Use whatever vegetables you fancy for this recipe - what matters is that you use a variety of colors, flavors and textures - and whatever type of ground meat and stock you prefer. I have used rose veal and -stock for its seasonality. Not to be an animal rights crusader or anything, but please do use rose veal and not that horrid anemia-inducing white veal. If you prefer to avoid veal altogether, choose ground beef or ground chicken.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Yield: Serves 4.
Ingredients:
- For the meatballs:
- 1/2 lb ground rose veal
- 1 tbsp cream
- 1 tsp tomato paste (tomato purée)
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
- Salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
- For the soup:
- 5 1/4 cups veal stock (1.25 liters)
- 1 medium carrot, finely diced
- 1 leek, thinly sliced
- 1 stick of celery, thinly sliced
- 1 young turnip finely diced
- 4 oz (about 20) baby green asparagus spears (100 g)
- 2 oz small cauliflower florets (50 g)
- 2 oz small broccoli florets (50 g)
- 2 oz vermicelli (50 g)
- Salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
Preparation:
Mix the ground veal with the cream, tomato purée, nutmeg and salt and pepper. Don't be afraid to get stuck in with your hands. Roll into marble sized balls between the palms of your hands. Set aside to rest in a cool place.
To test the seasoning you may want to cook one meatball (flattened) in a frying pan with a little oil. After all, you can't test raw meat for seasoning.
You can use fresh, homemade stock or stock made from stock cubes or those bottles of concentrated stock that most supermarkets sell. Vegetable, veal or chicken stock would work equally well. Obviously homemade stock would be preferable, but I'm a realist. And, really, the soup won't suffer. Much.
If you are short of time, you may prefer to use one of those ready prepared bags of spring vegetables from your supermarket or whole foods store. You'll need 1 lb (about 2 cups or 500 g) of mixed spring vegetables.
If you are using young turnips
('meiknolletjes' in Dutch), look for the purple and white variety.
Use the finest vermicelli you can find. Kids also love miniature alphabet pasta. When I was a kid, my mother sometimes used these instead - I loved trying to spell words out in my soup!
Bring the stock to the boil.
Meanwhile, wash and prepare the vegetables.
Add the meatballs to the boiling stock and cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove the meatballs from the stock with a skimmer and set aside.
Add the vegetables to the stock and cook for 10 minutes or until just tender to the bite. Add the meatballs back to the soup. Crumble the vermicelli into the soup and allow to cook for another minute.
Season with salt and pepper and serve with buttered whole wheat bread or cheese straws (kaasstengels).
Tips:
