Sayur Bening Bayam (Spinach Clear & Sweet Soup)

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Sayur Bening Bayam is a traditional Indonesian vegetable clear soup that is light, nutritious, and easy to prepare. It features spinach (Bayam) as the main ingredient, complemented by corn (or carrot) and simple seasonings.

sayur = vegetable dish; bening = clear soup; bayam = spinach

There are 2 unique things that you have to remember from this recipe:

• This dish’s taste will be a combination of sweet and savory. This is unique because we usually associate something sweet with a dessert, not a main vegetable dish.
• The recipe requires a specific herb, fingerroot, a root similar to ginger but hard to find outside Asia. I brought the dry form of this herb from Indonesia, which lasted for months.

This dish tastes very clean and light, and I love it when my mother cooks it. When she does, I eat three plates of rice bowl. Yes, three; I didn’t write it incorrectly. Even though this can be eaten by itself, I usually eat rice, a side of tofu and/or tempe, and Indonesian sambal (please see the sambal recipe in this link).

Benefit of Sayur Bening Bayam

As we all know, spinach is a superfood. This vegetable is a nutritional powerhouse that offers a range of essential nutrients. This leafy green vegetable is packed with vitamins like A, C, and K and minerals such as iron and calcium. Additionally, calories in spinach are low in carbohydrates while being high in dietary fiber

Because of the above nutritional benefits, this spinach clear soup is famous among mothers who breastfeed their children (lactating mothers). Spinach is particularly beneficial due to its high content of phytoestrogens. These compounds mimic estrogen in a woman’s body, leading to increased milk production.

Important info about Spinach

I have one specific tip for you when you cook spinach: Never reheat it. When we reheat cooked spinach, nitrates are transformed into nitrites and then into nitrosamines, which are considered hazardous and harmful to health and may promote the development of certain diseases, including cancer. If you want your soup to be hot, make it fresh—it is pretty easy!

Ingredients for Sayur Bening Bayam

1. Spinach

You can use any type of spinach you prefer. I am using Chinese round spinach in this recipe, which we usually call ‘Bayam Hijau’ in Indonesia. Here is a fun fact: this Bayam Hijau is a kind of amaranth rather than spinach. Spinach and amaranth are from the Amaranthaceae family but are from different genera. The genus of amaranth is Amaranthus, while the genus of spinach is Spinacia. This vegetable is also called een/en choy or Chinese spinach (refer to this link for more details).

Another type of spinach that I used in the past is another Chinese spinach called phuay leng. This type of spinach has a characteristic of one leaf per stem. They become much softer during cooking but have a specific bitter taste.

Spinach Prep

I usually grab some spinach, pick the stems one by one, and align each to group leaves. After that, I will cut them 3 times to separate the leaf parts and cut the stems into around 3 cm (please see the image below). I will discard the area closer to the roots. My mother taught me this, and I will always do it this way. I will keep doing the same for all of the spinach stems. After that, I will bring the spinach into a colander and wash it 3 times. My mother said if I do it less than 3 times, there is a risk that the vegetables are not clean enough and there is still some dirt or sand sticking to the spinach.

Spinach Alternative

If you are too lazy to cook multiple batches every time you want a hot soup and just want to cook one batch and reheat, there are a couple of alternative vegetables that you can use instead of spinach. One of the vegetables that I have tried and love very much is watercress. Even though it is not as nutritious as spinach, it has a very cooling flavor, a comforting feature you would love in a soup. Sometimes, my mother loves to use the recipe for tapioca leaves, though I am pretty neutral about it

2. Sweet Corn

This vegetable is optional, not mandatory, as I have made sayur bayam many times without adding other vegetables. However, adding this vegetable will enrich the flavor and taste of this soup as the sweetness of the corn will blend very well with the sweet, savory flavor of the soup.

Corn Prep

If you buy corn in the husk, the first thing you need to do is shuck it. Start by gripping the bottom of the ear of corn with your opposite hand. Break off the leaves and silks. Gather the leaves and silks in one hand and snap them off at the base of the ear of corn. Discard the leaves, silks, and tassels. Tidy up the cob. Run your fingers over the cob and pick away any remaining silks. You probably won’t get every single one — that’s part of the corn-on-the-cob experience — but you can get most of them.

After you have removed all of the husk and silk, wash them with clean water and dry them with a paper towel. When they are dry, grab a chopping board and cut them into pieces around 1 – 1.5 cm wide (refer to the picture below).

Corn Alternative

I did mention that this add-in vegetable is optional. You can omit the corn altogether, or if you want to replace it with other vegetables, you can replace it with other sweet and fresh vegetables such as carrots or even fruits like pear. Try not to add flavorful vegetables/fruits so as not to impact the dish’s original flavor.

3. Seasoning and Herbs

There are 4 key ingredients in this recipe to make the flavorful, sweet, savory, and fragrant soup:

• Shallot
• Fingerroot (also known as temu kunci in Indonesia) is slightly bitter, with a hint of spiciness like ginger, but not as spicy as ginger. It also has a specific fragrant smell that is probably comparable with galangal. The earthy smell of this herb is pretty distinctive.
• Sugar
• Salt

Step-by-Step to Instructions to Make Sayur Bening Bayam

1. We start by adding 1.5l water, sliced shallot (5pc), and 20gr of fingerroot to the pot. Turn on the stove to medium heat. Since I use an induction stove, I set the temperature at 120° Celsius. Cover the pan to speed up the boiling process.

2. When the water starts to boil, add cut sweet corn (1 pc) to the pot and cook until softened.

3. Add the rest of the seasoning (5 tbsp sugar and 1.5 tsp salt) to the pot. Mix evenly until all are fully dissolved. Feel free to adjust it to your liking. If you prefer the soup to be less sweet, add half of the sugar first and then gradually add it if you need more.

4. Put 250gr spinach into the pot. Mix everything to ensure all the spinach is submerged in the water. When all of the spinach is cooked (becomes softened), turn off the heat.

5. The spinach clear soup (sayur being bayam) is ready to be served

Storing Instruction for Sayur Bening Bayam

I don’t have string instructions for this dish since I don’t recommend keeping it. One reason is that you shouldn’t reheat it. When we reheat cooked spinach, nitrates are transformed into nitrites and then into nitrosamines, which are considered hazardous and harmful to health and may promote the development of certain diseases, including cancer. If you want your soup to be hot, make it fresh—it is pretty easy!