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Albondigas is a delicious Mexican soup filled with meatballs, vegetables, and spices! It’s easy, flavorful, and sure to be a favorite.
Enjoy it with Warm Flour Tortillas or Tacos, but be prepared to fall in love with this simple Albondigas soup recipe. It’s a soup recipe handed down for decades and is so delicious.
Great-Grandma’s Mexican soup
This Albondigas recipe was recreated based on the soup my Great-Grandma would make, and we finally nailed it! We love it because:
- Yummy + Hearty. Just like grandma made it but it’s so delicious and so hearty with all of the meatball and soup ingredients.
- Easy to Customize. This recipe is easy to change up based on the ingredients you love most, especially the spices and vegetables.
- Perfect with so many dishes. We love to have this soup with so many recipes, including our: Chicken Tacos, Flour Tortillas, Chips + Salsa
What is Albondigas?
Albondigas soup is also known as Caldo de Albóndigas but its origin goes back to Spain and has some Arabic influences. The Spanish word albondiga translates to meatball, which is the star of this soup.
This traditional Mexican meatball soup has a flavorful broth base and is filled with tomatoes, veggies, and homemade meatballs and sometimes rice.
Albondigas Ingredients
- Ground beef – For the most tender and flavorful meatballs, stick with fattier meats. The most popular meat choice is ground beef (80/20 or 70/30). Meatballs made using lean ground beef tend to fall apart easier.
- You can substitute half of the ground beef with pork sausage. You can also use ground pork, ground chicken, or ground turkey.
- Egg
- Minced Garlic
- Spices – Cilantro, ground cumin, salt, black pepper – Fresh herbs can be substituted for dry herbs and vice versa; 1 tablespoon of fresh herbs equals 1 teaspoon of dry herbs.
- Rice – It’s added to the meatballs and acts as a binder to help them hold together.
- Olive oil
Soup Ingredients
- Chicken Broth – Use stock in place of broth. You can also use beef broth in place of the chicken broth.
- Veggies: carrot, celery, diced tomatoes, potato
- Spices: ground cumin, oregano, cilantro, salt and pepper
How to Make Albondigas
I always start by making the meatballs. You could use frozen or pre-made meatballs, but these are really simple to make and taste so good!
- MEATBALLS. Combine all ingredients together thoroughly. Form 20-24 tight meatballs by rolling between your palms (we made ours about 1½ inches wide). Brown on all sides in a hot pan with olive oil for a few minutes. Set aside.
- Over-mixing the meat mixture and over-cooking the meatballs can cause them to fall apart. Browning also helps keep the meatballs from falling apart.
- VEGGIES. In a large pot, combine chicken broth, carrots, celery, tomatoes, cumin, oregano, and cilantro leaves.
- HEAT. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat to a mild simmer for 10 minutes.
- Drop meatballs and potatoes in the soup and slightly boil so that the meatballs cook quickly. Return to simmer and cook another 20 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy warm topped with some fresh parsley (if desired).
Make in a crock pot
COOK. Add all of your ingredients (except for your cilantro) to your slow cooker. Cook on LOW for 4 hours.
GARNISH + SERVE. Add cilantro at the very end and salt and pepper if needed.
Recipe Tips
Since they are the star of this albondigas soup recipe, it’s important to get the meatballs just right. Here are some helpful tips:
- Meat. Use a cookie scoop to make all the ground beef meatballs the same size.
- Garlic. Use 4-6 fresh garlic cloves to make 2 teaspoons of minced garlic.
- Add extra flavor with chopped onions and diced zucchini. Top the soup with a dollop of sour cream and sliced avocados.
- Traditional albondigas soup has fresh mint, feel free to add it if you wish.
- Garnish bowls with lime wedges which you can squeeze to add lime juice to each bowl.
- Add heat to the soup using hot sauce, chili powder, sliced jalapeños, or red chili flakes.
- Thicken with tomato sauce or tomato paste, or by adding white rice.
- Use stock in place of broth. You can also use beef broth in place of the chicken broth.
Storing + Serving Soup
- STORE. Let cool, and store Caldo de Albondigas in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
- FREEZE in containers or double bagged in freezer bags.
- To reheat, let thaw in the fridge overnight and return to the stove. Cook until heated through. You can microwave it as well.
For more Mexican Soups:
Albondigas Recipe
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 egg beaten
- 2 teaspoon minced garlic
- ½ cup fresh cilantro chopped
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ½ cup cooked rice optional
- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
Soup
- 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
- ½ carrot sliced
- 1 celery stalk cut into chunks
- 1 (16-ounce) can diced tomatoes undrained
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- ½ cup fresh cilantro
- 1 potato diced
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Meatballs: Combine all ingredients together thoroughly. Form 20-24 tight meatballs by rolling between your palms (we made ours about 1½ inches wide). Brown on all sides in a hot pan with olive oil for a few minutes. Set aside.
- In a large pot, combine chicken broth, carrots, celery, tomatoes, cumin, oregano, and cilantro leaves.
- Bring to a boil, and reduce heat to a mild simmer for 10 minutes.
- Drop meatballs and potatoes in the soup and slightly boil so that the meatballs cook quickly. Return to simmer and cook another 20 minutes. Salt and Pepper to taste. Enjoy warm.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I just made this soup and oh my goodness. Thank you thank you .
You are so welcome!! Thank you for trying it 🙂
This looks so good anD i wAnt to mAke it this weekend. AppRoximately how many servings are in the recipe?
6 servings about a cup to cup & a half big.
I am excited to try this as I have only had it only (several times) at one restaurant way across the country and I’m addicted to it. I do find it odd that onion is excluded from the recipe. I also want to add that when I had this at El Tepeyac in LA, it was served with Mexican rice, so consider that option.
Thank you for sharing that! Yes, rice would be a great option & onion ( I just don’t like onions). Enjoy!!
Wonderful soup everyone loved it!
Yay!! So happy they did! Thank you for letting me know & giving it a try!
Hi i would like to use frozen fully cooked meatballs, what size of bag would i need and how many hours in the crockpot on low
Thanks
Yes, you could. My recipe made about 24 meatballs, so that’s about half a bag. The count is usually on the bag. It would be low for about 4 hrs.
Love love love! Super easy to follow and make this coming from a person that always buRns food and doesnt cook much so you know its super easy to do. I used my crockpot and didnt use rice as i had none. Super DELICIOUS Just like my mom Use to make it!
Glad you like it 🙂 Thank you for sharing that! I am glad you tried it!
This recipe was easy to follow and I doubled ingredients for leftovers.
Absolutely delicious, added lemon to soup after serving in bowl.
Yay!! Glad to hear! Thank you so much 🙂
This was the first time that I have made this recipe! SO GOOD!
Never had Albondigas soup before this- it’s so good! THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR RECIPE.
Sounds wonderful! I don’t like the taste of cilantro…can I leave it out and not ruin the taste of soup?
You sure could 🙂 I hope you try it!! It is so tasty!