Today’s recipe is brought to you by the word mirepoix.
Via wikipedia: Mirepoix (cuisine), a traditional French culinary combination of onions, carrots and celery aromatics.
I felt it important to share this piece of culinary terminology with you since I start just about every soup with this wonderfully perfect mix. Once you have your carrot, celery, onion and garlic sweating away in a pot, you can add just about anything to it and make a delicious soup. So that’s what I did with my meatballs.
You can actually go three different ways with the broth for this soup.
1) Make an ultra thick, tomatoey, almost sauce-like base (as I’ve done below).
2) Keep the tomatoes but have a more soup like broth by skipping the tomato sauce and using only diced tomatoes.
3) You can make a clear beef broth by skipping the canned tomatoes all together and just using beef broth (or bouillon and water).
It’s up to you.
Next time, I think I’ll skip the tomato sauce so that I can have a tomato and beef broth… and maybe add some kale. Mmmmm, yes.
Hearty Meatball Soup
Hearty Meatball Soup
Servings 8Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.22)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.36)
- ½ lb. carrots (about 4) ($0.49)
- 3 ribs celery ($0.40)
- 4 cloves garlic ($0.28)
- 1 28oz. can diced tomatoes ($1.39)
- 1 28oz. can tomato sauce ($1.39)
- 2 large cubes beef bouillon ($0.46)
- 4 cups water ($0.00)
- 6 oz. dry pasta ($0.70)
- ½ batch turkey meatballs ($2.76)
- 1/2 bunch fresh parsley ($0.35)
- 5 oz. parmesan ($3.69)
Instructions
- Wash, peel and dice the vegetables for the mirepoix (carrot, celery, onion, garlic). Cook them in a large pot with olive oil over medium heat until softened (5-10 minutes).
- Add the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, water and beef bouillon to the pot. Bring it up to a simmer then add the pasta and meatballs. Allow the pot to simmer for about 10-15 minutes or until the pasta is cooked through.
- While the pot is simmering, rinse and chop half a bunch of parsley. Add the parsley to the pot after the pasta has fully cooked.
- Serve each bowl of soup with freshly grated parmesan on top.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Nutrition
Step By Step Photos
Start with the mirepoix (carrot, celery, onion and garlic) in a large pot with olive oil.
Cook the mirepoix over medium heat until the onions have softened. It’s okay if the celery and carrots are still a little firm, they will continue to cook with the soup. I also like the added texture they give the soup if they’re not cooked down to mush.
I used two large cans of tomatoes (one diced, one sauce) this time around. Next time I’ll probably use a large can of diced tomatoes and just replace the sauce with more beef broth. Add the tomatoes along with the beef bouillon and water to the pot.
Bring the soup up to a simmer then add the dry pasta.
Add the meatballs too. They will infuse flavor into the pot as it simmers. Bring everything back up to a simmer and let it cook for about 10-15 minutes or until the pasta is fully cooked.
While the pasta is simmering in the soup, wash and chop the parsley. Add the parsley to the pot after it is finished cooking (the pasta is soft).
And then it’s pretty much done! Grate fresh parmesan over top of each bowl!
You can use any type of pasta in the soup. Small pastas (like orzo) work really well but I was really drawn to this large rigatoni while I was in the store.
A friend of mine told me about your blog just recently, and I have been obsessed ever since! I made this soup for my husband’s birthday because he is a huge meatball fan, and I have already made it again a few days later! It was soooo good!! A new winter favorite, thanks so much!
Just made this recipe last night, I could not believe the flavor in the meatballs. Delicious! And the soup was amazing! (Must be the mirepoix, thanks for the French lesson!). And I think it reheats well…I was actually excited for leftovers today!
This is simmering on the stove right now, and I’m really looking forward to it. I made 95% lean ground beef meatballs and just dropped them into the simmering pot. I also doubled the amount of water after I added beef granules to stretch the amount that it made. REALLY looking forward to eating it. The few tastes I’ve tried were yummy!
