Transform Your Garden's Harvest And Ground Beef Into Filling Mexican-Style Soup

If you've got a bumper crop of veggies after a good growing season in your home garden, why not buy a bit of ground beef and stir up some albondigas soup? For some, the meatball-laden, chicken-based broth of the dish will be slightly reminiscent of Ina Garten's favorite soup recipe, Italian wedding soup. However, albondigas brings something completely new to the table.

Albondigas (also known as Mexican meatball soup) calls for a whole lot of vegetables. Yellow or white onions, carrots, celery, yellow potatoes, and zucchini all pop up in the recipe — all common veggies you may be growing right outside your window at this very moment. The recipe also calls for frozen peas, which you may have on hand from a previous growing season or recent grocery haul. If you've got an herb garden, you're in luck as the soup also requires fresh cilantro. Dried spices like cumin, cinnamon, and pepper complete the array of flavor enhancers required by the recipe along with salt. You'll also need vegetable oil, chicken stock, tomato sauce, and long grain rice.

To make albondigas, start by hating up the vegetable oil and cooking the onions with a bit of salt until translucent. Remove them when finished and then take your remaining vegetables (sans the zucchini and peas), tomato sauce, more salt, pepper, and the stock and let everything simmer in the pot. While that's cooking, prepare the cilantro; the chopped leaves go in with the onions, the stems with the broth. Finally, make your meatballs and add them to the broth. Cook for 15 minutes before adding the zucchini and peas.

Are you looking to switch up the flavor of your albondigas soup? To add a little variety to the mix, consider topping the dish with salsa verde or adding a chipotle sauce to your meatballs. That latter suggestion will impart a smoky flavor to your soup. You can even try switching up the ground meat traditionally used in making the Mexican meatballs for turkey, chicken, or pork instead.

If you're looking for something to serve alongside your homemade batch of albondigas, pouring the soup atop more rice or eating it with flour tortillas are sure bets to make your tongue tingle. Another fun option may be to try it with garlic bread, which would certainly be a delicious treat.

Additionally, you can also pick and choose among many kinds of Spanish tapas dishes to serve on the side. This could turn a humble soup repast into a full-on celebration. No matter what you decide to serve alongside it, albondigas soup is a tasty meal that will help you finish off the last of your garden's summer bounty, leaving you with a full belly while doing so.