing bowl of summer soup, this soup is great on its own and so incredibly easy to make.

Some notes about the recipe:

White asparagus or green asparagus works fine. Canned white asparagus also will work.

Tapioca starch is usually added last to thicken the soup. In this version, I kept it simple and use corn starch which what I have at the moment.

Homemade chicken broth is best. If using store bought chicken broth, be sure it’s low sodium and adjust the fish sauce to lesser amount.

I hope you’ll love this soup because it’s delicious on its own, it’s so fancy and incredibly quick and easy to make. Slurp up!

Vietnamese Crab & Asparagus Soup (Sup Mang Cua)


Vietnamese Crab and Asparagus soup: a fancy soup with crab meat, asparagus, quail eggs. This soup is fancy yet so simple to make. Yum! 

Keyword crab, asparagus
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Servings: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 cup crab meat (about 5 oz)
• 1 can (14 oz) quail egs in water (drained, rinsed)
• 10 asparagus sprears (trim stem and cut into 1 1/2 inch diagonal) 
• 5 cups less sodium chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1 teaspoon each chicken powder and garlic powder 
• 3 teaspoons fish sauce
• 1 large egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon water 
• cilanro & green onion for garnish
• freshly ground black pepper (for topping)

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, beat the egg & egg yolk. Set aside. 
2. Heat oil in a large stock pot. Once hot, add in garlic until fragrant. Add in crab meat, season with a pinch of salt, garlic powder and chicken powder. Add in chicken broth, asparagus and bring to a boil. 
3. Season broth again with fish sauce. Turn heat down and simmer for 10 minutes, until asparagus are soften. 
4. Add the egg, egg yolk mixture to the pot. Stir to dissolve all eggs mixture. 
5. In another bowl, mix cornstarch with water. Slowly add to the pot. 
6. Add in quail eggs. Turn off heat. Serve with a dash of black pepper, top off with cilantro.

This recipe and image sources are referred in website: Atasteofjoyandlove.com. Thanks so much!