Mexican turkey meatball soup

I often make a large batch of soup on the weekends, so that I have a tasty healthy lunch every day at work.  This was a soup that I made last week and enjoyed for 4 lunches.  Luckily I am quite happy to eat the same thing several days in a row, but it would freeze well if you had problems with that. Though warming and comforting as all soups are, it has the tastes of Mexico so invokes a little taste of summer at the end of winter.

Turkey meatballs

• 
  
• 1lb ground turkey
• 1 jalapeno pepper finely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon of ground coriander
• salt and pepper

Mix all the ingredients together

Form in to small meatballs, about the size of a large marble, and place on a lined cookie sheet.

Cook in a preheated 350 oven for about 15 to 20 minutes until cooked and turning golden.

Soup

• 1 large onion chopped
• 1 garlic clove sliced 
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• 2 carrots sliced
• 4 stalks of celery sliced
• 1 tablespoon of ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon of chili powder (I used chipotle for the smokey flavour)
• 6 cups of chicken stock
• The stalks from one bunch of cilantro
• Juice of 2 limes
• Avocado chopped (for serving optional)

Sweat the onion, carrots, celery and garlic in the olive oil until starting to soften, then add the cumin and chili powder.

Mix together and let the spices cook for about one minute before adding the stock, lime juice and cilantro stalks. The stalks actually have more flavour than the leaves and this is a great way to use them up.

Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes adding the turkey balls when they come out of the oven, and taste for salt and pepper.

When the vegetables are soft but not mushy it is ready to eat or portion out for lunches.  I had the first bowl for lunch on Sunday, so I added some chopped avocado and cilantro leaves.

I really loved this soup, there was slight hit of heat and lime juice really brightened up the chicken stock.