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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.
if you are using the slow cooker instructions, do you need to still need to brow the meatballs?
I would still follow the same instructions 🙂 Enjoy!!
Delicious! Almost like my grandmother’s soup. She used to add minced mint to the meatballs.
Made your ALBONDIGAS soup…..amazing, the broth was outstanding.
Yay!! I am so glad you liked it! Thank you!
I’ve made this recipe over 5 times and I am making it again tonight. Soooo good! I always double the recipe since we love it so much. I omit the cilantro just because i am not a fan (tastes soapy to me) but no one ever complains 🙂 Let’s hope i can impress my husband’s grandparents who are coming over for dinner tonight. THank you for the great recipe!
You are so welcome!! I hope they like it. Thank you so much!
THIS CAME OUT AMAZING! IVE MADE IT SO MANY TIMES ALWAYS FOLLOWING THIS RECIPE!
Awe, I am so glad!! Thank you so much!
Hi ,I sent you a question earlier i have another question, would zucchini work in this too? we love onion and zucchini in this type of soup!
Any kind of potato would work..I think I used a russet potato & yes, zucchini would be great! Hope you like it!
Hi , what type of potatoe would i use for this recipe?
I tried it and loved it!
Thank you for trying it! Glad you liked it!
Out of curiosity. Did you buy instant rice or did you cook your own rice before hand?
I did, but any type of rice would work 🙂
Just wanted to say that I tried the albondigas RESEIPE.so,so good! Really enjoyed the flavor and I can’t remember the last time I had some.what I liked about the recipe was I already had most of the ingredients. Very GOOD. I think I will make it again around Thanksgiving right now after all it is soup season.
Thank you for letting me know that! I am so glad you like it! Yay for soup season!