January is National Soup Month, part 2 - albóndigas soup with chicken-chorizo meatballs

Delectable little meatballs made with chicken and chorizo, plus fresh carrots and zucchini in a tomato broth richly flavored with garlic, cumin and oregano... toss in some rice and you've got a healthy and delicious soup that everyone will love!

Albóndigas are meatballs and can be made with whatever you like: beef or beef mixed with pork is commonly used, and usually the meatballs are added right to the soup and simmered until cooked through. I've changed things up a bit and used ground chicken in place of the beef, and the albóndigas are browned separately before adding to the soup. This method works nicely because I've also added chorizo to the chicken albóndigas for incredible flavor. We all know how much fat chorizo can exude; best to leave that in the skillet and not have it floating in greasy puddles on top of your beautiful soup (or in your arteries). After making the albóndigas, the rest of the soup comes together easily. While you're standing around making the albóndigas anyway, enjoying the therapeutic effect of leisurely preparing slow food, why not double up on the ingredients and make two batches, one to use for today's soup and another to freeze? Ground chicken is often sold in one pound packages and chorizo in eight ounce links, making it incredibly sensible to make twice the amount and save half for a later time. You'll be glad that you did!

Finally, albóndigas soup can be appealing to all family members by shredding some of the vegetables. This not only effectively "hides" some of the veggies but it also makes a thicker soup. If you like a thinner, more brothy soup, the carrots and zucchini can be sliced or cubed. But if you're looking to surreptitiously stuff nutrient-rich veggies into picky eaters, try shredding the carrots and zucchini then adding to the soup. The self-proclaimed veggie-haters will never realize the bounty they're consuming, and the soup will also be more substantial without being full of empty calories and fillers.

Try this; I think you'll like it.

Start out by preparing the albóndigas (meatballs). Combine the following ingredients thoroughly and brown in a large skillet, in batches, until browned:

1/2 pound ground chicken ~ 1/4 pound chorizo ~ 1/4 cup shredded zucchini ~ 1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro ~ 1/4 teaspoon salt ~ 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin ~ 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

Remember to keep an eye on the albóndigas as they're browning because chorizo can burn really, really quickly when you're not paying attention. And once they're done, try not to keep nibbling on them. They're really hard to resist. *wink*

For the rest of the soup, you'll need:

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

3 large cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

7 cups chicken or vegetable broth

2 cups canned crushed tomatoes

12 drops chipotle hot sauce and 3/4 teaspoon liquid smoke flavoring, OR 1 canned chipotle chili plus 1 teaspoon sauce

(I go with the hot sauce method; too many times I've used one or two of the chipotles and wasted the rest of the can, unfortunately.)

2 small carrots, shredded (or sliced thinly, if you prefer)

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 medium zucchini, grated (or sliced thinly, if you prefer)

1/4 cup uncooked rice

In a large soup pot, saute the onions and garlic in the oil, with the cumin and oregano, until onion is transparent. Pour in the broth and crushed tomatoes, the hot sauce + liquid smoke (or chipotle chili), carrots and salt. Bring to a boil then turn down heat to medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the browned albóndigas, zucchini, and rice and simmer for another 30 minutes or until rice is tender.

I like to serve this with a heap of fresh cilantro leaves because I just love the stuff - but I do know that not everyone is so enamored with the flavor. Julienned carrot and/or zucchini adds a colorful touch, and homemade fried corn tortilla strips add a welcome crunch.

If you prefer a more beefy flavor, albóndigas soup can be prepared using ground beef and beef broth. Try adding roasted corn to the soup, as well as poblano chili slivers, and change up the recipe with a handful of fideos or other quick-cooking noodles. The choice is yours!

Makes six servings.

January is National Soup Month

What better month than cold, snowy January for celebrating National Soup Month? Unless you're in the southern hemisphere, I suppose... but then you can experiment with all sorts of refreshing chilled summer soups!

Begin your soups with either the best prepared stock or broth that you can afford, or better yet, make it yourself. Typically, stock is made with vegetables plus bonier pieces of meat, and broth is made with vegetables and only meat, giving you two different results. The bones create a more "gelatinous" quality to the stock, making it preferable for most soups and stews, and broth is thinner and perfect for very clear soups and for cooking rice, etc.

There are no real hard and fast rules of stock-making but I do stick to some general guidelines. I love to add vegetables, vegetables and MORE vegetables. I use the traditional favorites like onions, carrots and celery but also toss in leeks and shallots for their almost-garlicky flavor, and parsnips for additional sweetness. Recently I came across a chicken stock recipe that suggested using fennel and I thought of how wonderful that would be in Italian wedding soup, minestrone, or other Italian-type dishes. Putting that in the file for "next time."

Other than parsley, I don't add herbs to chicken stock or broth. I prefer to keep the basic flavor simple so the stock can be versatile. I also do not season the stock with salt, leaving that for later when I'm actually using it in a soup or other dish (I'm specifically thinking of bean dishes where the salt can hinder the cooking of the beans).

I do add one secret spice to chicken stock to give it a most delicious flavor: whole cloves. Not too many - a little goes a very long way. For me, a dash of clove flavor has the same effect as adding a tiny bit of cinnamon to some savory dishes - luscious!

The Basic Recipe:

Naturally, start out with... chicken. I used about 2/3 of a four pound whole chicken that I had roasted a couple of days earlier. We had a bit of it for a dinner, then the rest of it went into the soup pot. This actually works very well, as the roasted chicken has already released some fat, and the roasting gives it a nice, rich flavor. Remove as much of the skin as you can, and place in a large soup pot with a Noah's Ark of ingredients: two carrots, two celery stalks, two parsnips. Cut a large yellow onion in quarters and add to the pot. If you really like garlic, use it, but I find it a bit overpowering in chicken stock and I prefer to add a leek and a shallot in place of the garlic. Add a handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley and four or five whole cloves. Pour in water to cover, bring to a boil, then turn down heat, cover and simmer for as long as you wish, the longer the better. Be sure to use a slotted spoon to skim off impurities every so often, and preferably prepare the stock a day before you actually need it so it can be refrigerated overnight and more excess fat can be easily removed. Allow to cool, discard vegetables and remove chicken meat from the bones to use for chicken soup or maybe even a casserole.

The stock will become fairly gelatinous because of the chicken bones, and that's perfectly normal, fine, and preferable - it's the best kind of stock, lots of nutrients and super-rich flavor! It will liquify when you reheat it, but you might need to add more water along with the rest of your soup ingredients. The stock in the photo above became a delicious chicken and rice soup with brown jasmine rice, thyme, shredded carrots, sliced mushrooms, and a bit of saffron, giving it a unique flavor and beautiful golden color.

Whether your chicken soup has noodles, rice, dumplings or matzoh balls, you know that it's going to be absolutely wonderful because you're starting with homemade chicken stock made with lots of love!