My Mom's Soup

I was a lucky kid in that my family always had dinner together. Perhaps that's why I've developed such a love of food, and cooking and cooking for others. I love the way cooking clears my mind, and I love the way I feel providing the people I love with yummy, wholesome food.

I think my Mom's soup is a dish that always brought my family together. We often had this soup on Sundays when Mom had the time to make something that needs a lot of time and preparation. Plus, on Sunday's for some reason we often didn't eat lunch. I think it's because we would come home from church, and just have tea or coffee and some sort of treat - especially if we were hosting my Beppe that week. Anyway, not having a big lunch always left me super hungry and excited for Sunday dinner. Sometimes Mom would even make fresh bread to go with this soup - which I would inevitably spread with far too much butter, but I always enjoyed every bite.

 If Mom had a day off work, I'd always hope she might make this soup, and in the winter months, she often would - totally a treat mid week! I can't even describe how giddy I was coming home from school having worked up an appetite and smelling the aroma that this soup would fill the whole house with.

Or if it was on a Friday, I knew I had left over soup for lunch to look forward to. Bonus.

I hope you enjoy my take on my Mom's signature soup as much as myself and my whole family does.

Oh and we always served this soup with Maggi - an Indonesian condiment - on the side. Careful, a little goes a long way! (I use Bragg's Amino Acids now that I'm gluten free)

My Mom's Soup
*minus the noodles

Ingredients:

Soup

4 large carrots, chopped
4 stalks of celery, chopped
2 onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp. olive oil
8 cups vegetable stock
2 bay leaves

Meatballs

3 lbs ground beef or turkey or combination
2 eggs
1/4 cup ground flax seed
2 tsp. onion powder
2 tsp. garlic powder
Salt and pepper

Directions:

Soup

1. In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat, add the garlic and onions to the pot. Cook the garlic and onions until just softened, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the carrots and celery to the pot, allow the carrots and celery to cook for 5-8 minutes.

3. Add the vegetable stock, and bay leaves. Bring the heat up to high and bring soup to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer the soup.

Meatballs

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, add the ground beef or turkey. Sprinkle with spices and ground flax.
3. In a separate bowl, gently whisk the eggs. Add the eggs to the meat. Using your hands combine the mixture until just mixed. Do not over work the meat.
4. Roll the meat mixture into desired size meatballs. Place meatballs on slotted broiler pan.
5. Bake the meatballs at 375 until no longer pink in the middle. About 20 minutes for an average sized meatball.
6. I like to add about 5 meatballs to the soup before cooking those meatballs. I bring the soup up to a boil and drop the soup into the pot to cook.
7. Once the meatballs in the soup have cooked, add the oven baked meatballs to the soup. Allow to simmer and let the favors blend.
8. Remove the bay leaves and enjoy :)

PS I would normally have a picture of my soup, served in a bowl  - this time however, when I went to take a pic, the soup was all gone - David likes this soup a lot !


This post has been linked to : Just Something I Whipped up, Makin' You Crave Monday