A Homage

I love soup. I unabashedly adore it. All kinds truly. My favorite used to be New England clam chowder. In college I would buy it by the can full; Progresso was my favorite (don't judge). These days I tend to eschew dairy aside from some grassfed, happy butter, so my favorite has shifted. Now a hearty vegetable floats my boat or even, on a really cold day, a beanless chili. Thankfully my kiddos also love soup. Recently they have been vocalizing the need for a good broth based dinner. Since it has been hot here for months, our meals have been more of the grilled variety supplemented with a lot of salads. I decided after making a whole chicken in the crockpot over the weekend, that I needed to make stock. This started the move toward fulfilling our overwhelming desire for soup.

First off was a chicken vegetable-with noodles for those so inclined. It took two days, and a few visitors, but that big stockpot is gone. The kiddos ate soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Tonight we are dining on a hybrid albondigas soup. A dear friend of mine served it recently. Aine and I were hooked. With Aine as my sous chef, we set about making it. I used riced cauliflower in the meatballs and lots of cabbage, carrots and celery in the soup base. We have a masterpiece. Tomorrow will be a hearty butternut squash and then I am hoping our yearning for soup will be satisfied until the temperatures drop below 110 degrees.

Albondigas Mexican Meatball Soup (my way)

Meatballs:

1 # ground beef

1 # ground pork 

3 cloves garlic 

1 cup riced cauliflower (use food processor with s-blade attachment to chop cauliflower until rice like consistency)

1 egg 

Oregano, cumin, salt and pepper to personal taste

Soup:

3 quarts stock plus added water to fill stock pot

8 or so carrots, chopped

4 stalks of celery, chopped

1 head of cabbage 

1 onion, diced

Fresh parsley (couple tablespoons)

2 tsp oregano

1-2 tsp cumin

2 cloves garlic

1 bay leaf

2 T (ish) tomato paste

Salt/pepper to taste

*I browned the meatballs with the oven broiler then added then to the simmering soup to cook for an hour or so.

**I am neither a food blogger nor a food photographer