Find-the-meatball soup

If you happen to have meatballs on hand and you are trying to figure out what to make out of them, then I suggest you try this delicious and hearty meatball soup. I made meatballs myself, using the same recipe as I did for meat patties – I mixed ground meat with minced onion and egg, seasoned it with salt, pepper, chili powder and Worcestershire sauce and formed small balls out of the mixture. I baked the balls at 180 degrees C for around 25-30 minutes and there they were, waiting for becoming an ingredient in my next dish. They tasted pretty good, so I could have just eaten them as a snack , but then I thought they can do better which is why I ended up making a meatball soup. Once I realized I can prepare a soup, I had alrady eaten about half of the meatballs, so…this is why I called it find-the-meatball soup. Still, believe it or not, the lack of meatballs was not an issue – the soup ended up being delicious even with little amount of meatballs. For two bowls of soup:

500 ml water

10-15 meatballs

1 can (250 ml) diced tomatoes

1 beef bouillon cube

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried basil

1/2 tsp dried thyme

salt and pepper to taste

1 stalk celery, sliced

1-2 carrots, sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

a handful of fusilli

# Slice carrots and celery stalk. In a large saucepan, bring water to a boil.

# Add tomato sauce, bouillon, oregano, basil, thyme, salt and pepper, celery, carrots, and crushed garlic. Simmer for 30 minutes.

# Add fusilli and meatballs, cook until pasta is done. Top with grated cheese to serve.

This soup demanded hardly any work which is why I was actually amazed how nice it came out.

It should be just as tasty the next day as well, but in that case make sure you don’t use too much pasta, because after a while, the pasta soaks up all the soup!