Vietnamese Meatball Soup
Servings: 4
This Vietnamese Meatball Soup is one of my winter go-to's. It’s easy to whip up, packed with flavour, and you can add whatever veggies are in your fridge. Plus, it's loaded with immune-boosting ingredients—perfect for staying healthy through the colder months.
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tbsp ginger root - finely grated
- 3 clove/s garlic - finely grated or crushed
- 750 ml chicken broth or stock (3 cups)
- 400 ml canned coconut milk
- 1 tbsp ground turmeric
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp coconut sugar or rapadura
- 4 kaffir lime leaves - vein removed and thinly sliced
- 6-8 spring onion/s - white part sliced
- Vegetables (of choice to add to soup) (optional) sliced very small is best so they cook quickly. I generally add whatever I have at the time, often broccoli, carrot, snow peas, shiitake mushrooms, and a handful of kale or baby spinach added right at the end.
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper - to taste
- ¼ bunch/s fresh coriander leaves - to serve
- chilli flakes - to serve
Meatballs
- 1 cm ginger root - finely grated
- 2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves - finely chopped
- 1 carrot/s - finely grated
- 500 g chicken mince
- 1 tbsp coconut flour
- 1 tsp sea salt
- ground black pepper - to taste
- 1 lime/s (large) zest only (add juice to soup to finish)
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat the coconut oil. Add the ginger and garlic and sauté for a minute until the garlic just starts softening.
- Now add the chicken broth, coconut milk, turmeric, fish sauce, coconut sugar, kaffir lime leaves and spring onion and bring to a rolling simmer.
- Whilst that's heating, make your meatballs by putting the ginger, coriander, grated carrot, chicken mince, coconut flour, sea salt, black pepper, lime zest, into a large bowl. Mix together until well combined and form into golf sized balls.
- When the soup comes to a rolling simmer, add the meatballs and allow to cook for 5 minutes or so until cooked through (the larger the meatballs the longer they will need).
- If you are adding vegetables, carefully remove the meatballs and divide between the serving bowls and add the vegetables to the soup to blanch them for a couple of minutes (take care not to over cook them). Divide the vegetables between the bowls.
- Lastly, add the lime juice to the soup, taste and add more seasoning if needed (salt and black pepper).
- Divide the soup between the bowls, garnish with the coriander and serve with chilli flakes.
Thermomix
- Start with the meatballs. If you are going to make your own chicken mince, do this first and set aside.
- Chop the ginger and coriander, 5 seconds, speed 8. Add the carrot 10 seconds, speed 8.
- Add the chicken mince, coconut flour, sea salt, black pepper, lime zest, mix 30 seconds, reverse speed 2 (you may need to scrape the sides during the mixing) - make sure it is well combined and form into golf sized balls. Set aside.
- Now start the soup. Mince the ginger and garlic, 5 seconds, speed 8.
- At this point I transfer it to a pot as the blades will break up the meatballs when cooking them. Continue from step 4 in the method above.
Make-ahead
- Re-heat in a pot over a low heat until just hot.
Store
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge.
- Can also be frozen.