Eastern European · Lunch · Dinner
Romanian Sour Meatball Soup
Ciorbă de perișoare
A tangy Romanian broth full of tender vegetables and soft pork-and-beef meatballs studded with rice, brightened with lemon and plenty of fresh dill. Comforting, light and deeply savoury.
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 45 min
- Total
- 70 min
- Serves
- 6
Calories come from: Carbs 37% · Fat 28% · Protein 35%
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Ingredients
For 6 servings- 300 glean ground pork
- 200 glean ground beef (95% lean)
- 1/3 cup60 gwhite long-grain rice, uncooked
- 1 large50 gegg
- 1 large150 gonion
- 2 medium120 gcarrots
- 1 medium100 gparsnip
- 1 small piece100 gcelery root
- 1 medium120 gred bell pepper
- 1 can (400 g)canned diced tomatoes
- 10 1/2 cups2,500 gwater
- 1 tbsp14 gsunflower oil
- 6 tbsp90 glemon juice
- 1 1/2 tsp9 gsalt
- 1/2 tspblack pepper
- 1 tspsweet paprika
- 1 small bunch15 gfresh dill
- 1/4 cup chopped10 gfresh parsley
Steps
- 1
Rinse the rice in a sieve and drain well.
- 2
Grate one quarter of the onion finely; finely chop the rest.
- 3
Peel and dice the carrots, parsnip and celery root; dice the red pepper.
- 4
Finely chop the dill and parsley, keeping them separate.
- 5
In a bowl, mix the pork, beef, rice, egg, grated onion, paprika, half the parsley, one third of the dill, 1/2 tsp of the salt and the black pepper.
- 6
With wet hands, roll the mixture into small meatballs about 3 cm across and set aside on a plate.
- 7
Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat and soften the chopped onion for 4 minutes.
- 8
Add the carrots, parsnip, celery root and pepper and stir for 2 minutes.
- 9
Pour in the water and the remaining salt, bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes.
- 10
Stir in the canned tomatoes and return to a gentle boil.
- 11
Lower the meatballs into the pot one by one and simmer gently, uncovered, for 25 minutes, skimming off any foam.
- 12
Check that the rice is tender and the meatballs are cooked through to 71 °C / 160 °F in the centre.
- 13
Turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice, then taste and adjust the salt and sourness.
- 14
Stir in the remaining dill and parsley and serve hot.
Swaps, storage and make-ahead
Swaps
- Use all lean ground beef or ground turkey instead of the pork-and-beef mix if that is easier to find.
- Replace the celery root with two sticks of chopped celery if your shop doesn't stock celeriac.
- For a traditional sour flavour, swap the lemon juice for Romanian borș, but note it is made from wheat bran so the soup will no longer be gluten-free.
- Stir a spoonful of sour cream into each bowl if you don't need it dairy-free, or use a plain unsweetened plant-based yogurt to keep it dairy-free.
Storage
Cool and refrigerate within 2 hours in a covered container and eat within 3 to 4 days, reheating until steaming hot throughout. It can be frozen for up to 3 months, though the rice in the meatballs softens a little after thawing.
Make ahead
Roll the meatballs up to a day ahead and keep them covered in the fridge, and chop the vegetables in advance too. The whole soup also reheats well, so you can cook it a day early and add the fresh herbs when serving.
Nutrition values are for the recipe as written.
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Allergens and nutrition
Contains: EggsCelery
Check the labels of packaged ingredients for allergens and suitability for your diet.
Full nutrition
| Per serving (707 g) | Per 100 g | |
|---|---|---|
| Calories | 235 kcal | 33 kcal |
| Protein | 21.3 g | 3 g |
| Carbohydrates | 22.1 g | 3.1 g |
| of which sugars | 6.1 g | 0.9 g |
| Fiber | 4.2 g | 0.6 g |
| Fat | 7.4 g | 1 g |
| of which saturated | 2 g | 0.3 g |
| Sodium | 780 mg | 110 mg |
Nutrition is calculated from USDA FoodData Central data and may differ from what you cook.
