Russian Meatball Soup Recipe

How to make it

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• 1. Chop up pepper, carrot and onion (try to chop the onion an fine as possible, you'll need it for your ground meat).
• 2. Peel, wash and chop potatoes into cubes.
• 3. Add some onion, salt and pepper into the ground meat; mix well and set aside.
• 4. (Optional step) Lightly stir-fry pepper + carrot + onion till golden.
• 5. Bring 1.5-2 L of water to boil (the amount of water depends on how "brothy" you want your soup to be; I used 2 L). Add the pepper + carrot + onion mixture and gently boil for 5-7 minutes. Add potatoes and bring to a boil again.
• 6. Now on to the meatballs! Grab small amounts of your meat mixture and make small, compact (really squish it) balls the size of a walnut (maximum, you don't want them too large, they won't cook through quickly). Drop them one by one into the soup. Add some salt and pepper and cook on low for about 15 minutes.
• 7. If you're adding rice, throw it in right after the meatballs (you'll only need about a handful). If using pasta, like I was, throw it in 5 minutes after the last meatball. The recipe called for 1 handful of pasta, but since I used 2 L of water instead of 1.5 L, I added 3 handfuls.
• 8. After about 7-10 minutes of cooking, add the bay leaves (variations are limitless - you can add basil, chives, parsley, etc. - I say, the more the better when it comes to greens!)
• You can serve it with a dollop of sour cream and top it with greens (again, chives, parsley, etc.)