It's cold and dreary, time for some nice hot soup
Here's the recipe and what I did

Meatball Vegetable Soup

1/2 med onion diced
2 teaspoons grapeseed oil
2 cloves garlic minced
1 quart chicken broth or water
4 oz tomato sauce or spicy tomato sauce
----Meatballs----
1/2 lb ground beef
1/8 cup short grain rice (handful)
5 leaves mint minced
3 sprigs of cilantro, leaves only minced
Freshly ground black pepper
----Vegetables----
Veggies of your choice I used
5 fingerling potatoes, diced
1 cup diced green beans

In a medium saucepan, cook the diced onion until it becomes
translucent. Add the garlic and cook until it becomes fragrant then
add the broth or water.
Bring broth to the boil while making the meatballs.

Mix the minced mint leaves, cilantro and rice into the ground beef.
Make the meat mixture into tablespoon sized meatballs.
Add the meatballs into the boiling broth slowly one at a time. It is
important to keep the broth at a boil while adding the meatballs.
Once the meatballs are added reduce the heat to a simmer and simmer
for an hour.
During the last half hour add your vegetables and simmer until they
are tender.


One Albondigas Soup recipe I was looking at insisted that adding mint
to the meatball mixture is what makes it Albondigas.
Don't know about that but I'm game to try new things. An old
Albondigas recipe I have calls for cilantro, so I added a little of
each to about half a pound of ground beef.
http://i23.tinypic.com/oggw3d.jpg

I had already started the soup by chopping up half an onion and
cooking it in a little oil until translucent then I added two finely
diced cloves of garlic. I was going to get a picture of this but I
took out my contacts before I chopped the onion and I need to get it
cooked and under liquid, one quart of chicken broth, before I cried my
eyes out.
I then added the meatballs to the boiling liquid. The recipe also
called for adding tomato sauce. All I had was a can of El Pato brand
jalapeno tomato sauce. I added probably half a can of that, just
enough of a kick to be interesting but not overwhelming.
I also added some chopped up fingerling potatoes and fresh green
beans. http://i21.tinypic.com/2u8hyf7.jpg

A steaming hot bowl of soup for a chilly night. Turned out pretty
darned good.
http://i20.tinypic.com/2v321ee.jpg

I really like the addition of the mint to the meatball mixture. It
adds a freshness that sits nicely in the background.

koko
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http://www.kokoscorner.typepad.com
updated 10/14

"There is no love more sincere than the love of food"
George Bernard Shaw