Russian Pork Meatball Soup

Now, meatball soup is one of those recipes that can cover many countries, from Bulgarian to Indonesian to Romanian, Spanish.. and Russian, which is the one I had in mind here, using fresh dill, parsley and chives. You can use either pork mince or chicken, or lamb I imagine, although I haven't tried that yet.. I am going to also look into working on a vegetarian one too. I love the honesty of just adding water instead of stock which is the way I make Irish stew. It makes it taste 'cleaner' to me.

In this recipe, I also smoked the mince before rolling it into balls but that is not particularly part of this recipe - it was just something I wanted to try out as I have a new smoking gun and feel compelled to try smoking everything! (it was delicious by the way). 

This is a lovely weekday meal which is easy to make and tastes so fresh, its one of those where you finish and feel good about yourself! I love it.

Ingredients:            (Serves 4)

For the soup:

1 tbsp oil (I used olive but vegetable oil also good)

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 carrots, grated

2 bay leaves

2 medium potatoes, finely chopped 

2 litres water (8 cups)

20g spaghetti broken into small pieces

1 tbsp dried dill

salt & pepper

For the meatballs:

500g minced pork

1/2 small onion grated

80g panko breadcrumbs soaked in about 60ml milk

salt & pepper

1 egg

1/2 tsp garlic powder

Garnish:

1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped

Method:

First make the soup. Use a nice big pot and in the oil, gently fry the onion, garlic and carrots until tender. Add the bay leaves, dill and potatoes, seasoning and water. Let it get to boil and then immediately turn the heat down and leave to simmer for 15 minutes, while you make the meatballs. 

Mix the pork, onion, soaked breadcrumbs, egg, garlic powder with a little salt and pepper in a bowl until well combined. Using slightly damp hands make small meatballs about the size of a large walnut and roll in your hands to make a ball. Drop it gently into the soup and continue making and adding the meatballs until the mixture is used up. Cook for 15 minutes, or until pork is tender. Check you have enough salt and pepper added at this stage.

Serve in a large bowl topped with fresh parsley and chives, and enjoy!