sopa de albondigas (that’s mexican meatball soup to all you gringos)

Whenever I have a bunch of leftover rice from getting takeout I always make this soup.  It’s fairly easy, comes together quickly and is delicious!

Ingredients

Soup

2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 red onion, diced
2 jalapeno peppers, seeds and ribs removed, chopped
2-3 zucchini, cut into 1/2-inch dice
1 quart chicken broth or stock
2 15-ounce cans diced tomatoes
tomato paste
oregano
cumin
hot sauce
salt
pepper
1 cup frozen corn (or fresh if you have it!)
~2 cups cooked rice (or however much you have leftover)
juice of 1 lime

Meatballs

1 lb lean ground beef
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons bread crumbs (I used panko)
1 egg
oregano
cumin
salt
pepper

For Serving

Avocado, diced
Mexican cheese blend
Lime wedges
Tortilla chips

How-To

In a large pot, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the diced onion and one of the diced jalapenos and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent (~5 minutes).

Add the zucchini, a palm full of cumin and half a palm full of oregano.  Cook until the zucchini has softened (~3 minutes).

Add the broth/stock, cans of tomatoes (don’t drain!), and a sprinkling of salt and pepper and a few dashes of hot sauce.  This is also where I like to add some tomato paste, because it gives the soup a nice color.  I tend to use the kind that comes in a tube that you can keep in the refrigerator.  I don’t like the kind that comes in a can because it always goes to waste in my opinion… but I have heard of people freezing leftover tomato paste in ice cube trays and then plunking a tomato ice cube into soups, sauces, etc.  Bring the soup to a bubble.  Cook for 15 minutes or so until it has thickened up.

Meanwhile, make the meatballs.  In a bowl, combine the ground beef, garlic, remaining diced jalapeno, breadcrumbs, egg, cumin, oregano, salt and pepper (like maybe a half a palm full each, or to taste). Mix it all up with your hands until the mixture is combined.  Now you want to make 24 meatballs, and this is how I do it: separate the mixture in half, then into 4 sections, and then into 8 hopefully equal-ish sections.  From each 8th, make 3 meatballs about 1 inch in diameter.

Add the meatballs one-by-one gently into the soup pot.  Simmer until the meatballs are done, about 10 minutes.  Halfway through that 10 minutes, go ahead and toss in the frozen corn and the cooked rice.  When the meatballs are cooked through (feel free to sacrifice one for tasting purposes), squeeze in the juice of 1 lime and then make sure to taste the broth and see if needs more hot sauce, salt, cumin, etc.

Serve the soup in big bowls and sprinkle on some shredded cheese, crumbled tortilla chips (fancy kinds are best, like from the Whole Foods bakery), chopped avocado, and serve with lime wedges.