Recipe – Calabrian Holiday Soup

A typical Calabrian holiday soup is a classic dish that will warm your heart and provide a satisfying meal. It is a simple and tasty dish, made with fresh ingredients that are rich in vitamins and minerals. Calabrian chilies add a unique flavor to this traditional soup.

Traditionally, this dish is served on Christmas Eve, but it can be prepared any time of year.  A Calabrian holiday soup is traditionally served on special occasions. Calabrian holiday soup is rich and contains meat, vegetables, and pasta or rice.

Ingredients

Soup

• 4 pounds of whole chicken
• 2 carrots
• 1 medium onion
• 2 celery stalks
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 cup medium grain rice
• 10 oz frozen chopped spinach
• 1 egg
• ¼ tsp ground pepper

Meatballs

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried basil
• 1 egg yolk
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp ground pepper

Preparation Directions

• Portion the chicken and boil for 2 hours in a pot of water together with carrots, onion, celery stalks, and salt
• When the foam forms on top of the soup, it must be collected with a spoon
• After the meat and vegetables are cooked, take them out of the pot and strain the soup
• After the chicken has cooled, remove the meat from the bone
• In another pot of water, boil the rice with 1 tsp of salt for 5 minutes
• To form the meatballs, mix all the ingredients until the composition is well homogenized and form balls of approximately 1 inch
• Boil these meatballs for 10 minutes in the strained soup
• Remove the meatballs and add the spinach and rice. Boil for 5 minutes
• Put the meatballs in the pot again, beat 1 egg in a bowl, and pour it into the pot, stirring until all the egg is spread
• Serve the soup together with the boiled chicken

Servings

• Makes 10 servings

Enjoy!