Romanian Meatball Soup with rice, truly a classic and most certainly a much loved soup. Hearty and comforting, our “ciorba de perisoare” has been a favourite for years, and is regarded as one of our traditional dishes. Delicious and easy to make too.
We are a nation of soup lovers; we have soups as a starter with every single lunch or dinner meal. Whether vegan, vegetarian or meat based, soups are ever so popular. We usually make the distinction between “ciorba”, which usually has diced vegetables and meat in it.
And “supa”, where the vegetables and meat have been removed after cooking and either noodles or semolina dumplings are added to it, making the soup a much lighter an less heavy option. Either way, our soups are fantastic and we can’t have enough of them.
Meatball Soup with rice
My Romanian meatball soup is made of minced turkey, (although pork, beef or chicken are also popular choices, or even a combination of any of these) and rice, plus you can add any vegetables you like to make them healthier. In winter time, pork is the favourite meat, and most of our meat dishes will be prepared using pork.
In summer time tough, as temperatures often reach +35 degrees C, we stick to chicken or turkey. But, of course, it comes down to personal choice as well, and l seem to be cooking a lot more often with chicken and turkey lately, no matter the season.
A good Romanian meatball soup has a wide range of veggies added, the most popular being onion (either red or yellow), carrots, peppers of any colour, and any other preferred veggies. I usually stick to these ones.
How to make the meatballs
If you usually fry the meatballs in order to seal them before adding them to your dish, with the Romanian meatball soup you don’t have to. The consistency of the meat mixture is a lot thinner due to the eggs used, so no panic if you find that shaping the meatballs is not as easy as the ones you make for spaghetti and meatballs for example.
Just wet your hand, shaping a meatball and carefully drop it into the boiling soup. It will definitely not fall apart. The little bits you see forming in the soup are from the egg used, so totally normal. The soup is absolutely delicious, trust me.
I like adding a bit of rice in the meat mixture, just a small amount, but it’s totally optional, just meat and eggs would do. You can also season the meatballs with salt and pepper if you wish.
MORE COMFORTING SOUPS:
Chicken soup with garlic and sour cream
Easy homemade chicken noodle soup
Hearty minestrone soup with meatballs
Japanese udon noodle soup recipe with shiitake mushrooms
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Romanian Meatball Soup with rice and ground turkey, truly a classic and most certainly a much loved soup. Hearty and comforting, but low calorie, high protein and gluten free, our "ciorba de perisoare" has been a favourite for years, and is regarded as one of our traditional dishes. A great dish all year around, this soup is a family-favourite recipe. You can use any ground meat, and any veggies you have around. Such a treat!
- 250 g minced turkey
- 3 tbsp rice
- 1 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 large onion
- 1/2 red bell pepper
- 1/2 green bell pepper
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- juice from 1/2 lemon
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- 1 l vegetable stock (or water)
- 1 egg
- 1 carrot
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Bring the stock/water to the boil. Feel free to use more or less amount, as it entirely depends on how thick you like the soup.
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Chop the onion and peppers and add them to the pan. Boil for about 10-15 minutes or until they start to soften.
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In a bowl, mix the turkey mince with rice, oil, egg and season well with salt and pepper. Use your hands to shape balls.
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Add the meatballs to the soup one by one, and leave them to cook through. You can now add some noddles or rice to the soup as well, if you want a thicker soup, but this is entirely optional.
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Once the meatballs are cooked, (approximately 15-20 minutes) add the tomato paste, lemon juice, season well with salt and pepper and remove from the heat.
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Add the chopped parsley and allow the soup to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
- To see the measurements in cups and ounces, please click on the US CUSTOMARY link.
- The amount of ingredients listed can be adjusted depending on the number of servings you need, just click on the number next to SERVINGS.
