Albondigas soup is a traditional Mexican meatball soup. "Albondigas” means “meatballs” in Spanish. My mom didn’t make it often but when she did, it would be heaven! I would say it is one of our interpretations of comfort food, aside from Chocolate Caliente, Tamales, Chile Rellenos or Birria. YUM!
It is very easy to make this soup!
Meatballs
Ingredients:
- 1lb of ground beef or pork
- ½ lb of chorizo (gives it a GREAT flavor to both the meatballs and broth, hence why I do low sodium broth.
- 1 egg
- ¼-½ cup of uncooked rice (White rice such as jasmine is usually used but you can use any rice. Note* white rice takes less time to cook than brown rice. Using brown or other rice might mean your rice doesn’t cook fully.)
- ¼ onion
- Spices ; salt, black pepper, thyme and basil. (I also added a bit of chili powder and garlic powder)
- Mix everything together.
- Form meatballs and then put them in the fridge until the broth boils.
Broth (a simple soup)
Ingredients:
- onions
- garlic
- broth (of your choosing)
- tomatoes (canned or fresh)
- Add about a tablespoon of olive oil to a med/big sized pot on medium heat.
- Finely chop onion and mince the garlic, then add to the hot pot.
- Once the onion is clear, add broth of your choice (I use chicken broth). I always do a 2:1 ratio of low sodium chicken broth and water (less sodium and I prefer it) but it is up to you how flavorful you would like your broth.
- Add chopped canned or fresh tomatoes.
- Bring to a boil while you prepare the veggies.
Vegetables
There are a couple of traditional vegetables to add to Albondigas such as calabazitas, chayote carrots, celery and potatoes. You can always pick and choose which you would like to use and maybe add a couple different vegetables or substitute other winter vegetables.
Ingredients I used:
- 1 chayote cut in 4 (Mexican vegetable that looks similar to squash, but has different taste and texture)
- 2 calabazitas (green Mexican squash)
- 1 yellow squash (mainly for color)
- 1-2 carrots (chopped in rounds)
- 2 celery stalks chopped
- 5 small/medium sized potatoes cut in fours (I like to use the multicolored potatoes – Red, purple and white)
- ¼-½ cabbage (julienned); julienne is a culinary knife cut where you cut a food item into long thin strips, similar to matchsticks.
Instructions:
- Now that everything is prepped and your broth is boiling, go ahead and add your delicious meatballs to the soup!
- Add meatballs one by one very carefully by dropping them into the soup using a spoon or other utensil. (The point is to not let the meatballs fall and splash as it will ruin the shape of the meatball and possibly burn you.)
- Once all meatballs are in, let them cook for around 15-20 minutes, until fully cooked or almost fully cooked. Bring to a boil once again.
- Add veggies: Add chayote first, it takes the longest to cook. Cook for 5 minutes. Add potatoes, carrots and celery. Cook until almost tender. Add calabazitas and yellow squash.
- Cook until everything is cooked fully, then add cabbage. Turn off heat and cover, leave covered until cabbage is tender.
- Your soup is ready! Serve in bowls with tortillas and avocado on the side, YUM!
I like to add fresh lime juice to my soup and make avocado tacos - I dip my avocado tacos in my soup as I go.
