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Wednesday, August 14, 2013

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
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

7 comments:

  1. oh goodness i love this, LOVE soup too, it's my favorite meal. i have albondigas once a week at our favorite mexican restaurant. i used to make it when the kids were small though. i hope it cools down there for you soon (come here heather, we've had one of the coldest summer ever)

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  2. p.s. i think you did a wonderful job blogging about this :)

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  3. My mouth is watering... looks and sounds delicious!

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  4. Today it is cool [er] and raining, the perfect day for soup and I will be preparing your recipe. Thanks Heather I think my guys are going to love this.

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  5. I can eat soup everyday! Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe.

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  6. yum! we eat a lot of soup, too. and while it is too hot to turn the oven on, i can still eat soup quite happily :)

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  7. this looks amazing. I need it right now!

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