Albondigas Soup
So, the other day I was wondering how to use hamburger meat. Our most common meals are tacos, meatloaf, spaghetti and meatballs, and if I am in a rush and haven’t planned I will cook chili mac.
Although the kids love meatloaf, I was wanting a change. With the colder weather, I thought soup. Hey, I thought, growing up mom use to make albondigas soup. It had been literally decades since I had albondigas (meatball) soup. Sadly mom isn’t here for me to call up and ask for the recipe. So off to the internet I went in search of a recipe.
After searching and finding recipes that didn’t sound like moms, she didn’t add tomato sauce for one (at least I think she didn’t), I finally found one that was close. Actually I found two and combined them. One didn’t have rice, which I remembered was in the meatballs. The other added vegetables that I don’t remember being in the soup, like green beans, but it did have the rice in the meatballs. Picky I know!
The first time I made the recipe, I made it with rice. The other day I decided to use quinoa in the place of rice. Quinoa is something I want to cook more with, but I am having a hard time with recipes. I actually bought a quinoa cookbook, but it hasn’t arrived yet.
It was a hit at our house. Funny because I do remember not liking or caring for meatball soup when I was growing up. I ate it because mom made it, but now I think it is delicious, especially on these cold evenings.
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- ¼ tsp garlic salt
- ¼ tsp onion powder
- 1 egg
- ⅓ cup quinoa
- 2 TBS coconut oil
- 64 oz chicken broth
- 4 large carrots, cut into ½" pieces
- 3 stalks celery, cut into 1" pieces
- 3 potatoes, cubed
- celtic sea salt
- black pepper
- For meatballs, combine the ground beef, ½ the cilantro, ½ the onion, garlic, garlic salt, onion powder, egg, and quinoa in a bowl.
- Shape into golf size meatballs.
- Set aside.
- In a large pot, cook remaining onion in coconut oil on medium-high heat until translucent, about 8 minutes.
- Add chicken broth, carrots, celery, and potatoes.
- Bring to a boil and carefully drop in the meatballs.
- Add in the remaining cilantro.
- Lower the heat and simmer for 45 minutes.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Enjoy,
This looks so good and hearty! It has been SO cold and snowy here, it would be perfect. Thanks for linking up with “Try a New Recipe Tuesday.” I look forward to seeing what you’ll share this week. http://our4kiddos.blogspot.com/2014/02/try-new-recipe-tuesday-february-18.html
Hi Peggy! Thanks for visiting my blog. I hope y'all enjoy the soup. 🙂
Your recipe sounds like something my family would like. Thanks Trying it out this week 🙂