Pork Rib Noodle Soup - My Comfort Food

Recently my two year old has grown an affinity for noodles, which I shouldn’t be really surprised since his father also loves noodles. Must be in his DNA. In any case, noodles are definitely not in short supply at our house as we’re constantly eating them on a weekly basis. Anything from pasta to our fave noodle soups.

As for noodle soups, we have many different favorite soup bases that we cook to change up the flavours. Some readers have been requesting for these soup base recipes and I’ve been so behind that I’m finally now just getting to posting this blog and for that I apologize! There are couple different ones that are our go tos with one of them being the black bean pork rib noodle soup. Here is our method below, I don’t call it a recipe per se because the ingredients are listed but the flavours are more or less adjusted based on how salty or sweet you like your soups.

Pork Rib Noodle Soup Method
Ingredients:

Chinese dried black beans – typically we use about 1/3 cup of these dried, they are quite salty so be spare with how much you need. They can be found in a Chinese grocery store like T&T here in Calgary.

Ribs – depending on how many servings you’re cooking, I would recommend at least one rack of ribs chopped in to tiny 2 inch pieces

Rice Wine

Dark Soy Sauce

Light Soy Sauce

Oil – for cooking

Garlic – smashed and peeled, but leave whole

Onions – cut in to sections

Chicken Broth

Rock Sugar – you could use regular sugar but I find rock sugar to be less sweet and easier for soup bases, this can also be found at your Chinese grocer.

Rice Noodles – we prefer the medium thick noodles, but it’s really based on what your preference is.

Chili Garlic Sauce – optional

Scallions - optional

Preparation:

In a medium sized bowl, combine the dried black beans and ribs together. Add in a few splashes of rice wine, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and mix. Let it sit over night if possible to really let the flavours penetrate the ribs.

When ready to cook, in a medium sized pot add in the oil over medium heat. Once ready, add in the garlic and onions and let them sweat for 3-5 mins.

Stir in the rib mixture and let it brown. If they get stuck to the bottom of the pot add in a dash of rice wine. Once the rib brown pour in a can of chicken broth and then fill the pot with water. Be sure to add enough water for the number of servings required.

Turn the heat up to high and wait for the pot to boil. Once it boils, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for 2-3 hours or until the ribs start to fall off the bone.

Taste the soup and add in a couple small pieces of rock sugar to provide a bit of sweetness to the broth. Add a bit more soy sauce if required based on your flavour preferences.

In a separate small pot, boil water and cook the rice noodles. Scoop up the noodles when ready in to a bowl and top with rib broth.

If you like you can add a bit of chili garlic sauce on top and scallions. Enjoy!