Yogurt and meatballs soup

This is my take on a Turkish classic recipe I’ve brought back from my holidays there last summer. Chorba is the common name for soup in Turkish, and there are as many recipes as days in the year!

One that I discovered is rice and yogurt soup to which I added some meatballs for the protein input.

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Yogurt and meatballs soup

Meatballs:

250g minced lamb

½ thinly chopped onion

2 cloves garlic

1 tbsp. finely cut fresh mint

½ tbsp. dried mint

1 tbsp. chopped parsley

½ tbsp lemon juice

½ tsp smoked paprika (but normal paprika will do)

Soup:

500g Greek yogurt

300ml water

60g rice

1 egg yolk

2 tbsp flour

½ tsp salt

Preparation of the meatballs:

Mix together all the ingredients and add salt and pepper. Shape the meat into small balls with your hands. Heat a bit of olive oil in a pan and place the meatballs, turning them over regularly so they’re evenly cooked.

Remove the meatballs from the pan but keep the cooking oil that you will spice up with the paprika and 1 teaspoon of dried mint. this will be kept for seasoning at the end.

Preparation of the soup:

Boil the rice in salted water. Set aside when cooked.

In a bowl, mix together the flour and the egg yolk. Pour in a saucepan and add the water. When combined, add the rice. Place on medium heat for 10 to 1 minutes and continue to stir throughout. Top up with some water if you need.

Divide the preparation in 4 bowls, add the meatballs and finish with a dash of the mint olive oil you saved from earlier.