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Fast and tasty
Grandma's soup

Grandma's Soup

Bright, tasty, full of character — just like Grandma made it! This hearty, rich grandma's soup is sure to please grown-ups, and kids especially! It's a real lifesaver when you need to feed the whole family quickly and well. Serve it with fresh homemade sour cream — even better!

Pearl

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Ground beef (or beef, lean)

200

Onion (small, or 1 large)

Potatoes (large)

Carrots

Vegetable oil

Flour (or slightly more)

250

Eggs

Water

100

Salt

Ground black pepper

Fresh herbs

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 17 % 6 g

Fats 26 % 9 g

Carbohydrates 57 % 20 g

180 kcal

GI: 40 / 0 / 60

Cooking method

Cooking time: 30 min

Step 1:

How do you make grandma's soup? Gather everything on the list. If you have a piece of beef, rinse it, pat it dry, and run it through a meat grinder.
Step 2:

Make the dough for the rolls. Crack the egg into a deep bowl, add a pinch of salt and the water. Stir until smooth. Sift the flour.
Step 3:

Gradually pour the egg mixture into the flour, kneading a stiff dough. You may need a little more or less flour than the recipe says (it depends on the flour).
Step 4:

Shape the dough into a ball. Wrap it in plastic or cover it with a bowl and let it rest for 20 minutes.
Step 5:

Meanwhile, work on the meat. Peel a small onion and chop it as finely as you can, or grate it on the coarse side. Add the onion to the meat. Salt to taste and add a pinch of ground black pepper.
Step 6:

Mix everything well. If the meat mixture is very stiff, add a little cold water and mix again.
Step 7:

Peel the potatoes, carrots, and the second onion, then rinse and dry them. Cut the potatoes into small cubes, the carrots into thin sticks, and the onion into quarter-rings or smaller.
Step 8:

Put the potatoes in a pot and cover with clean cold water. How much water for the soup? It depends entirely on how thick you want it. I used about 1.5–1.8 liters and got a thick soup. Set the pot on the stove, bring to a boil over high heat, then lower the flame and cook, partly covered, over moderate heat for about 15 minutes.
Step 9:

Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet. For richer flavor, I added 1 tsp of butter to the oil. Sauté the onion and carrot until lightly golden.
Step 10:

Knead the dough again and divide it into 3–4 pieces (it's easier to work with that way).
Step 11:

Roll one piece of dough into a thin sheet, no more than 1–1.5 mm thick. Spread the meat in a thin layer over the sheet (as in the photo).
Step 12:

Roll it up tightly.
Step 13:

Cut it into pieces about 2–3 cm (1 inch) long. Do the same with the rest of the dough and meat.
Step 14:

Turn the heat under the pot up to high. Drop the rolls in with the potatoes. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to moderate, and cook until everything is done (about 5 minutes). Salt the soup to taste.
Step 15:

Add the sautéed vegetables to the pot, wait for it to come back to a boil, and take the pot off the heat.
Step 16:

Offer everyone fresh herbs, ground pepper, and sour cream for their bowl.

Enjoy!
Important! Whether or not the recipe gives an amount of water, it's best to go by your own preference (thick soup or thin), the size of your pot, and the ingredients you're using. Keep in mind the author's idea of how much meat, potato, grain, and so on belongs in the soup may not match yours. In practice, that means if it's your first time, don't make a whole pot at once. Make a tasting batch for one or two people: scale all the ingredients down to 1–2 servings and figure the water at anywhere from one cup per serving (for a very thick soup) to 1.5–2 cups (for a thinner one). Remember that some liquid boils off as it cooks. After tasting a small batch, you can dial in both the liquid and the ingredient proportions to your taste. After that, like most experienced cooks, you'll be able to add water and ingredients by eye.
Be ready to use more or less flour than the recipe calls for. Go by the consistency of the dough rather than the exact amount of flour. To avoid mistakes, read up on flour and its properties!
For how to choose the perfect pot for soup, porridge, or pickling, see the article on pots.