Cooking With The Luceman III: Frikadellen Soup

My wife’s grandmother was from Latvia and a recipe that I picked up from her is a family favorite. She called it Frikadellen soup or Pickle soup. To this day we just call it pickle soup, and whenever you tell somebody “man I want some pickle soup!”  The first reaction is usually “Ew”  But I have converted many people over to the awesomeness that is Pickel soup.. Here’s the recipe.

Frikadellen Soup  or  Pickle Soup  

The soup itself is pretty basic.  Ingredients are

6 to 10 cups of beef broth  Just depends on how much you want to make for this recipe we will just base it on 10 cups of beef broth.

1 jar of Kosher dill pickles..Whatever your favorite brand.

4 or 5 potatoes peeled and cubed

3 to 4 large carrots peeled and diced

1 small tub of sour cream

Get your beef broth boiling then add your potatoes and carrots bring back to full boil than simmer.  While simmering prepare your meatballs you can also use ready made meatballs in a pinch but I find freshly homemade meatballs taste way better and aren’t really that hard to make.

Basic meatballs

Ingredients

1 lb lean  ground beef 

½ cup Italian-style bread crumbs or plain whatever you like (or have on hand)

¼ cup milk

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (but I usually add a little more)

¼ teaspoon pepper

1 small onion, finely chopped (1/4 cup)

1 egg

In large bowl, mix all ingredients. Shape mixture into 24 (1 1/2-inch) meatballs.  Once your meatballs are formed set them aside.

After about 30 minutes of your beef broth and carrots and potatoes cooking bring your broth back to a boil and add your meatballs to the soup..

While your meatballs are cooking cut your dill pickles into quarters and dice into bite sized.  Put aside in a bowl I like to keep them slightly chilled until ready to serve.

Once the meatballs are all floating to top after about 20-30 minutes or so of boiling return to simmer and your soup is ready!

Serve soup in a bowl then add a dollop of sour cream and as many or as little pickles as you’d like. Then Enjoy!   I hope you like it!