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Food and family go together.
As they should, right?
For me, growing up with what could be considered a crazy-large extended Mexican family meant two wonderful things: I attended lots of parties and ate lots of authentic latin food throughout my childhood. Both good things, right? 🙂
Albondigas Soup Recipe
One particularly memorable dish that I enjoyed as a kid was albondigas soup. Albondigas are meatballs that are infused with flavor, and albondigas soup is a savory dish that I love cooking for my own family.
And today, I’m going to share a step-by-step tutorial of just how I do it.
Let’s get started!
To begin, I went to the grocery store to pick up the items I needed for the soup. I wanted a very authentic mexican flavor in my soup, so I went to Cermak Fresh Market and purchased a few La Morena products to give the albondigas soup a wallop of flavor.
I use the La Morena brand jalapeño peppers, serrano peppers, and chipotle sauce to give the soup a delicious taste and aroma. And trust me, using a touch of heat in the soup gives it flavor. It doesn’t burn your face off. 🙂
After you have everything you need from the grocery store, it’s time to gather the ingredients and start making albondigas soup!
Here’s what goes into this recipe:
For the Meatballs:
1.5 lbs. ground beef
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped finely
1/4 cup long grain rice
1 teaspoon ground cumin (or chili powder – either spice is great)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepperFor the Soup:
2 (32 ounce) containers of vegetable broth
4 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 medium-sized onion, chopped
2 tablespoons chipotle Sauce
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon pickled jalapeño peppers, seeds removed and finely diced
1 pickled serrano pepper, seeds removed and finely diced
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
3 large potatoes, cut into large chunks
fresh lime juice
cilantro for garnish (optional)
Once you have the ingredients gathered and prepped, it’s time to make the meatballs that’ll go into the soup. In a large bowl, mix together the ground beef, cilantro, rice, cumin, oregano, egg, salt, and pepper.
Next, shape the meat mixture into individual meatballs. Go ahead and set the meatballs aside after you’ve finished rolling them. The meat mixture should yield approximately 20 meatballs about 2 tablespoons each in size.
Now, it’s time to start cooking!
In a large pot, add 1/4 cup of the vegetable broth, the sliced carrots, and onions. You may notice that my onions are left on the larger side. Feel free to chop your onions smaller. I cut the onion for our soup into large chunks, because there are some people in our family who don’t love onions. This makes it easier to avoid adding it to their bowl.
Me? I love onions.
Cook for about 7 minutes over medium-high heat.
Then add the remaining vegetable broth, chipotle sauce, bay leaf, jalapeño peppers, serrano pepper, salt, pepper, and potatoes to the pot. Bring these ingredients to a boil over high heat.
While the soup is working on coming to a boil, lightly brown the meatballs for about 10 minutes.
You’ll want to be near the stove pretty much the whole time for this step, so that you don’t accidentally overcook the meatballs.
The idea is to brown the outside a bit, but definitely do NOT cook the meatballs all the way through. They’ll cook the rest of the way in the boiling pot of soup.
Once the soup is boiling, carefully add in the meatballs.
Then reduce the heat on the stove to medium, cover the pot, and cook the albondigas soup until the potatoes are tender.
The soup should be ready in about 20 minutes.
Once the albondigas soup is finished cooking, remove the bay leaf, and serve in bowls with a splash of lime (or lemon) juice.
Cilantro is the perfect garnish for this dish. Hot corn tortillas and rice are great accompaniments. The rice would be for spooning right into your bowl of soup and the tortillas for dipping.
Enjoy! 🙂
Here’s the printable recipe:
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs. ground beef
- 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped finely
- 1/4 cup long grain rice
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin (or chili powder - either spice is great)
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 2 (32 ounce) containers of vegetable broth
- 4 carrots, peeled and sliced
- 1 medium-sized onion, chopped
- 2 tablespoons chipotle Sauce
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 teaspoon pickled jalapeño peppers, seeds removed and finely diced
- 1 pickled serrano pepper, seeds removed and finely diced
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 3 large potatoes, cut into large chunks
- fresh lime juice
- cilantro for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together the ground beef, cilantro, rice, cumin, oregano, egg, salt, and pepper. Shape the meat mixture into individual meatballs and set aside. The meat mixture should yield approximately 20 meatballs about 2 tablespoons each in size.
- In a large pot, add 1/4 cup of the vegetable broth, carrots, and onions. Cook for about 7 minutes over medium-high heat. Then add remaining vegetable broth, chipotle sauce, bay leaf, jalapeño peppers, serrano pepper, salt, pepper, and potatoes to the pot. Bring to a boil over high heat.
- While the soup is working on coming to a boil, lightly brown the meatballs (about 10 minutes).
- Once the soup is boiling, carefully add in the meatballs. Then reduce the heat to medium, cover, and cook until potatoes are tender. This should take about 20 minutes.
- Once the albondigas soup is finished cooking, remove the bay leaf, and serve with a splash of lime juice. Garnish with cilantro.
I hope your family enjoys this soup as much as mine. 🙂
What’s your family’s favorite Mexican dish?
