Russian Meatball Soup – Суп с Фрикадельками

It seems every cultures loves their meatballs in many ways.  A great option is to serve it in soup. My mother made this soup quite often and I make it for my own family now. This soup is light and healthy, but absolutely delicious.

This is definitely a quick dinner option, since there is very little prep work and the cooking time is fairly short. The ingredients are very simple pantry staples, but marry together to create an incredibly tasty soup. I really prefer using chicken for the meatballs, with their clean flavor and such moist, plump and succulent texture. You will feel light and fresh when sipping each pleasing spoonful, not only from it’s healthy goodness but also because you’ll still have some energy left, instead of spending it all on the cooking.

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• 8-10 cups water
• 2 potatoes, diced into ½ inch pieces
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 1 carrot, shredded on large holes of box grater
• ½ of a large onion, finely diced
• salt, pepper
• 3-4 Tablespoons rice
• 3-5 peppercorns
• 1-2 bay leaves
• fresh chives, parsely, dill, minced, for garnishing

For the meatballs:

• 1 lb ground chicken
• 1 slice bread, or 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
• ¼ -1/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 egg
• ¼-1/2 of an onion, grated on the finest setting on the box grater, to form a pulp

Instructions

Bring the water to a boil.
Add the bay leaves, peppercorns and season the water to taste with salt.
Add the potatoes, reduce the heat to medium low.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a nonstick skillet and add the onions. Season with ¼-1/3 teaspoon salt.
Cover and cook on medium until soft and translucent, about 3-5 minutes.
Add the carrots, season with more salt, cover and cook for another 2-4 minutes. Add to the soup.
Pour the milk over the breadcrumbs and set it aside for about 5 minutes, until bread has been absorbed by the milk and is soft.
Add the rest of the ingredients to the meatball mixture and mix until well combined.
Add the rice to the soup.
Using moistened hands, form the ground meat mixture into approximately ½ Tablespoon meatballs and drop into simmering soup.
Allow to cook until the rice and meatballs have completely cooked through, 10-15 minutes.
Garnish with the fresh herbs. You can also add freshly minced herbs to the meatballs.

Source:

http://www.olgasflavorfactory.com/soups/russian-meatball-soup/