• RECIPES

Recipe Directions

The meatball soup can be made in many ways. Soup with lemon and egg, without egg, or with tomato sauce. I have here for you all the secrets and the best homemade recipe for the meatball soup!

Classic meatball soup with lemon and egg

For the fluffy meatballs, we first prepare the rice by putting it in a bowl and covering it with plenty of water. Let it soak until you prepare the rest of the ingredients, and before using it, rinse it well and drain it. 

In a bowl, put the minced meat, the egg, the prepared rice, the onion, the carrot, the olive oil, the herbs and salt and pepper. Knead the ingredients very well until the minced meat changes color and becomes lighter. We shape small balls the size of a walnut and place them on a tray. 

Wash and cut all the vegetables into small squares. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and sauté the vegetables for 2-3 minutes. Add the water and bring to boil. Pout in all the meatballs, salt and cover the saucepan. Lower the heat and boil for 25-30 minutes. Check the salt and pepper at the end of boiling. Lower the heat to 1 and wait for the boiling to stop.

For the lemon and egg sauce

In a bowl, dissolve the lemon juice with the corn flour. In another bowl, whisk the egg whites into a light meringue, until smooth tops are formed. Add the yolks and continue mixing.

If you are going to reheat the food (always on a very low heat), the corn flour is necessary. Otherwise make a classic lemon and egg sauce. 

Put warm broth from the food (1 ½ cup) into the lemon-corn flour mixture and mix it. Put it all together in the whisked eggs and mix. Pour the egg-lemon into the food, shaking the pot from the handles to mix it properly. Finally add some fine chopped dill.

Secrets and variations for unique meatball soup

- Make sure that all the meatballs are the same size to achieve uniform cooking in the same time.

- If you want you can cover the meatballs in flour and follow the procedure as above, for a denser egg-lemon sauce.

- Another way to prepare it is to make a light roux, for a sauce without eggs. Heat some oil in a saucepan and add some flour. Whisk with medium heat for 1-2 minutes. Once the mixture (roux) has cooled, add it little by little into the soup. In this way you can control the density you want for the soup. If there is some roux left, put it in a jar and keep it for future use. 

- You can make the sauce with egg yolk and some cream or yogurt or condensed milk. 

- In many areas of Greece, with Anatolia influences in the kitchen, they make the meatball soup with tomato sauce, without lemon and egg. Another taste, very good, but a different food.