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Lou Robbie's Pork Ball & Udon Soup Recipe for Chilly Nights

While Chef Lou Cooks is best known for her tasty lunch ideas, she’s got brilliant dinner recipes too – like this one!
Lou Robbie's Pork Ball & Udon Soup Recipe for Chilly Nights

Colder nights call for cosy hot bowls of steaming soup. Chef Lou Robbie has built a following of over 800,000 through her Instagram account @littleloucooks by sharing quick and easy recipes perfect for busy family life.

"This is one of our favourites and my kids love it too, with recognisable meatballs and noodles!" she says.  "The broth is fragrant and medicinal from the garlic and ginger and seasoned with bottles of Asian sauces, and with all the added veggies, it's a complete meal. On Fridays for the kids at dinner time, to add a bit of theatre and fun we like to turn off all the lights and eat by candle light. This is the perfect supper to serve up, with chopsticks and slurping and laughter – it's what fond food memories are made of."

Pork Balls and Udon Noodle Soup

Serves 4

Ingredients


For the soup/broth:
1 tbsp oil
1 onion sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 inch fresh ginger, sliced
1 small bunch coriander, stalks chopped for the broth, leaves to garnish the finished dish
1.5 litre hot chicken stock (1 stock pot/cube)
1-2 tbsp light soy sauce
1-2 tbsp oyster sauce (Lou rates Lee Kum Kee Premium Oyster Sauce)
1-2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
2 pre cooked udon noodles (400g)

For the pork balls:
400g pork mince
40g panko breadcrumbs
1 clove garlic, grated
1 tbsp milk
3-4 tbsp oyster sauce (add 1 tablespoon to the pork mix, keep the rest to drizzle)
1 tbsp honey

Fresh vegetables:
1 pak choi, chopped
1 carrot, shaved with a peeler
1 cup fresh bean sprouts
a bunch coriander leaves
fresh chilli, finely chopped optional

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven 180ºC fan, line a tray with parchment paper.
  2. To make the broth, in a pot add the oil and onions, garlic and ginger, cook until soft.
  3. Next add the chopped coriander stalks hot stock, bring to the boil, reduce and simmer for 30 minutes. Strain and discard the onion, garlic, ginger, and stalks.
  4. Stir in the soy sauce, POS, sweet chilli sauce and taste.
  5. To make the pork balls, add the pork mince to a bowl along with the panko breadcrumbs, milk, oyster sauce and grated garlic, mix and roll into balls the size of a golf ball.
  6. Put them on the tray, roast for 15 minutes.
  7. Mix the oyster sauce with the honey, drizzle over the balls and roast for a further 5 minutes.
  8. Add the noodles to the broth and cook for 3-4 minutes. Then add the pak choi, grated carrot and pork balls and cook for another minute.
  9. Ladle between 4 bowls, top with the beansprouts, fresh coriander, sliced chilli if using.


Serve and enjoy.