Oh and we substituted basil for parsley and used whole wheat rigatoni for the pasta
We made a vegetarian version using veggie broth and frozen veggie meatballs from Trader Joes ( which can also be gotten at Whole Foods and Safeway) and it rocked in a major way. Thanks!
Jenn
Nope, the water was simply to reconstitute the bouillon cubes :)
Would you still add the water? (And thanks!)
Jeana- I would use four cups of broth (the two large cubes together with four cups of water make four cups of broth)… Which is nice because I think boxed broth usually comes in a four cup size. If you’re not using the tomato sauce you will want about another 4 cups of broth (the tomato sauce is 28 ounces which is about 3.5 cups). So, two quarts of broth total. The tomato sauce is kinda thick so you may be alright using less broth (maybe start with 6 cups and add more if you feel it necessary.
As far as kale is concerned, it kind of depends on the size of the bunch and I’ve seen them vary quite a bit. I wouldn’t think that you’d want more than one bunch so just buy one and add half at first and then add more if you want more greens :)
Hope that helps! :D
If I were to use beef broth out of a box instead of bullion, how would you alter the recipe? I think 2 bullion cubes make 2 cups of broth? so Use 2 cups of broth, and 2 cups of water? And since I don’t want to use the tomato sauce, maybe have 3 cups of broth? Also, how much kale would you use? I’m really excited to make this, but am always nervous deviating from a recipe :)
So warming!
I did add some kale, since I am on a bit of a kick with that at the moment lol
I was cruising Tastespotting, clicked on the beautiful picture and lo and behold it brought me back to you Beth!
I have frozen some individual portions of it and can’t wait for an easy mid week warm up.
Thanks again
Kathryn, yes, the pasta does get pretty soft although I have to admit that I kind of like that! The soup would still be super delicious without pasta if soft pasta makes you cringe :) Maybe add some kale or other hearty green in place of the pasta so that you still have a lot of texture in there.
I haven’t tried this soup, but I’m already in love with it! I would totally choose the thick, tomatoey version- I don’t like soups that are too brothy. One question- does it reheat okay? Whenever I try to reheat soup with pasta in it, the pasta gets all overcooked and gross.
Thanks a lot Beth. I too have been writing them down – so will keep on doing so! It’d be awesome to create a programme that records your whole pantry and equates the cost for recipes that you upload onto it.. or something.
The equations you gave me are super helpful – thanks! I can totally see myself with my notebook recording prices at the markets. The mac widget will surely come in handy.
Cheers :D
Hi Jesse! I just do the calculations on paper… I tried using a spreadsheet when I started keeping calculations (even before the blog was born) but it seemed like more of a pain and that’s coming from someone who LOVES spreadsheets. I just write down my ingredients, how much I used then reference my receipt along with the serving size and servings per package on each item. It only takes about 5 minutes to calculate out a recipe. For salt, pepper and most spices I just use a rough estimation of 0.05 per tsp because I don’t want to weigh out every small portion I use. I feel like five cents is adequate, safe, over estimation. In the beginning when I didn’t have a purchase record of staple items (like oil, flour, sugar etc.) I would just write down what I needed to check the price on at the store before I went. Then I would just write down the price, serving size, servings per container while at the store and use that for calculations until I replenished my stock and had an actual purchase price.
It’s really important to keep in mind while doing your calculations that fluid ounces and weight ounces are not equal. This can seriously mess up your calculations. Other helpful equations are: 4 Tbs =.25 cup ; 3 tsp=1 Tbsp ; 16 oz (weight)=1 lb. ; 8 oz (volume/fluid)=1 cup. I have a widget on my desktop that does weight and volume conversions in case I ever get stuck!
Hope that helps!
Beth
Hi Beth.
I have enjoyed reading your blog and trying your recipes out. I’m very interested in calculating the cost of my ingredients and therefore the cost of certain recipes. Do you use a pre-made program to calculate yours? Or have you simply made a spreadsheet? I’m also curious as to whether you generally use recipes for day to day meals or just wing-it. Thank you for providing inspiration and tips for budgeting and cooking :D