Meatballs and Sweet Peppers Soup

INGREDIENTS: 

= 1 lb grinded lean beef

= 2 quarts Beef stock (homemade preferably, or from Whole Foods) 

= 1 egg 

= 1 bunch of fresh parsley or cilantro – very finely chopped

 = 4 onions: 1 chopped for sautéing for the soup; 1- whole for the stock; 2 – very finely chopped for the meatballs filing   

= 1 carrot – grated for sautéing

= 2 sweet peppers (red and yellow) – diced

= 3 potatoes – diced

= Black pepper whole (about 5-7)

= 2 bay leaves

= 2 table spoons of unsalted butter

= 2-3 tablespoons olive oil  

= Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

COOKING: 

1. Sauté 2 finely chopped onions in olive oil.

2. Take the grinded beef, 1 egg, sautéed onions, chopped parsley, salt and ground black pepper and mix very well. Form meatballs in the size of a walnut. You can use a spoon or do it with your hands, just make sure you wet them in cold water to avoid meat sticking to them.

Put the meatballs in a shallow dish and put it in the fridge (not the freezer!) to let the meatballs cool.

3. Pour 2 quarts of beef stock into a pot; add peeled whole onion, 2 bay leaves and a few black peppers. Bring to a boil.

4. In a frying pan heat 2 table spoons of unsalted butted and 2 table spoons of olive oil. Sauté 1 chopped onion and 1 grated carrot about 5 minutes until soft and golden.

5. Clean, seed and finely dice sweet peppers; add to the sautéing onions and carrots at the very end, stir and sauté for another 2-3 minutes.  

6. Wash, peel, and dice potatoes.

7. Once your soup starts boiling reduce the heat to medium-low and let it boil for 2-3 minutes; add diced potatoes. Cook for 8-10 minutes.

8. While potatoes are cooking, take the meatballs out of the fridge and brown them on all sides on a frying pan in hot olive oil – about 5-7 minutes.

9. After 8-10 minutes after you put potatoes into the soup, reduce the heat to low and very carefully, using a slotted spoon put the meatballs into the soup. If you put meatballs into an actively boiling soup it could turn cloudy. After all meatballs are in, increase the heat to medium.  

10. After meatballs are safely in the soup, add sautéed onions, carrots, and sweet peppers.

11. Usually, it takes about 7-10 minutes to cook meatballs of a walnut size. Once all meatballs surfaced – it means they are fully cooked. Add chopped parsley, boil for another minute and turn the heat off.

Soup should be flavorful and transparent with browned meatballs.  

Tips and Tricks for Making Tender Meatballs for Soup 

The tenderer the meatballs the better tastes your soup. The main ingredients of the meatballs – lean meat, chicken or turkey fillet or liver, fish (cod or tilapia), or vegetables (beets, carrots, potatoes, eggplants, and squash) but also onion, herbs, spices, and salt. You can also add soaked bread crumbs, crushed walnuts and so on. Some cooks add rice to the meatballs.

For the consistency and tenderness of the meatballs the filing should be grinded at least twice. When add onions, they should be already grated or chopped. Onions could be also grinded together with meat or fish.

 Some tricks that will help you make your meatballs especially tender:

• Add soaked bread crumbs (1/3 of the meat amount); or add fine semolina grains (for 1 lb of minced meat 1 table spoon of semolina grains) – after adding semolina grains let the minced meat stand for 15 minutes in the fridge to let the grains soak in the meat.

• Once your minced meat mixture is ready, throw it with force into a mixing ball or on a cutting board, repeat a few times until your meat mixture become consistent and smooth. If you go through this step you wouldn’t have to add an egg – your meatballs will never fall apart.

• Cool your meat mixture as soon as it’s ready: put it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

 For the soup with meatballs you can use different kind of stock: beef, chicken, vegetable, and fish stock for the fish-balls. You can also add rice, burley, buckwheat and other grains or vegetables such as celery and spinach.