This recipe was inspired by a NYT recipe by Ali Slagle. I looked at her recipe and essentially just decided to make it from scratch using the same ingredients sans measurments. (Measurements for this recipe took place as I was cooking in the aftermath of the finished product). This meatball soup is light, fragrant, easy to make and so full of flavour. It is colourful, hearty and packed full of delicious veggies like spinach, and cilantro. It can be made ahead of time and reheats perfectly. If you are looking for a light brothy soup this may be your new favourite go-to recipe.
Thai Inspired Meatball Soup
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 2 1/2 pounds ground chicken
- 1 tablespoon ginger grated
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 3 stocks of green onion greens only, diced
- 2 jalapeño deseeded and finely diced
- 1/3 cup cilantro finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1/3 cup of panko crumbs
- 1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt plus more to taste
- Black pepper to taste
- 4 tablespoon of vegetable oil to fry
Soup
- 1 tablespoon ginger grated
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 3 stocks of green onion white part only, diced
- 2 jalapeño deseeded and finely diced
- 2 tablespoons vegetable or coconut oil plus more as needed
- 2 cups chicken broth no salt
- 2 14-ounce can full-fat coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon of toasted ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon of toasted ground cardamom
- 5 ounces spinach
- 1 tablespoon lime juice plus lime wedges for serving (optional)
- red chilli flaked to serve optional
- chili oil optional
Garnish
- thinly sliced jalapeños
- cilantro to for garnish
- Steamed white or brown rice for serving
Instructions
- In a bowl add your raw chicken ground chicken, grated ginger, minced garlic (I used a garlic press), diced jalapeño, greens of your green onions and cilantro. Add your fish sauce, panko crumbs, pepper and mix well to combine but do not over mix.
- Test for salt: take a tiny piece of your ground chicken mixture and place on plate and microwave for 15 seconds or until fully cooked. Taste and adjust for salt accordingly. I usually add about 1/2 teaspoon of salt but you may want to add a bit less or a bit more because the fish sauce contains a lot of salt.
- Use your hands or an ice cream scoop to form 2-inch meatballs (about 2 ounces each). You can can make your meat balls as big or as small as you would like them in a soup. I like to fry in a shallow pan but you can fry with your vegetable oil in a dutch oven or pot, flipping halfway until the meatballs are browned. The meatballs do not have to be cooked throughout, they should just be browned and cooked on the exterior.
- In a large Dutch oven or pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Working in batches, add the meatballs in a single layer and cook. Transfer your meatballs to a plate and add oil as necessary to fry the rest of your meatballs.
- Once all the meatballs are browned and out of the pot, if the oil is burned, wipe it out and add a bit more to the pot. If there are bit of meatball buts in your pot or pan this is all good, its extra added flavour that will just be mixed into soup.
- Reduce the heat to medium, add your ginger, jalapeño, garlic and green onion and sauté until fragrant. Add your cans of coconut coconut milk, and simmer, scraping the bottom to remove all the tasty bits.
- At this point if you did all this in a shallow pan, transfer to a dutch oven. If you started your your dutch oven or pot, ignore this step.
- Add fish sauce, chicken broth, and slowly place your browned meatballs into the broth. Let simmer for 10 minutes and season with, cardamon, cumin, salt and pepper to taste. Note: To toast your cardamom and cumin, just place in a dry pan and heat until fragrant but watch to it does not burn.
- You can squeeze lime juice into your soup at this point, to taste, or you can squeeze lime juice on individual servings of your tasty soup.
- Serve your soup with wilted spinach, sliced jalapeños, diced cilantro and a squeeze of lime. You can also add chili oil if you want a bit of extra heat.
- Enjoy your soup hot with a steaming bowl of cooked rice or enjoy on it’s own.
This was sensational and will most definitely be on my go to list – I think the Chilli oil is a must in my honest opinion but overlooked the flakes due to one family member