🇲🇽 Mexico · home cooking
Caldo de albóndigasMexican meatball soup
A Mexican soup of ground-beef (or beef and pork) meatballs mixed with rice and often mint, simmered in a light tomato broth with potato, carrot and squash, and sometimes a leaf of epazote.
Origin and history
Caldo de albóndigas is a Mexican home soup of meatballs bound with rice, poached in a light tomato broth with vegetables. Grupo Animal calls it iconic and notes that Mexican meatballs are usually made with ground meat, egg, rice or bread and spices, with regional versions using chipotle, mint, beans or other meats. The sources give no date or origin for the dish.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 servings
- Total time
- 1 h 15 min
- Hands-on
- 35 min
Ingredients
- 500 g1.1 lb ground beef, or half beef, half pork
- 1/4 cup (about 50 g)1/4 cup raw white rice, rinsed
- 2 medium eggs
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped, for the meatballs
- 2 tbsp fresh hierbabuena (spearmint), chopped
- salt, pepper and a pinch of ground cumin, for the meatballs
- 450 g1 lb ripe tomatoes (jitomate), quartered
- 1/2 small white onion, in chunks
- 1 clove garlic, for the broth
- 3 tbsp oil
- 1.5 liters6 1/4 cups water or chicken broth
- 3 medium carrots, peeled, cut in pieces
- 1 potato, peeled, diced (optional, as in other recipes read)
- 2 medium zucchini (calabacitas), cut in chunks
- 1 leaf epazote, optional
- corn tortillas, lime, chipotle in adobo, to serve
Method
-
1. Mix the ground meat, rice, eggs, garlic, mint, salt, pepper and cumin with your hands for a few minutes, only until it holds together; overworking makes tough meatballs.
-
2. Shape the mixture into balls about the size of a lime and chill them for 30 minutes.
-
3. Blend the tomatoes, onion, garlic and 1 cup of the water until smooth.
-
4. Heat the oil in a large pot, pour in the blended tomato (through a sieve if you like a smooth broth) and cook for about 5 minutes over medium heat.
-
5. Add the rest of the water or broth, the carrots and the potato, season with salt and bring to a gentle boil. Cook for 10 minutes.
-
6. Lower the meatballs in one at a time and do not stir for the first few minutes, so they set.
-
7. Simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, then add the zucchini and the epazote leaf and cook for 15 minutes more, until the vegetables are tender and the rice in the meatballs is cooked through.
-
8. Serve in large bowls with warm tortillas, lime and chipotle if you want heat.
Notes
- Quantities follow the Maricruz Avalos recipe (500 g meat, 1/4 cup rice, 6 cups liquid) and Grupo Animal's method and seasoning (cumin, mint, resting the meatballs 30 minutes). Gastrolab uses 900 g of meat with 1 cup of pre-cooked rice and parsley instead of mint, and adds breadcrumbs if the mixture is too soft.
- Rice can go in raw and rinsed (Grupo Animal says it absorbs broth as it cooks and keeps the meatballs soft) or cooked first, as in Gastrolab; raw rice needs the full 30-minute simmer.
- Mint is common but not universal (Gastrolab uses parsley), and chayote, broccoli or other vegetables can replace some of the zucchini. Regional versions use chipotle, mint, beans or other meats.
- Do not use too much egg and chill the meatballs, which keeps them from falling apart in the broth.
- Make ahead: the meatballs can be shaped a day ahead; the soup keeps for 2 days, and the rice swells so add water on reheating.
Adapted from Maricruz Avalos, Caldo de albóndigas, Grupo Animal, Caldo de albóndigas: receta casera, and Gastrolab, Albóndigas con caldo.
At the festivals
No festival we list has printed it on a menu yet.