Spanish Meatball Soup (p. 150)

I picked this soup to make because it calls for whole milk, which I actually have in my fridge from the ice cream I made last week. We will never use whole milk otherwise, so that seemed as good a reason to make a recipe as any other.

Sopa de Albondigas gets its flavor from saffron, but is otherwise a pretty simple and plain soup.

To make the meatballs, tear stale bread into chunks and set them aside in a bowl of whole milk, so that the bread absorbs the liquid. Mince together onions, parsley, and garlic. Add the bread, ground pork (or veal), saffron, egg,  salt, and pepper, and mix all of these ingredients together with your hands. If the mixture seems a little too wet (mine did) add dried bread crumbs. Shape the meat into tiny meatballs, about the size of walnuts. You'll have lots.

In a pan, sauté the meatballs in olive oil until they are browned all over.

While the meatballs are browning, begin to simmer chicken broth over low heat. The recipe calls for a leek to be added to the broth, but I'm a little wary of leeks and happened to have celery in my fridge, so I chopped that up instead and threw it in.

When the the meatballs are ready, add them to the stock and continue simmering, covered, for about half an hour. Serve immediately.

This is a very simple soup, but also really good. The meatballs were flavorful and a great size, and there are a lot of them in each bowl, which is nice. We both really enjoyed this!

ground pork -- $1.55

chicken broth -- $2.50 (there is still about a cup left)

Total Cost of Spanish Meatball Soup : $4.05