Lightly browned meatballs and vegetables are simmered in homecooked tomato soup. A lovely one-pot dish to enjoy on cold days and nights. Don't forget to serve bread on the side to mop up that lovely broth that's almost as thick as a sauce.
Cook’s notes
In Spanish, albondigas means meatballs. Every country that Spain colonized has a version of almondigas. In Mexican cooking, the meatballs are simmered with vegetables and the dish is served as a soup. Cooking methods vary. Some have thinner broth; others have broth so thick that it mimics the sauce of a stew. My albondigas soup is somewhere in between.
First, a couple of tips.
Season the meatballs well
Ground pork with a generous amount of fat was used here. Feel free to substitute ground beef, chicken, turkey or even lamb. Whichever ground meat you choose, you have to season the meatball mix generously. It’s not a good idea to simply rely on the flavors of the tomato soup to make your meatballs tasty. The simmering time is short so you just want the flavors of the meatballs and tomato soup to blend together. For our pork meatballs, sliced scallions, chopped cilantro, onion and garlic were added to the meat along with salt and pepper.Lightly brown the meatballs for a deeper flavor
It might sound like another step that complicates the cooking process but, really, you need to make browning meat before braising or stewing a habit rather than an extra step reserved for special occasion dishes. It’s not whim; it’s science. It’s called Maillard reaction. The browning process caramelizes the natural sugars in the meatballs creating a richly-colored crust. The flavor becomes more complex while the crust helps the meatballs retain their shape during simmering.The cooking liquid
The reason the cooking time is so short is because there is no need for long simmering to squeeze flavor from vegetables to make a good broth. By using precooked tomato soup, you can make a delicious pot of albondigas soup in half the time.Albondigas (Spanish-style meatballs) soup
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 300 grams ground pork (10.5 oz)
- 2 tablespoons finely sliced scallions
- 3 tablespoons finely sliced cilantro
- 4 cloves garlic peeled and chopped
- 1 onion peeled and chopped
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground pepper
- 2 tablespoons breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
To make the soup
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- ¾ cup diced bell peppers
- ½ cup halved cherry tomatoes
- 2 cups tomato soup (link to recipe is in the notes above)
Instructions
- In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the meatballs just until blended.
- Form the mixture into two-inch balls.
- Heat the olive oil in a pan and spread the meatballs in the hot oil. Leave to allow the bottoms to brown lightly before carefully turning on all sides to brown evenly.
- Add the bell peppers and cherry tomatoes to the meatballs and continue cooking, stirring occasionally, for a minute or two.
- Pour in the tomato soup.
- Bring to a gentle boil, cover and cook over low heat for about ten minutes.
Food for the gods