Albondigas

Albondigas, also known as Mexican meatball soup, is such an easy meal to make. Last night I decided on a whim to make it. Today has been a cold, gloomy, and rainy day which equals perfect weather for any warm soup. Some of you probably have a mom or abuelita who makes the best albondiga soup, but if you don’t, this easy recipe can be made in about an hour or less. Many of the ingredients you might already have in stock. This is a meal where you can tweak the ingredients to your preferences, so feel free to add or remove some that I used.

Ingredients for the meatballs:

• 2 lbs ground turkey (or ground beef, pork, etc.)
• 2 eggs
• Half a cup of flour
• Semi cooked white rice
• 1 Tbsp of garlic salt

Ingredients for the soup:

• 1 quart of water
• 2 quarts chicken stock
• Peeled baby carrots
• 1 calabaza (Mexican squash) chopped
• 1 Zucchini chopped
• 1 tomato chopped
• 2 or 3 potatoes cubed
• 1/4 onion largely chopped
• 1 cup of white rice (uncooked)
• 2 tomatillos chopped
• Handful of cilantro
• 2 bouillon cubes (chicken flavor)

Cut up all of your veggies. They should be cut in small cubes but not diced. Make sure all cut veggies have approximately the same size in cut to ensure even cooking. Pour 1 quart water and 2 quart chicken stock in large pot. Pour in all veggies and diced cilantro.

Add in the two chicken bouillon cubes. Let that simmer on medium heat. Start working on your meatballs.

For the meatballs:

Cook the rice mildly for about 5 minutes just to get it semi-soft. DO NOT COOK RICE ALL THE WAY. Once semi cooked, drain the rice.

Mix in the ground turkey, 2 eggs, flour, cooked rice, and garlic salt in a mixing bowl. (Leave about a half a cup of rice so that you can pour it into the soup mixture) Mix together with fingers or spoon. Shape the meatballs into golf ball sized balls.

Check your veggies to see if they are starting to soften. Add in the extra rice and meatballs slowly (to prevent them from falling apart) into the veggie mixture and continue to cook an additional 15-20 minutes until inside of meatball is fully cooked.

And DONE! Enjoy your albondiga soup with some lime juice, extra cilantro topping and salsa if you have any. I like to eat it with rolled up corn tortillas, YUM!

Xoxo,

Reyna