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Vegetable soup with meatballs

Vegetable Soup with Chicken Meatballs

Today's lunch is a soup that's as bright in flavor as it is in looks. It's loaded with vegetables and chicken, which makes it good for you. Plus, you can toss in whatever vegetables you like, so the recipe works with just about anything.

Ropotushka

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Water

3.5

Potatoes (medium)

Chicken breast

300

Frozen vegetables

300

Salt

Turmeric

Ground black pepper

Black peppercorns (black)

Sour cream

Hard cheese

100

Fresh herbs

Carrot (medium)

Onion (medium)

Vegetable oil

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 29 % 2 g

Fats 29 % 2 g

Carbohydrates 43 % 3 g

41 kcal

GI: 100 / 0 / 0

Cooking method

Step 1:

How do you make vegetable soup with meatballs? Start by getting all your ingredients ready. You can use chicken from any part: breast meat makes firmer meatballs, while thigh meat makes them softer and richer. Any vegetables work for this soup, as long as they cook in 10 minutes or less. No need to thaw them ahead of time — just take them out of the freezer when you start. Use any hard cheese, and a neutral, refined oil.
Step 2:

Peel and rinse the potatoes, then cut them into medium cubes. Don't make them too small, or they'll fall apart in the soup.
Step 3:

Bring the water to a boil in a large (5-quart) pot, add a little salt, and drop in the diced potatoes. Bring back to a boil over high heat, then cook covered over medium heat for 15 minutes.
Step 4:

While the potatoes cook, make the sauté. Peel and rinse the onion and carrot. Grate the carrot on the coarse side of a box grater and dice the onion small. Cut this way, they'll cook faster and give the soup a lovely color. If you don't care for bits of onion in your soup, just drop the whole peeled onion into the broth instead.
Step 5:

Use a sauté pan or deep skillet. Heat it up and carefully add the oil. Since carrots take longer than onions, start with the grated carrot. Sauté over medium heat, stirring now and then, for about 2 minutes.
Step 6:

Once the carrot starts to soften, add the diced onion and sauté for another 3 minutes over medium heat. Keep stirring so the vegetables cook evenly and don't dry out.
Step 7:

Transfer the sauté into the pot and bring everything back to a boil. Cook covered over medium heat for 10 minutes.
Step 8:

Grind the chicken breast (or use ground chicken). Season it with a little salt and pepper, then roll it into small balls. Wet your hands with warm water to keep the meat from sticking. Don't make the meatballs bigger than about 1/2 inch across — the smaller they are, the prettier they look in the bowl and the nicer they are to eat.
Step 9:

If you added a whole onion earlier, fish it out now. Drop the meatballs into the soup. Once it returns to a boil, add the vegetables, salt, and spices. Stir, taste, and adjust the seasoning if anything's missing. After 10 minutes, the soup is ready.

Serve the soup hot, sprinkled with grated cheese and a dollop of sour cream. I happen to like it without the sour cream — it comes out light and pleasant that way. If you use fresh vegetables instead of frozen, peel them, rinse well, and cut them however you like, but no smaller than about 3/4 inch. Chopped too fine, they'll fall apart and lose their flavor.
Any cheese works here — hard, semi-hard, or soft like mozzarella. Just make sure it's tasty, good quality, free of milk-fat substitutes, and melts well.
Every oil is only good up to a certain temperature — its smoke point, where it starts to burn and form harmful compounds. It's worth knowing the smoke point of your frying oil to pick the best one for the job.