Greek-Style Meatball Soup

Name: Greek-Style Meatball Soup
Prep time: 35 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 5 servings
Cuisine: Greek
Ingredients: 1 large carrot; 2 tablespoons oil; 1.8 liters water (or chicken broth); 2 eggs; juice from 1 lemon (approx. 50-60ml); a few sprigs of dill; salt; meatballs; 450g ground meat (mixed beef+pork; run twice through the meat grinder); 1 small onion (approx. 50g); 45g short-grain rice; 3 sprigs dill; 1 small egg; 80ml cold water; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper; a few tablespoons of flour (for shaping)

August 21, 2015

Greek Soups and Stews

Small meatballs that melt in your mouth, cooked in a silky and tangy soup.

On the first morning in Thessaloniki - for us it was morning, for the Greeks it was Sunday noon - I went out with my coffee on the balcony to spy on my neighbors. The buildings there are so close together that if I stretched out my hand I could almost touch the opposite balcony. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but I was hit by a strong smell of meat and dill... lots of dill 🤤

And I imagined that the neighbor downstairs was making giouvarlakia, a Greek meatball soup. Just then the neighbor came out on her balcony, we started talking easily given the distance and I asked her what she was making. She confirmed she was making giouvarlakia, invited us over and... 😊 Oops, that only happened in my imagination! In reality I was left with the smell and the craving, while downstairs the sound of cutlery could be heard, they were surely enjoying the presumed giouvarlakia.

Now I probably have a few neighbors who sit on their balcony and smell the same smell and wonder what it is and where it comes from.

Note: I've noticed that in Greek and Turkish recipes, raw onion is often added to ground meat; I've tried it a few times and each time I detected a taste I can't quite describe... like stale onion... unpleasant; even in Turkey I felt this a few times (in manti); this year however I felt that onions from Greece are much sweeter than ours, without that sharp taste; so I assumed that only sweet onion can be used raw with good results; so this time, after grating the onion and finding it sharp, I squeezed it in a towel before adding it to the meatballs; it turned out well, the unpleasant taste was gone; I'll test this theory more and confirm.

Ingredients

1 large carrot
2 tablespoons oil
1.8 liters water (or chicken broth)
2 eggs
juice from 1 lemon (approx. 50-60ml)
a few sprigs of dill
salt

Meatballs

450g ground meat (mixed beef+pork; run twice through the meat grinder)
1 small onion (approx. 50g)
45g short-grain rice
3 sprigs dill
1 small egg
80ml cold water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
a few tablespoons of flour (for shaping)

Servings: 5

How to prepare greek-style meatball soup

Start by preparing the meatballs: put the ground meat, rice, finely chopped dill, salt and pepper in a bowl; grate the onion and then squeeze it well of juice in a kitchen towel; add it over the meat; mix everything well; add the egg and water and knead until you have a homogeneous mixture; the meatball mixture will be quite soft, that's ok, don't add anything else; put the bowl in the refrigerator until needed.
* if you don't have a small egg, beat a large egg and put half in the mixture; use the rest at the end mixed with the lemon juice (step 7)
In a pot, sauté the grated carrot in oil for about 10 minutes.
Add the water (if you have chicken broth it's even better), a little salt and bring to a boil.
Meanwhile form the meatballs with hands constantly moistened in cold water. Form small meatballs, like Raffaello chocolates. I got 35 meatballs.
Roll all the meatballs through flour one by one and shake off the excess.
Turn the heat to low under the soup and add the meatballs to the soup, one by one, over the entire surface of the pot (don't put them all in the same place). Put the lid ajar on the pot and cook the meatballs for about 15-20 minutes, until they float to the surface (check one to see if the rice is cooked).
Beat the eggs well with the lemon juice until foamy. Add 3 ladles of hot soup over the eggs, but in a thin stream and whisking non-stop in the eggs. More precisely, with one hand you whisk continuously in the eggs, while with the other you pour soup with the ladle, just as you pour oil when making mayonnaise.
Remove the soup pot from the heat, wait until it stops boiling and pour in a thin stream the egg mixture you just made. Stir constantly with a spoon in the soup while doing this. After adding all the mixture, put the pot on low heat (be careful that the soup doesn't boil) and leave for 10 minutes (during this time stir often and keep an eye on the pot so it doesn't boil at all or it will curdle).
Remove the pot from heat, adjust the soup for salt and sprinkle with chopped dill.