Romanian Meatball Soup (Ciorba de Perisoare)
I celebrated May 1st working on the website, as is usual 😋 Actually, I didn't plan this, but how often do I catch my mother in my kitchen? Very rarely, so I asked her to help me prepare some of the best traditional Romanian dishes, including meatball soup (ciorba de perisoare). She prepares them perfectly.
Meatball soup is among the most representative Romanian dishes, and my mother knows all the "secrets" for perfect meatballs:
- the meat should be ground twice through the meat grinder
- the meatball mixture should include a tablespoon of flour along with the eggs, which binds them very well
- the rice you add to the meatball mixture must be perfectly dry
Ingredients
3 carrots (approx. 400 g)
1 kohlrabi (approx. 100 g)
1 parsley root (approx. 150 g)
1 slice of celery root (approx. 50 g)
1 small onion (approx. 50 g)
30 ml oil
8 pork ribs (or pork bones)
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon homemade vegeta
1 small green pepper
2 tomatoes
1 lemon (or citric acid or bors)
Meatball mixture
700 g ground meat, passed through grinder twice
1 medium onion
120 g long grain rice
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon flour
10 sprigs of parsley
2 eggs
How to prepare romanian meatball soup (ciorba de perisoare)
- Clean all the vegetables and grate them on the large holes of a grater. Sauté them in oil in a large pot.
- When they soften a bit, place the ribs (or bones) on top and cover with water (approx. 3.5 liters). Add the salt and vegeta.
- Finely chop the pepper and tomatoes and add them to the soup. Simmer everything covered for about 45 minutes. Check if the ribs are cooked after 45 minutes and let them cook a bit longer if needed.
* if you use bones, the soup will be more flavorful, but the cooking time is longer, about 1.5 to 2 hours, and you'll need to skim the soup frequently. - While the soup is simmering, make the meatballs keeping in mind the following:
- the ground meat should be low in fat.
- the meat should be passed through the grinder twice, it needs to be very fine.
- the rice you use should be perfectly dry; you can use it directly from the package or if you usually wash it, place it in a strainer in a warm spot and let it dry completely; this is one of the secrets for meatballs that don't fall apart in the pot. - Put the onion through the meat grinder as well or grate it on the small holes. Finely chop the parsley.
- In a bowl, mix all the meatball ingredients and knead well.
- With constantly wet hands, form meatballs the size of a walnut.
- When the ribs are cooked in the soup, you can add the meatballs one by one, being careful to place them across the entire surface of the pot, don't crowd them in one spot. Let them simmer over medium heat for about 10 minutes. The cooked meatballs will rise to the surface. Skim the soup while the meatballs cook.
- After 10 minutes, turn off the heat, cover the pot and let the soup cool. When cooled, season with lemon juice (or citric acid or bors) to taste (I used the juice of 1 whole lemon).
- Serve the meatball soup with sour cream on the side and sprinkled with chopped parsley.
Cleaned vegetables
Grate the vegetables
Sauté the vegetables
Place the ribs over the vegetables
Add other vegetables to the soup
Cover with water and boil
Grind the meat twice
Meatball mixture
Add rice and eggs to the mixture
Knead the mixture
Form meatballs with wet hands
Meatballs
Add them to the soup
After 10 minutes
Serve with sour cream and parsley
