minniet's Recipe

Meatball and Rice Soup

Category: Main Dish

Ingredients list for the Meatball and Rice Soup

•1 pound (500g) ground beef
•2/3 cups (90g) long grain rice
•8 sprigs cilantro
•3 tablespoons olive oil
•1 tablespoon flour
•1 carrot
•4 spring onions
•1 small celery stalk
•1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
•1 egg
•Juice of one lemon
•3 3/4 cups (90cl) vegetable stock (or 1 bouillon cube + 3 3/4 cups water)
•Paprika
•Salt & pepper

Directions

Rinse and cook rice for half the time mentioned on the packet. If you need 10 minutes to cook rice fully, count 5.

2. Chop finely the cilantro and onions. Finely dice the carrot. Slice the celery stalk.

3. In your food processor, finely chop half the onions and half the parsley. Add ground beef, 1 tablespoon olive oil, season with salt and pepper and pulse until your get an homogeneous mix. You can do it by hand of course, make sure to chop everything very thinly. Transfer to a large bowl and combine with half the cooked rice.

4. Form meat balls the size of a big walnut, then roll quickly in flour.

5. Pour the remaining olive oil in a frying pan and fry carrot and celery, for 5 minutes. Then add remaining cilantro and onion and cook for 2 minutes.

6. Add the vegetable stock and ground cumin, adjust seasoning with salt and bring to a simmer.

7. Add the meatballs to the simmering broth and cook, covered, for 10 minutes.

8. Add the remaining rice and cook for 10 minutes more.

9. Remove from heat. Put the egg and lemon juice in a bowl with few tablespoons of stock and mix well. Pour everything back to the pan, check the seasoning and put back on the heat, just until it reaches a simmer again.

10. Serve hot, with a sprinkle of paprika and garnished with chopped cilantro.

Note: you can try quickly browning the meatballs before cooking them in the stock