Sopa De Albondigas (Aka Meatball Soup)

Ingredients

• 1 small onion
• 1 small garlic clove
• 1 lb ground beef or ground lamb
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice (found with other spices- can find in reg supermarkets)
• salt & freshly ground black pepper (reg pepper is fine too)
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, plain is fine
• 8 cups meat stock, you can use beef flavored bullion cubes as well. use about 2 cups of water for each cube
• 1/3 cup long grain white rice, rinsed (that's an approx amount. Can add more or less depending how much you like rice- but remember it suck)
• 1 large lemon, maybe a little less, the lemon does have a strong taste in the end if too much is added
• 1/3 cup of finely chopped fresh parsley
• 1/3 cup finely snipped fresh chives

Directions

1. 1

   Place the onion and garlic in the food processor or blender and puree. Note to cooker- I found that when I tried to do this, it didn’t puree very well. Even when I left the onion and garlic in chunks in the meatballs, at the end, you don’t notice.

2. 2

   put the puree in a mixing bowl with the meat, cinnamon, allspice, salt, pepper, 1 beaten egg and bread crumbs. Mix together by hand and set aside.

3. 3

   In a large pot, bring the meat stock to a boil. Add the rice and reduce the heat to a gentle boil

4. 4

   Have a bowl of cold water to you while you work. Wet your hands and divide the meat mixture into 6 or 8 parts and shape each into a large meatball. Put them into the simmering liquid and partially cover the pot.

5. 5

   Cook 1 ½ - 1 ¾ hours. NOTE: Doesn’t need to be that long. I cooked it for an hour … a little over an hour and the rice and the meat were cooked. Also another thing- check the soup every once in a while because I found that the liquid evaporates easily and I had to keep adding water so the soup wouldn’t burn.

6. 6

   During the last 15 minutes of cooking, beat the lemon juice with the remaining eggs. Pour one ladle of the stock into the egg/lemon mixture.

7. 7

   Reduce the heat under the soup to the lowest simmer and slowly add the egg/lemon mixture.

8. 8

   Stirring constantly, allow the soup to thicken but make sure the liquid doesn’t come to a boil or the eggs will cook and they will form clumps in the soup.

9. 9

   When the soup is thickened, remove from heat.

10. 10

    And then you serve. enjoy.