Sopa De Albondigas (aka Meatball Soup)

Total Time: 2 hrs 10 mins Preparation Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 2 hrs

Ingredients

• 1 small onion
• 1 small garlic clove
• 1 lb ground beef or 1 lb 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 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

Recipe

• 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 didnâ??t puree very well. even when i left the onion and garlic in chunks in the meatballs, at the end, you donâ??t notice.
• 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 in a large pot, bring the meat stock to a boil. add the rice and reduce the heat to a gentle boil
• 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 cook 1 ½ - 1 ¾ hours. note: doesnâ??t need to be that long. i cooked it for an hour â?¦ 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 wouldnâ??t burn.
• 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 reduce the heat under the soup to the lowest simmer and slowly add the egg/lemon mixture.
• 8 stirring constantly, allow the soup to thicken but make sure the liquid doesnâ??t come to a boil or the eggs will cook and they will form clumps in the soup.
• 9 when the soup is thickened, remove from heat.
• 10 and then you serve. enjoy.