Everyone loves soup with meat, the only exceptions being vegetarians. But we are not talking about them now. There is simply one most important ingredient in this recipe - meatballs. But they can be different: from only one type of minced meat or from several, with or without additives.
And the dish itself can only be vegetable or with the addition of cereals. Can you imagine what a variety of flavors this is?
And this soup will become the most favorite for children. And if so, then the whole family will eat it, it’s not possible to prepare a separate dish for everyone.
How to make meatball soup
Our Russian soup with meat balls has its ancestor from Italy and Azerbaijan. True, in Azerbaijan it is called “Dovga” and is prepared with kefir. And in Italy for some reason they call it “wedding”, but they don’t treat it at weddings. It's interesting somehow.
So, the highlight of this soup is, of course, the meatballs.
Everyone prepares them differently. But there are several points that will reveal their taste and make the cooking process faster.
First, add cumin to the meat before grinding. The meat will become much more flavorful.
Secondly, to make the minced meat juicier, add water if you are grinding with a blender. Of course, you don’t need to pour it into a meat grinder. The water will not only saturate the fibers a little, but will also help the motor grind the pieces.
It is better to form meatballs with wet hands.
If your balls are of different sizes, then there is no need to worry, no one said that they must be round and the same.
Be sure to salt the meat.
If you have minced meat from several types of meat, you can add an egg to it to thicken the mass.
And, if you like to use minced chicken, then add a tablespoon of semolina, which will make the dryish meat more juicy.
To prevent you from getting minced porridge, you need to lower the meat mixture into boiling water.
The balls will float as they cook.
Well, it’s up to you to decide what the ingredients of the soup will be. I will give you several recipes, choose what you like best.
Fishball soup
Sometimes there is no chicken, pork or beef at home. In this case, you can cook the soup according to another most delicious recipe by preparing minced fish. It is better to choose sea fish (trout, salmon or pink salmon), as it contains more useful microelements and less bones. River fish is very bony, so the fillet must be minced at least twice. Ingredients and how to make the soup:
- minced meat – 400 g;
- breadcrumbs – 50 g;
- potatoes 3 pcs.;
- onions and carrots - 1 pc.;
- rice – 150 g;
- herbs, salt and seasonings.
Grind the fillet using a blender or meat grinder, add half an onion, salt and ground black pepper. Grate the carrots on a medium grater, chop the onion finely and place the vegetables in boiling water along with the potato slices. Rinse the rice several times and add it to cook in the broth. After ten minutes, form the fish into small minced and add them to the pan. Cook the soup for 7-10 minutes, serve with parsley, dill or green onions.
Another delicious meatball soup recipe is dumpling chowder, which is quick and to make. It is better to cook it in chicken broth, but add pieces of meat at the end. What you need for cooking:
- minced meat – 350 g;
- potato tubers – 2 pcs.;
- carrots and onions – 1 pc.;
- vegetable oil – 4 tbsp. l;
- flour – 1.5 tbsp. l;
- water – 4-5 tbsp. l;
- chicken eggs – 2 pcs.;
- salt, pepper mixture and bay leaf.
How to make minced meat? Add chopped hand, a mixture of peppers and salt to it, mix well. Peel the potatoes, cut into cubes and place in boiling broth. Form small meatballs for meat soup Fry onions and carrots until golden brown in a frying pan with oil, throw into the pan. To prepare dumplings, mix eggs with flour, add a spoonful of sunflower oil, add salt and knead the dough with a fork (it should be thick, but thinner than dumplings, for example). Spoon the dumplings into the pan, add salt and bay leaf. Cook for about five minutes until all the ingredients are ready. At the end, add chopped herbs into the pan.
Cooking in a slow cooker
This soup is more considered a children's soup, and when you have kids, you probably have a slow cooker. Personally, she simply saved me. You pack some food and go for a walk with your baby. We come back hungry, and everything is ready, fragrant and hot.
So, in this recipe we do not fry the vegetables, so again this is a children's dish.
Ingredients:
- 4 potatoes
- Half a kilo of minced meat
- 1 onion
- 1 carrot
- 1 tomato
- A little butter
- 2 cloves garlic
- Basil, dill
- Water 2-2.5 l
Add a couple of cloves of garlic, pepper and salt to the minced meat.
We will cook the soup immediately with the herbs. It is important to add it at the very beginning, and not at the end, the taste depends on it.
We cut vegetables and herbs.
In a slow cooker, everything cooks at the same time!
If this dish is cooked over a fire, then the vegetables are added in order.
Add vegetables and sprinkle with basil and other spices.
And here we add butter, which will give the broth a creamy, delicate taste.
You can add tomato and tomato paste.
Fill everything with water and set the mode. I call it “Soup”, there is also a “Cooking” mode.
Any minced meat is suitable. You can mix beef, pork and lamb (if available). Chicken is more dietary, and if your husband is a hunter, then cook it from venison or elk. By the way, I was treated to soup made from this kind of meat, it seemed that it was a little tough, but I didn’t notice much difference with the types that had already been tried.
Soup with meatballs and vermicelli
To increase the nutritional value, add vermicelli or pasta to this soup. I don’t accept pasta in them, and always replace it with noodles, vermicelli, pasta or spider web. But they are indicated in the recipes.
By the way, this recipe is very close to Italian. And, if you freeze vegetables, then this habit will be very useful for you.
Ingredients:
- Chicken broth 2 l
- 2 carrots
- Bulb
- Tomato
- 3 potatoes
- Green beans
- One bell pepper.
- Pasta, pasta, durum wheat noodles
For the meatballs:
- 500 g beef
- 1 onion
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp semolina
- Bunch of parsley
- 3 tablespoons grated cheese
- Basil, salt and pepper
1. We make meatballs: grind the meat in a meat grinder into minced meat along with onions, then add egg, semolina, spices, chopped parsley and grated cheese to this mixture.
