Transylvanian Meatball Soup

I'm back with another recipe, the famous Transylvanian Meatball Soup recipe. Meatball Soup is very popular in Romania and Hungary as well and has a lot of versions, depending on the region you are visiting. The difference consists mostly in the culinary herb that are used. The two most common are tarragon and dill.

In Transylvania you'll find mostly tarragon, while in the south they are using dill.

This is one of my favorite soup recipes that I'm cooking very often. If you have guest, you can't go wrong with this, no matter who's coming fr lunch.

Ingredients

• 500 g minced pork,
• 6 medium carrots,
• 3 medium parsley roots,
• 1 medium onion (optional),
• 5 clove garlic (3 for the meat, 2 for the soup),
• 3 free range eggs,
• 3 tbsp semolina,
• 3 - 4 tbsp olive oil,
• salt,
• pepper,
• tarragon,
• tarragon vinegar
• sour cream.

The Process

First prepare the meat. Add the minced pork, 1 egg, 3 tbsp semolina, salt, pepper and 3 chopped garlic to a mixing ball and mix well. Put aside and let it rest till you prepare the vegetables.

Wash and peal the vegetables.

Grate two carrots and one parsley root.

Add 3 tabs olive oil to the pot, add the grated onion and parsley root, stir for 5 minutes. Make sure you don't burn it.

This step is optional but it's recommended as it gives the soup a nice, orange color due to the carrots.

Grate the rest of the vegetables, add to the pen, add the tarragon, salt pepper, minced garlic, add water to cover and cook for 10 minutes.

In the meantime, sprinkle a few drops of olive oil in your palms (optional, I'm always skipping this step), and make the meatballs. I got 40 small meatballs from this quantity of meat.

Add the meatballs to the soup, add more tarragon if needed, cover with a lid and cook at medium heat till the meat and the vegetables are tender. It takes about 30 - 35 minutes.

Separate the eggs.

Add the egg whites to the soup and cook for another 10 minutes. This step is also optional, if you don't like egg whites in the soup, you can skip it.

Add 3 - 5-4 tbsp sour cream to the yolks, mix it well.

Turn off the heat, add two or three spoons of hot soup to the egg mix, then add the mix to the soup. Add vinegar and salt if it's needed.

Serve while still hot, and add more sour cream if needed.

Make Your Own Flavored Vinegar

This is something I'm doing for years. Why use the plain and simple vinegar, when you can make a delicious, flavored, spicy one that you add to salads, soups to make it more fun.

This is my usual tarragon vinegar, that I'm making every year. I'm going to show you the process (very easy) when I'm going to harvest tarragon from the garden.

Till then, this is what you can do. Pick three ingredients to add to the vinegar. Let me give you a few ideas.

Version 1. - 2 clove garlic, 1 bay leaf, 3 grains of pepper.
Version 2. - 1 clove garlic, a few fresh or dry parsley leaves, 2 grains of pepper.
Version 3. - 1 chili pepper, 2 clove garlic.

You can combine the ingredients endlessly, just make sure never use more than 3 ingredients as you can get a very strong flavored vinegar with none of the ingredients dominating. Make sure you use apple cider vinegar as it's healthier.

This is a huge advantage, especially used in salads as it gives the salad an extra flavor.