Romanian meatball soup

Ciorba de perisoare. Photo courtesy of Ellie I.

Romanian cuisine is known for its emphasis on soups. In particular, sour soups like ciorba de perisoare also known as Romanian meat ball soup.

This recipe is by food blogger Ellie I. from Home Cooking in Montana.

Ingredients

Soup stock:
1 whole chicken
2 carrots
1 onion
2 celery ribs
1/2 parsnip
1 garlic clove
1 tsp kosher salt
water (about 13 cups or so)

Extra vegetables for soup:
(Saute the vegetables in a bit of oil and then add it to the soup).
3 tomatoes, grated
1/2 cup onion, diced
1/2 cup carrot, diced
1/2 cup bell pepper, diced (different colors make it look pretty)
1 tbsp tomato paste (or more if you want a tomato like flavor)

Meatballs:
2 lbs ground chicken
1/2 onion, grated
3 tbsp short grain rice, halfway cooked
1 egg
1 tsp fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp fresh dill, chopped
salt and pepper, to taste

Additional:
1 ex-large potato, optional (you can add a bit of broken spaghetti or even a bit of rice/orzo instead)
salt, if desired
parsley or lovage, to taste
3-5 tbsp lemon juice (or to taste)
beaten eggs mixed with a bit of sour cream, optional

Directions:

Meat preparation:
Wash whole chicken and cut into 8 pieces. Remove skin. Cut meat from off most of the bones except wings, back, and ribs (you should have the chicken breasts, with tenderloins, and the thigh meat as well as the leg meat). Place bones in a large pot. Set aside. Grind meat and make meatball mixture.

Meatball mixture:
In a sauce pan, add rice along with a bit of salt and a cup of water. Cook rice until soft. Strain. In a bowl, add the ground meat, grated onion, strained rice, egg, chopped parsley, dill and season with salt and pepper. Mix to combine. Cover meat mixture and refrigerate (refrigerating helps with “stiffening” the mixture a bit so that it is easier to form into meatballs).

Soup stock:
Using the pot with soup bones, add 1 tsp kosher salt, celery, carrots, parsnip, onion, and garlic. Fill pot with water almost to the rim. Turn heat on high. Bring to boil and skim scum that accumulates. Lower heat and cover. Cook on low for 1 1/2 hours. As the soup is cooking, you can cut up your soup vegetables. You can also prepare the stock in the pressure cooker. Just place the chicken bones, water, vegetables and salt. Cover. Bring up to pressure. Lower heat to low and cook for about 40 minutes. Release pressure naturally and proceed to next step. Strain soup. Place soup back on the stove and heat to medium-low heat. Add extra soup vegetables to clear stock. Also add the grated tomatoes along with tomato paste. Let it cook while you make meatballs. Take out meatball mixture from refrigerator. Working with wet hands form meatballs (about 1 tbsp in size ) and place them in the hot soup. Continue making meatballs and placing them in the soup until the meat is used up. Add diced potatoes. Cover the pot and cook until meatballs and potatoes are tender (about another 20 minutes or so, sometimes I let it go a bit longer especially if I feel the soup needs more flavor. Uncover and add lemon juice to taste. Add beaten egg, if using. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Sprinkle with chopped parsley or lovage (leustean); chives will work too.

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Tags: ciorba de perisoare, Romanian food, romanian meatball soup, sour soup

Category: Recipes