Meatball Alphabet Soup

I’m always on the lookout for yummy one-pot dinners that I know for a fact my kids will love.

Alphabet soup is a classic around here. My kids LOVE IT. So to make it a one pot situation, I added meatballs to it and let me tell you that it was polished. I even had seconds!

For the meatballs:

• 1.5 lb minced beef

• 1/2 cup cilantro, minced

• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs

• 1 egg

• 1 tsp each paprika, cumin, granulated garlic, salt

• Water, as needed

For the soup:

• 2 tbsp oil

• 1 onion, diced

• 2 tbsp tomato paste

• 800 ml tomato sauce

• 1600 ml water (double tomato sauce)

• 1 tbsp sugar

• 1 tbsp salt

• 1/2 tsp oregano

• 1/2 tsp granulated garlic

• 250 g alphabet pasta

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and a roasting rack.

2. In a mixing bowl, combine all meatballs ingredients and mix. I add water to soften my meat. It’s a true game changer. The amount depends on the quality of the meat.

3. Form meatballs and place directly on roasting rack. Bake for 20 minutes.

4. While meatballs are cooking, build your soup. Start by heating oil in a large pot. Add onion and saute until starts to brown.

5. Add tomato paste and saute with the onion. Reduce heat to a simmer and add tomato sauce. I covered my pot to give the tomato sauce some time to heat through without painting my kitchen 😅

6. Uncover and add all water. At this point, I use my immersion blender to puree the onion in the soup. Spices go in next.

7. At this point, add your meatballs in the soup and raise heat to high. Once the soup reaches a boil, add pasta and turn off the heat completely. Cover directly and let it sit so that the pasta can absorb the residual heat. It’ll be ready to eat after 15 minutes.

Don’t forget to adjust the salt!

For full video, click here.

Enjoy,

Guila