Juicy Pork Meatball Soup

This juicy pork meatball soup is light yet hearty type of soup that is tasty, filling, and no added feeling of guilt. It is exactly the recipe that comes in handy when you want to ‘kill two birds with one stone’ – today meals (first bird) and save some for other type of meals later on (second bird). Usually, I freeze some of the meatballs for spaghetti, mie goreng (fried noodle), pork bone soup, and so on.

This easy pork meatball soup is also good to consume when you catch a cold or when you just want something to warm up during the cold weather. Though the look is quite simple, the broth is very flavorful as the flavor is purely coming from simmering each of the meatball – think of it as slow-cooking each of the meatball, mmm… All you need is just adding salt and pepper to enhance the flavor of the broth.

The finishing touch will be adding the meatball and soup to cooked vermicelli or noodle. Then, garnish it with chopped green onion and fried shallot. Some condiments that are great with this type of soup will be some chopped chili, sriracha, ketchup, or sweet soy sauce. I personally like to add a bit of my aunt’s garlic chili sauce. You can get creative with it. You get the idea ^.^

Tip: For smoother texture, you can mix all the ‘meatball’ ingredients in a food processor.

Ingredients:

Meatball:

• 1 lb ground pork
• 3 tablespoons corn starch
• 1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
• 1/2 tablespoon fried shallot
• 1 egg
• A pinch of salt
• A pinch of white pepper

Noodle/Soup:

• 8 cups water
• 1 pack thin rice vermicelli or egg noodle
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 stalks green onion – chopped
• 2 teaspoons of fried shallot

Directions:

• In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients for meatball. Give a good knead until everything is mixed well.
• Boil water using a deep pot. Once boiled, reduce the heat to low heat.
• Using your clean hand, take about a fist of meatball dough. Squeeze it gently such that some of the dough will come out in between your point finger and thumb. Scoop that part of the dough using a spoon. It should form a ball. Put it in the pot. Repeat until all the meatball dough is finished.
• When the meatball is cooking, scoop out all the fat that is floating through the surface.
• The meatball eventually will float as well. It means that it is already cooked thoroughly. At this point, if you want to save some for later use, you can take out some, set aside and let it cool before storing it in the freezer. The meatball should be good for at least a month in the freezer.
• Then, you can add garlic, salt and pepper to the meatball soup. Let it boil.
• On the side, prepare the rice vermicelli or egg noodle according to the package instruction and put it in each individual bowl.
• Add the soup and meatball to the bowl and garnish with chopped green onion and fried shallot. Enjoy!