Grandma's Meatball Soup Recipe

Enjoy this beautiful meatball soup all throughout the year, especially in the cold season. It warms up your whole being. It is one of those really addictive dishes. My kids are addicted to this and I have to say I still am and probably always will be.

I ate a lot of this soup as a kid, my mum used to make it often and I always loved it. I thought I must share the recipe with you, I am sure you will love it too!! ;-))

We love having it with fresh homemade bread and fresh green chillies or pickled ones. Delicious!

It is one of those soups that go very well with children and even those that do not eat vegetables will definitely eat this! I can guarantee you that if they eat it once they will ask for it again and again. My kids also get very excited about the meatballs which they really enjoy eating and say they are the best meatballs in the whole wide world. They are sweet to say that but I also feel that they are perfectly right and they do know what they are talking about ;-))

How to make this meatball soup?

All it takes is about 20 min of your time, the rest is left for boiling so let the stove do all the work for you.

Start by Making the Meatball Mixture

In a mixing bowl, add the ground meat, add finely chopped onion, add the rice, the eggs, and season with salt and black pepper. Mix well to combine. This is a 3 min activity.

Form the meatballs and set them aside on a plate or chopping board.

Make the meatball soup

Option 1

Take out a larger pot. Place it on medium heat, add the chopped onion, grated or diced carrots, parsnip celery, diced celeriac, courgette/zucchini and the red pepper. Add a drizzle of water or oil if you wish. Cook for a few minutes until softened, stirring regularly.
Add most of the water or broth depending on how you like your soup, add the meatballs, and a little later the canned tomatoes. Season to your taste. At the end garnish with your preferred chopped fresh herbs.

Option 2

See the recipe card - it implies no oil addition, no frying/sautéing the vegetables. It is how I make most of my soups for many, many years now and it is as delicious as the other option.

Cooking Tips

• Ground meat - in this meatball soup you can use any meat you wish (turkey, pork, lamb, chicken) or even a mix. I like mixing pork with beef, beef with lamb - are particularly good. I always use extra-lean meat as I do not like at all greasy soups.
• Egg - only add on egg if the mince/ground meat is super lean - anything above 10% far does not require and egg. 
• The rice - try and use more glutenous rice - helps with the binding. The rice here in this recipe does not require precooking. Simply wash it and it to the meat. 
• Vegetables - if you do not have, cannot eat or simply do not like vegetables like parsnip, celery, celeriac, do not worry. Other vegetables that could be used in this meatball soup are leeks, swede, yellow, green or orange pepper, green beans, peas or potatoes. If you add potato, make sure these get added after you added the tomato juice/paste as this will help to keep them whole and not get mushy. 
• Stock - Use any low salt vegetable, beef or lamb and use chicken stock only if you are using chicken or turkey mince. 
• Fresh herbs - add some freshly chopped parsley and/or lovage only to the soup you will eat and not to the whole soup (if any will be leftover). Herbs are good and make a truly delicious addition when freshly added.

FAQs

Other recipes you may like :

• Potato soup with ham hock and petit pois (garden peas)
• Black pepper and olive oil homemade white bread
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Give this super tasty grandma's meatball soup a try and let me know how you liked it.