Albondigas Soup
Serves 6-8

Nutritious and comforting, hearty soups are cold weather staples throughout the world. For centuries, most of these soups were made from whatever meat was left on bones along with scraps of greens and root vegetables. They were necessity foods that cost almost nothing and kept families warm and fed.

Today most homemade soups are made from scratch and while they might be delicious and comforting, they can be expensive and often lack the complex flavors that come from re-cooked meats, vegetables and sauces.

Another reason that I make my own soup stocks and cook to have leftovers.

When I read about traditional foods, I look for soups that seem to be based on leftovers, try to figure out what might have been cooked prior to the soup and plan menus that provide the ingredients of those soups.

Albondigas means meatballs in Spanish, and there are many Albondigas soups in Spanish cultures. This recipe is a combination of several Mexican soup recipes incorporating flavors I particularly like.

I made the meatballs a couple of days before, and served them with black beans and peppers. The extra ones went into the soup.

Hints

1. Most Albondigas soup recipes I read call for meatballs made with ground beef. I substituted ground pork because pork is the meat in chorizo and it complements the flavors of the peppers, vegetables and herbs. The garlic, carrot and onion can be pulse processed if you don’t like to chop-a-lot.
2. I also added green chilies, green chili hot sauce, red sweet pepper and fresh squeezed lime to the soup.
3. I happened to have frozen homemade pork stock. Chicken stock would work as well.

Ingredients

½# ground fresh pork
½# bulk chorizo sausage
1 fresh egg, slightly beaten
½ cup cooked rice
4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
1 large yellow onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeds and center pith removed
1 Poblano chili, seeds and center pith vein removed
2 bunches fresh cilantro, leaves removed except from 4 stems
2 tbs. ground cumin
2 tbs. dried Mexican oregano
2 tbs. Green Tabasco sauce or medium green chili sauce
6 cups stock
3 stalks celery, chopped
1 15.5oz diced tomatoes
2 fresh limes
Salt and pepper to taste

Procedure

For Meatballs:

Preheat the oven to 375º

1. Combine ground pork and chorizo with beaten egg, rice, half of the chopped garlic, carrot, onion, bell pepper and Poblano pepper.
2. Finely chop half of the cilantro leaves and add them along with 1 tbs. cumin, 1 tbs. oregano and1 tbs. green chili sauce.


Albondigas ready to fry

3. Mix the ingredients with your hands to combine. Form the mixture into meatballs about half the size of golf balls, and brown them on all sides in a skillet. When all the meatballs are browned, transfer them to a sheet pan, saving the residue in the skillet. Bake the meatballs for 1bout 10 minutes until they are cooked through.

For Soup:

1. While they are baking, put the skillet back over heat and add 1 cup of stock to the pan.
2. Scrape the residue off the pan and mix it with the stock.
3. Transfer stock to a soup pot and heat over medium low temperature. Add remaining stock and remaining ingredients except limes, salt and pepper
4. Cook the soup at a low simmer for 40 minutes. The liquid will reduce and thicken slightly. Stir in the juice of 1 lime.
5. Taste and correct seasoning with salt and pepper.
6. Add meatballs to the soup and simmer for another 5 minutes.
7. To Serve: ladle soup into heated soup bowls. Place 4 or 5 meatballs into soup, saving remainders for 2nd helpings. Garnish each serving with a sprig of fresh cilantro and a wedge of lime.