In my favourite youngsters’s e book, Cloudy With a Likelihood of Meatballs, the fabled city of Chewandswallow offers with tomato tornados and hailing meatballs. After studying the e book, I bear in mind wishing an unfathomable quantity of sopa de albondigas, Mexican meatball soup, would pour down from the sky. In Mexican albondigas, meatballs speckled with rice, alliums, and herbs are served in a lightweight, tomato-based broth together with a wide range of contemporary greens. It’s a dish I grew up consuming, and one I nonetheless take pleasure in immensely—I particularly love the distinction of textures between the snappy meatballs and tender greens. 

My household reserves sopa de albondigas—typically referred to in Mexico simply as albondigas—for wet days or anytime we want a nourishing and comforting increase, comparable to after we’re not feeling effectively. Whereas different fashionable Mexican soups comparable to menudo and pozole have daring flavors from chiles and spices, sopa de albondigas has a delicate vegetal taste that balances the hearty meatballs.

Whereas the meatball soup is a family staple all through Mexico, its origin really lies within the Center East. The title albondigas comes from the Arabic phrase for hazelnut, al-bunduq, a reference to the meatball’s form. They have been then launched to Spain throughout Muslim rule, and have been later launched to Mexico within the sixteenth century by Spanish conquistadors throughout colonization. Whereas in Spain albondigas are regularly served coated in a paprika-heavy tomato sauce, in Mexico albondigas all the time refers back to the soup.

Mexican albondigas’ preparation is pretty easy: Onion, garlic, broth, and tomatoes are blended collectively to make the broth base. The meatballs are then simmered within the broth together with a medley of contemporary greens, comparable to corn, potatoes, carrots, and zucchini. The result’s a fragile soup with tender greens and savory meatballs. It’s easy to arrange, however crucial half to its preparation is ensuring the meatballs are flavorful with a welcome bouncy texture—you are really not going for a young texture for albondigas.

Making ready the Meatballs

It’s vital to notice that Mexican albondigas have a noticeably totally different texture and taste profile than the Italian American–fashion meatballs which are widespread within the US. Italian American–fashion meatballs typically use breadcrumbs (or typically softened bread chunks) to bind the meatball combination collectively. The breadcrumbs, when totally blended in with the meat, break up its texture, leading to very tender meatballs. However Mexican albondigas don’t use bread to bind the meatballs. As an alternative, they depend on raw rice to bind the meat combination. The grains of rice soften and hydrate because the meatballs simmer and maintain them from falling aside as they prepare dinner. The result’s meatballs with a pleasantly bouncy (or what I prefer to consult with as “snappy”) texture.

Albondigas in Mexico usually use floor pork or beef or a mixture of the 2. The kind of meat used varies by household. My household has all the time used equal elements beef and pork, since we just like the mix of each flavors collectively.

Ending the Soup

Contemporary greens are all the time added to sopa de albondigas to show the soup right into a nourishing, full meal. In Mexico no two albondigas recipes are the identical—some households add celery, diced tomatoes, or inexperienced beans, however for this recipe I selected a hearty mixture of potatoes, corn, carrots, and zucchini, which I add in the direction of the tip of the soup’s simmering time to make sure that every part is correctly cooked on the identical time. As soon as the meatballs are added, the soup is cooked at a delicate simmer—by no means boiled—to forestall the meatballs from overcooking. 

When you’re conversant in making albondigas, you possibly can adapt it as you see match: Experiment with grinding your individual meat, making your individual inventory from scratch, or swap in your most well-liked seasonal greens. The recipe isn’t fairly so simple as standing below a meatball rain cloud with an empty bowl, nevertheless it’s fairly shut—and simply as scrumptious as these storms of meatballs of my childhood goals.

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