Sweet-and-Sour Shrimp Ball Soup

This easy, vibrant soup is inspired by a hot pot dinner I enjoyed recently in Flushing, New York. The server dropped a scoop of minced shrimp into a simmering broth and advised us to eat the shrimp balls immediately. They were meltingly tender and so simple. 

Here I fortify store-bought chicken broth with fish sauce and aromatics—lemongrass, scallion, garlic, and ginger—to produce a deeply flavorful (but also quick and painless) base. Lean on your food processor to whiz together a shrimp mince in no time; as the seasoned shrimp balls gently poach, they soak up the soup flavors while simultaneously imparting their own sweetness to the broth. Bok choy is used here, but spinach or watercress works just as well. A generous squeeze of fresh lime at the end wakes up all of the wonderful flavors.