We had a chilly weekend and I wanted to make something warm. I also wanted soup. I also wanted meatballs. So, a meatball soup I made. Saturday was such a lazy day for us with nothing planned except a concert later in the evening. So I woke up, had breakfast, watched a little TV, and made soup - all before noon. The soup was super easy to make and took less than 1 hour from beginning to plate. This is definitely one of those dishes that tastes better if you let it stand for a few hours.
This soup is also very magical. Well, it won’t give you magic powers or grant you wishes, but it will disappear before your eyes in a matter of hours. Whenever I make soup, I end up eating a few bowls while my husband eats 1. So we always end up with tons of soup left over that ends up going sour before we finish it.
With this soup, it was nearly, completely gone before dinner time. It might have something to do with the fact that I’m pregnant and constantly hungry or the fact that it was cold outside (and in) and all we wanted was soup. It might also have something to do with the fact that this soup is just so darn good and not heavy at all.
Considering the amount of soup I made, I’m still amazed that we have none left.
Albondigas (Meatball) Soup
(serves 6-8)
Recipe from simplyrecipes.com
Ingredients:
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 large garlic clove, minced
- 3 quarts of chicken stock or beef stock OR water OR a mixture of both (we usually use half stock half water as the meatballs will create their own stock)*
- 1/2 cup of tomato sauce
- 1/2 lb of string beans, strings and ends removed, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
- 1/3 cup of raw white rice
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1/4 cup of chopped fresh mint leaves
- 1/4 cup of chopped parsley
- 1 raw egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- A dash of cayenne (optional)
- 1 1/2 cup of frozen or fresh peas
- 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, crumbled, or 1 Tbsp fresh chopped oregano
- Salt and pepper
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Directions:
Method
1 Heat oil in large heavy-bottomed pot (5-qt) over medium heat. Add onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook a minute more. Add broth mixture and tomato sauce. Bring to boil and reduce heat to simmer. Add carrots and string beans.
2 Prepare the meatballs. Mix rice into meat, adding mint leaves and parsley, salt and pepper. Mix in raw egg. Form mixture into 1-inch meatballs.
3 Add the meatballs to the simmering soup, one at a time. Cover and let simmer for 1/2 hour. Add the peas towards the end of the 1/2 hour. Add a few pinches of oregano and sprinkle with salt and pepper, and a dash of cayenne, to taste.
Garnish with chopped fresh cilantro.