2. Now we form balls, as in the photo. We wet our hands with water so that the meat does not stick and roll into balls or squeeze out even pieces through our fingers.
3. Now we prepare the soup itself. First, fry the vegetables (onions, tomatoes and onions) in heated vegetable oil.
4. Pour potatoes into a saucepan with broth. After boiling, cook the potatoes for 1-2 minutes.
5. Then add pepper and chopped beans. Cook for a couple of minutes and add the frying.
6. We do not add frying in advance, because it contains tomatoes that contain acid. And she, in turn, does not allow the potatoes to cook until tender.
7. After boiling, add vermicelli or pasta.
8. Place the meatballs into the boiling soup.
9. You need to cook for another quarter of an hour.
For flavor, add a little garlic, a mixture of peppers, and chopped herbs into the broth.
Let the soup sit and then sprinkle the bowls with grated cheese.
The mass will become thick, satisfying and very aromatic.
Tricks for making soups with meatballs using step-by-step recipes - recommendations and useful tips
• It is not necessary to add an egg to the minced meatballs. It makes them dense and harsh. The pieces of ground meat will stick together well if the minced meat is beaten well.
• Frying, even though it is cooked in vegetable oil, increases the calorie content of the dish. To prepare dietary soup with meatballs according to any step-by-step recipe, add raw vegetables. If you don't like boiled onions, omit them or add the whole onion. Once ready, it must be removed.
• It is advisable to grind the fish fillet twice, this will allow you to get rid of the smallest bones. When assembling the meat grinder, install a grid with the smallest holes.
How to cook delicious soup with minced chicken meatballs
Minced chicken is more affordable than mixed chicken. It can be mixed with pork and then you get a more tender mass. But not everyone always has pork on hand.
You can take ready-made minced meat, or you can make it from chicken breast, if it suits you like a children's menu.
For the meatballs:
- 200 g minced chicken
- Bunch of greenery
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp. spoon of semolina
- Salt pepper
1. Add greens, semolina and egg to the minced meat. We wait until the semolina swells a little. It will make the meatballs more complete and tender. It will also allow dry chicken meat to retain moisture.
2. Cut the onions and carrots into smaller pieces and fry in oil.
3. Add potatoes and fry to the broth (you don’t have to fry the vegetables, add raw ones).
4. Drop the meat balls into the bubbling broth and reduce the power to medium, otherwise the broth will not be transparent and cloudy.
5. Pour vermicelli or “spider web” into the prepared soup.
Watch a detailed video that shows another way to prepare this first dish.
Potato soup with meatballs on the stove (in a saucepan)
What we need:
- chicken fillet – 200 g;
- water – 2 l.;
- potatoes - 2 medium tubers (200 g);
- carrots – 1 pc.;
- onion – 1 pc.;
- cold drinking water – 1 tbsp;
- salt, pepper - to taste;
- dill – 3-4 sprigs;
- vegetable oil – 2 tbsp;
- bay leaf - 1 pc.;
- allspice - 3-4 peas.
Quantity: 3-4 servings.
Preparation time: 10 min.
Cooking time: 35 min.
How to make soup with potatoes and meatballs
- Peel the potatoes, cut into small cubes, and place in a saucepan. Pour water into it and place the container on the fire. For flavor, you can add stems of herbs (dill, parsley, celery). We wait until the potatoes are cooked, and at this time we prepare the remaining ingredients of the dish.
- Peel the carrots, wash them, cut them into strips. If you don’t want to bother, then just chop it on a coarse grater. Remove the skins from the onion, rinse, and finely chop.
- Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan. We send prepared carrots and half an onion into it. Sauté everything over medium heat for about 3-4 minutes. There is no need to overfry, we just want the vegetables to turn golden and release their flavors into the oil.
- Mix chopped dill and finely chopped onion in a deep container.
- We wash the chicken fillet and turn it into minced meat in any convenient way: using a meat grinder or food processor.
- Add the resulting minced meat to the bowl with dill and onions. Salt and pepper to taste. Pour in a spoonful of cold water - it will add juiciness to our meatballs.
- Knead with your hands and beat. We take a handful in our hand and forcefully throw it back into the bowl. This will allow the meatballs not to fall apart, and at the same time make them tastier and more airy.
- With wet hands, use a teaspoon to form small balls.
- When the potatoes are almost ready, add the onion and carrot mixture to the pan.
- We wait for the liquid to boil again. When it starts to boil, add the meatballs to the pan. Stir the soup.
- Immediately add a bay leaf and 3-4 peas of allspice. Cook everything together for 7-8 minutes.
- The finished meatballs should float. When this happens, check the potatoes for readiness, add salt if desired, add chopped herbs, and turn off the heat. Immediately close the lid so that the aromas do not dissipate, and leave the potato soup to brew for 10 minutes.
Step-by-step recipe with rice and potatoes
This recipe is more masculine because the soup is thicker and more nutritious. Yes, and the simplest one. Anyone can cook it, a man, a teenager, or an inexperienced housewife.
Ingredients:
- Ground meat
- Carrot
- Potato
- Rice
- Spices
- Onions for minced and frying
1.Add potatoes to cold water and cook until boiling, then add washed rice.
2. Now we prepare the minced meat: add chopped onions and spices into the total mass and form meat rounds. Try scooping out the mince with a teaspoon to get them to be approximately the same size.
3. The soup is cooked for five minutes and the meat ingredient is lowered into boiling water.
4. We do the roasting.
5. At the end of cooking, remember about dried dill and a couple of bay leaves.
Remember that different spices bring out the flavor.
