Albondigas Recipe

Mexican meatball soup perfect for a Wisconsin Winter

Ingredient List

Meatballs

1 pound beef
1/4 cup diced onion
2 garlic cloves diced
1/8 cup long grain rice, uncooked
1/2 tsp each cumin and dried Oregano
Salt and black pepper

Soup base:

2 large tomatoes
optional:1 rehydrated guajillo Chile and 1 whole chipotle in adobo plus 1 T sauce

Other ingredients:

1 small zuchinni chopped
1/2 cup diced onion
Dash of cumin and powdered coriander, a bay leaf and black pepper
1 each carrot and potato, peeled and cubed
salt and pepper to taste

Garnish:

avocado
cilantro
lime

Albondigas

Method

Mix together meatball ingredients and mix together and form into 1.5” balls. Set aside.

Meanwhile boil whole tomatoes in small sauce pan covered in water (about 1 cup) for 7 minutes. Set aside and reserve the water and let cool about 10 minutes. Blend tomato and the water plus enough stock to make about 2 cups. Add chipotle or rehydrated guajillo if desired. Set aside.

Meanwhile in a large soup pot heat some oil and add meatballs and brown gently. Add diced onion that you didn’t use in meatballs. Saute for about 5 minutes. Add any desired spices and stir briefly.

Add the tomato/water purée and additional chicken broth if needed to cover the meatballs, add 1 potato and 1 carrot, peeled and cubed, and simmer about 20 minutes.

Add any quick cooking vegetables (frozen corn kernels, zucchini) and cook another 10 minutes.

Add squeeze of lime and salt to taste.

Serve soup and garnish with cilantro, lime and avocado. Buen Provecho!

Albondigas

Perfect for a cold day

Cooking Tips

rehydrating chiles:

Lightly toast dried chiles on heat (in skillet or over open flame) very briefly before placing in boiling water. Do not let them burn. Turn the water off and cover, letting chiles soak for about 30 minutes.

meatballs tips:

I seared the meatballs in advance of putting them in the soup, but didn’t cook them all the way through,, I also only had sushi rice and used that. It worked perfectly!