Today I’m very excited to share my vegetarian version of the soup, full of what I hope are the best matzoh balls you’ve ever eaten. This soup can be made during Passover, which begins April 22, or any time you want a pot of soulful soup.
Get the recipe: Matzoh Ball Soup with Vegetables, Chickpeas and Herbs
I can’t make matzoh ball soup without thinking of my Aunt Renee, one of my mother’s sisters, who taught me everything I know about how to fill a table with food. How feel abundance. My mother’s parents fled Eastern Europe during the pogroms, and my mother and her sisters all found different ways to channel this eternal anxiety. For Aunt Renee, it meant cooking more food than she needed at any given time. No matter what, if you were near her, you wouldn’t be hungry.
Aunt Renee made the best chicken soup, and she made it so often that her apartment always smelled like it. I’m sure there was chicken grease in his curtains. She died when I was in college. I wrote an obituary for her in the New York Times that said, “I’ll take care of the soup.” »
I have a feeling she would still enjoy this chicken-free version. Especially because my matzoh ball recipe is based on hers. But there’s one small change: Instead of just tossing the matzoh meal with eggs, a little seltzer, and oil, I take it a step further. First, I toast the matzoh meal in oil. These toasted crumbs take on a rich, nutty flavor, just like the difference between a piece of plain white bread and a piece of buttered toast. Then I mix everything. I season the mixture with salt and a little chopped parsley, more for color than anything else.
A few things to keep in mind if you’ve never made matzoh balls:
- The mixture should sit in the refrigerator for at least 45 minutes before forming and baking. (The mixture can be refrigerated in a container for up to a few days.) Chilling is essential because it allows the matzoh meal to absorb the liquid from the eggs and seltzer and become firm and easy to roll. If you try to form matzoh balls immediately after mixing, it won’t work. So don’t do that! Wait. It’s worth it.
- Before rolling the matzoh balls, wet your hands with cold water. Then the mixture will not stick to your hands.
- Cook the matzoh balls in a separate pot of water – not directly in the soup. This ensures that they don’t cloud the broth, which should be, as Aunt Renee always told me, “as clear as crystal.”
My final note about this recipe is that the last step is crucial. Adding not only fresh herbs (parsley and dill) to the soup, but also raw, minced garlic, makes the difference between a good vegetable soup and an extraordinary vegetable soup. For what it’s worth, this is something I also make with chicken soup. That touch of garlic right at the end has a huge impact.
Get the recipe: Matzoh Ball Soup with Vegetables, Chickpeas and Herbs
