| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr 20 min |
| Prep: | 35 min |
| Cook: | 45 min |
| Yield: | 6 servings |
| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr 20 min |
| Prep: | 35 min |
| Cook: | 45 min |
| Yield: | 6 servings |
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 8 garlic cloves, peeled
- 2 bunches cilantro, leaves only
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
- 1 pound ground turkey or chicken, preferably dark meat
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 2/3 cup fresh bread crumbs
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 large leek, trimmed, washed and thinly julienned
- 4 medium carrots, peeled and diced
- 1/4 head white cabbage, cored, and thinly sliced
- 1 to 2 jalapeno chiles, stemmed, seeded and thinly julienned
- 3 medium Roma tomatoes, cored, seeded and diced
- 2 1/2 quarts chicken stock
- 3 tablespoons white vinegar
Instructions
- Combine the olive oil, garlic, cilantro and 1 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper in a blender. Puree until smooth.
- In a large bowl, mix together the turkey or chicken, egg and cilantro paste. Add the bread crumbs and mix only until combined. Roll into small walnut-sized meatballs in the palms of your hands and place on a tray in the refrigerator.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil in a large stockpot over high heat. Saute the leeks and carrots with the remaining 2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper for 2 to 4 minutes. Add the cabbage, jalapenos and tomatoes and cook, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are limp, about 3 minutes longer. Pour in the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook, uncovered, 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat the remaining oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat until nearly smoking. Add the chilled meatballs in batches, shaking the pan to prevent sticking, and brown on all sides. Transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain.
- When all the meatballs are browned, transfer to the simmering stock and cook an additional 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in the vinegar and serve hot.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 6 servings |
| Calories | 513 |
| Total Fat | 31 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Carbohydrates | 29 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Sugar | 12 g |
| Protein | 30 g |
| Cholesterol | 91 mg |
| Sodium | 1556 mg |
| Serving Size | 1 of 6 servings |
| Calories | 513 |
| Total Fat | 31 g |
| Saturated Fat | 5 g |
| Carbohydrates | 29 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 4 g |
| Sugar | 12 g |
| Protein | 30 g |
| Cholesterol | 91 mg |
| Sodium | 1556 mg |
Reviews
Our favorite! Made a few times now and I have made a few modifications. One bunch of Cilantro in meatballs. Used food processor instead of blender. Blender didn’t work to well. 1/2 pound of hot ground sausage, 1 tsp of Oregano and Cumin, 3 leeks and no cabbage. 4 Roma tomatoes cut up and one lime instead of vinegar. 3 boxes of Chicken stock. 1/2 cup of bread crumbs. Season more if needed with Oregano and Cumin if needed. Everything else the same.This one is perfect for us. Give it a try and double up and freeze half. Enjoy!
This soup is delicious! I reduced the garlic by half and added a little a cilantro on top at the end as a garnish. My husband and I both loved it!
I’ve never had a clunker whenever I made a recipe by Susan Feniger and Sue Millikin. With this one, the amount of cilantro not only made the meatballs inedible, the meatballs broke up in the soup, the cilantro spoiling everything. AND I LOVE CILANTRO!!! Sorry. This one’s pretty gruesome.
delicious. you can substitute beef for turkey, and throw in some habaneros if you like a little more heat!
I used one bunch of cilantro and used the prepackaged plain bread crumbs from the store baking isle and used the measurement on the recipe. I used 2 pepers and left in the seeds because we like heat. Both my husband and I loved loved this recipe. It was definitely spicy. We loved the vinegar but I could envision someone only putting in one or two tablespoons. I will make this again and again and will only adjust the pepper seeds for company. This is the best albondigas I have had and different than anything out there.
The albondigas were green after one bunch of cilantro. I can imagine how they would have looked after two. Once added to the soup, the green disappeared but they tasted horrible. Too much cilantro, too much garlic. What is the point of following a recipe if the portions are not correct.
Great recipe with a few tweeks. I used only one bunch of cilantro and 3 garlic cloves in the meatballs — it would have been way too strong otherwise. I didn’t brown the meatballs but simmered them when I added the second vegetables, and I added a cubed zucchini then too. Since I just used boxed (altho high quality chicken broth it lacked flavor, so I added a teaspoon of cumin and a teaspoon of chili powder. The ground turkey meatballs were surprisingly good.
This is a real keeper for us.
This is a real keeper for us.
Everyone loved it. If you want it hot – you may need more peppers. The ones I purcahsed were very mild. One of my favorite things about it – everything was fresh – nothing from a package (well, other than the broth/stock. I prefer to have fresh food.
Loved it! It was so flavorful. The meatballs were spectacular.
I loved it. I used turkey meat and I also used zuchinni and celery instead of carrots and leaks. Because I didn’t have leaks and I dislike carrots. Also, instead of using fresh tomatoes I used diced canned ones. Loved it. Kept it simple. It was delicious.I cut up some lemon and also squeezed a little bit into the individual bowls of soup to give it that extra flavor. The meatballs were my favorite. I also used chicken broth and vegetable broth because that is all I had. The broth was so good as well. This is my favorite albondigas recipe so far. So much better with the turkey instead of the beef. It felt much lighter.