Chicken and meatball soup - syn free

This recipe is a take off of the amazing Italian wedding soup.  I’m not sure how Italian that is nor have I ever had it at a wedding but a wonderful lady once showed me how to cook and I’m glad se will never see me diet-ise her delicious recipe.

 

This is absolutely perfect if you feel under the weather, if it’s cold or if you just fancy something filling to eat.  It isn’t spicy (unlike most of the things I cook) but it’s wholesome and tasty.  Admittedly it’s a bit of a faff to make the meatballs but it doesn’t take long and it’s really worth the effort

Anyone that knows me knows I used to live in America where the broth was much easier to get so I’ve sort of winged it, the end product however was good

Ingredients

1 packet of good quality chicken stock

1 chicken stock pod (the blobby ones)

2 chicken stock cubes

1.5 litres water

Shredded cooked chicken

300g 5% beef mince

½ beaten egg

Italian herbs

Frozen sweetcorn (optional)

Orzo
Spring onion to garnish (optional)

Method

In a big pan add the stock, stock pot and cubes plus the water and leave to heat up as you get on with the rest of the soup.  Stir every so often as you want the cubes to dissolve but it doesn’t need much attention.

Add a good handful of dried Italian herbs, slightly to taste really but I cup my hand and fill it.  This soup makes six hearty portions so it needs seasoning and flavor.

Add the cooked chicken; now this can be leftover chicken from your Sunday roast or you can buy pre cooked.  I used pre-cooked chicken in this soup only because I didn’t have a pre done chicken hanging around, both will work equally well.  Just chuck the chicken in – my only suggestion is none of the pieces are bigger than you can comfortably get on your spoon or in your mouth!

Leave to simmer away

Next it’s time to make your meatballs.

Put your 5% mince in a brown and add a good helping of Italian herbs.  

Lightly beat an egg and add half – sorry about that I know it’s a waste but a whole egg is too much.  You can probably go without any egg at all but I used the remaining half to make some cookies.

Mix the mince, herbs and egg with your hands until the herbs are evenly distributed and squash into mini meatball sizes. I make mine just a bit bigger than a marble.  Same as the chicken you want them to fit on a spoon and in your mouth in one bite rather than chewing at them.

When you’ve made your meatballs gently drop them in your soup – yes they are still raw.  Don’t worry about that, they will boil in the broth and whilst they may not be the most attractive meatballs you’ll ever eat in your life they will be just perfect

I added frozen sweetcorn at this stage, maybe a cup full and the only reason I did that is well, I like sweetcorn.  You don’t have to do that if you don’t want to

And now you just leave it for about 30 minutes 

When you’re almost ready for your soup in a separate pan cook some orzo according to the packet instructions.  Orzo is a pasta that’s shaped like a large grain of rice and is perfect to bulk out the soup and makes it really filling.  Do not cook the orzo in the soup as it will suck up the soup to cook

To serve, ladle the soup into a bowl making sure you get a mix of broth, chicken and meatballs, add orzo at this stage and serve immediately wih a garnish of slice spring onion (optional)

Syn free chicken, meatball and orzo soup

The soup will stay good in the fridge for 2-3 days if you store in an airtight container.  It can’t really be frozen though I'm afraid

You can use noodles or rice instead of orzo if you’d rather.