Meatball soup

Ștefan Baciu, 29.07.2018, 11:36

Meatball soup is one of the most appreciated dishes in Romanian cuisine.
Similar dishes can also be found in the international cuisine. In Italy, for
instance, there are beef meatballs soups with lots of vegetables, just like in
the Mexican cuisine. The Turkish cuisine offers a soup with minced beef or
lamb. In all these recipes, the minced meat shaped like a meatball or a flat meatloaf is roasted a little bit before being added to the broth. However, in the
Romanian recipe, the meatballs are put straight to the boil. A distinction should
also be made between the sour meatball soup, with fermented wheat bran brew
used as a souring agent, and the thick meatball soup, for which tomatoes and sour
grapes can be used, as well as lemon juice.

For the meatball soup, we need around 700 grams of minced beef, one
piece of boned beef shin, two carrots, one parsnip and one parsley root, one
celery, a cup of rice, one onion, two eggs, tomato juice, fermented wheat bran
brew, one bunch of parsley and another one of dill.

Put the beef shin to the boil in around 4 liters of water. Skim, then add
the grated root vegetables. Add bell peppers and tomatoes, finely-chopped. When
boiled, take out the meat shin and cut it into small pieces, then put it back
in boiling broth. Finely-chop the onion,
then mix it with the minced meat, the two eggs, the finely-chopped dill and the
rice. Add a little bit of salt. After 20 minutes, mould little balls of meat,
traditionally known as perisoare, then put them in the boiling soup. Add the
tomato juice and the fermented wheat bran brew, and then boil for another five minutes.
Remove the pot from the heat and add the finely-chopped parsley leaves. Simmer
for around ten minutes. Serve the broth in large bowls with a little bit of sour cream as
garnish. Keep in mind that it goes
best with a red pepper. Enjoy!