Albóndigas Soup (Sopa de Albóndigas)

Albondigas Soup, aka Mexican Meatball Soup or Sopa de Albondigas. This soup features a delicious broth, lots of veggies, and tender pork meatballs with BIG flavor. It’s an easy all-in-one meal everyone will love! 

Albondigas soup, aka Mexican meatball soup, is the ultimate Sunday night dinner. Three things I love about this soup recipe: requires little prep time, has BIG flavor, and is an all-in-one meal. A brief simmer infuses the broth with flavor, cooks the meatballs, and gets your appetit grumbling. 

The light tomatoey broth is flavored with onion, garlic, tomato paste, oregano and cumin. Then tender pork meatballs (albondigas), featuring tons of fresh herbs, are cooked right in the simmering soup. Mixed with dry white rice, the albondigas come out tender and moist. *chefs kiss, these are incredible!

What does “albóndigas” mean?

Albóndigas is the mexican work for meatballs. Most often, albóndigas refers to the popular Mexican and Spanish dish featuring spicy meatball in a tomato sauce. The meatballs often consist of a both beef and pork, and traditionally feature rice, which keeps them nice and tender. Some recipes use bread instead of rice, but I love the texture rice adds.

Sopade albóndigas or Sopa de Albóndigas is a beef-broth soup featuring chopped vegetables and tender meatballs.

Ingredients Needed for Albóndigas Soup

For the Mexican meatballs, you’ll need:

• ground pork: Depending on how fatty your pork is, you may need to skim some grease off the top of the soup before serving. I use 85% lean ground pork for this soup.
• dry long grain white rice
• fresh mint
• fresh parsley 
• dried oregano: preferably dried Mexican oregano, I get mine at my local Mexican market
• garlic
• egg

For the soup, you’ll need:

• olive oil
• white onion
• garlic cloves
• tomato paste: some recipes use canned tomato sauce instead. You can add a small can of tomato sauce to this soup is you want it less brothy and more tomato-based.
• dried oregano: preferably dried Mexican oregano, I get mine at my local Mexican market
• ground cumin
• carrots
• low-sodium beef broth or chicken broth (beef is classic)
• canned diced tomatoes
• zucchini
• fresh cilantro: if you don’t like cilantro, you can substitute with parsley
• Optional toppings: avocado, jalapeño, lime

How to Make Albóndigas Soup (step-by-step photos)

How to Make Albóndigas Soup

1. Prep the meatballs by combining the pork, rice, herbs, garlic, and egg. Form into 1-inch meatballs and arrange on a baking sheet.
2. Move on to making the soup. Cook the onion in oil until it’s starting to soften. Add the tomato paste, garlic, oregano and cumin and cook a couple of minutes. 
3. Stir in the carrots, then add the water, broth and tomatoes.
4. Add the meatballs and simmer, covered, until cooked through. 
5. Add the zucchini and simmer until tender. 
6. Off heat, stir in the cilantro. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Tips for Making the Best Sopa de Albóndigas:

1. use lean ground meat: I recommend using ground pork, but ground beef or turkey will also work. It’s best to use a lean ground meat for this soup, otherwise you may need to skim grease off the surface before serving. Use a moderately lean ground meat like 85%, avoid anything super lean such as 97%.
2. use fresh herbs: between the meatballs and the soup, this recipe uses three different types of fresh herbs. That may seem like a lot, but they each add something different to the soup.
   If you want to cut back on an herb, skip the parsley in the meatballs and replace it with some cilantro (we’re also adding cilantro to the soup). And if you’re not a cilantro fan, use parsley in the soup instead.
   Be sure to store any leftover herbs properly so you don’t waste them!
3. use Mexican oregano: It may seem unnecessary, but Mexican oregano has a very different flavor than mediterranean oregano. “Regular” or mediterranean oregano has a slight minty undertone whereas Mexican oregano is more earthy and cirtusy. Marjoram is a closer substitute for Mexican oregano than “regular” oregano is.
   I get Mexican oregano at my local Mexican market, but you can also find it on Amazon. Then again, if all you have is “regular” oregano, go ahead and use that. It certainly won’t make or break this recipe.

Variations

• Use lean ground beef or ground turkey in place of the pork. 
• Use a combination of ground beef, pork, and/or turkey.
• Add chorizo to the meatballs. 
• Add green beans or peas instead of (or in addition to) the zucchini.
• Use chopped green cabbage instead of the zucchini.
• For a more tomato-y broth, decrease the tomato paste and add some tomato sauce.
• Serve with toasted corn tortillas to tortilla chips.
• Make the meatballs without rice and use 2 pieces of sandwich bread instead.

Recipes you may also like…

• Cilantro Brown Rice
• Authentic Carne Adovada
• Fajita Rice Bowls 
• Instant Pot Salsa Verde Chicken
• Crispy Instant Pot Carnitas
• Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas

If you give this Sopa de Albóndigas recipe a try, be sure to let me know! Leave a comment with a star rating below. You can also snap a photo & tag @zestfulkitchen on Instagram. I love hearing about and seeing your ZK creations!

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