FROM OUR KITCHEN
Beef meatball and soba noodle soup

Prep time10 min
Cook time20 min
Total time30 min
Servings4
01
Ingredients
- 500 g lean beef mince
- 1 litre beef stock
- 1 litre water
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 stalk of lemongrass, bruised with back of knife
- 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, sliced
- 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled
- 4 spring onions, white parts roughly chopped, green parts sliced and set aside
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled
- 3.4 cup fresh breadcrumbs
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 packet (270g) soba noodles
- 200 g sugar snap peas or snow peas, trimmed & halved
02
Step-by-step method
- 01In a medium saucepan combine stock, water, sugar, lemongrass & sliced ginger. Place on medium heat and simmer.
- 02Meanwhile combine the white parts of the spring onions, remaining ginger, and garlic in a food processor. Pulse till finely chopped. Add breadcrumbs, fish sauce and beef. Pulse until the mixture comes together (don’t over mix!).
- 03Form heaped-tablespoons of the mixture into meatballs by firmly rolling them between your palms. This mixture is very easy to roll and should yield about 20 or so meatballs.
- 04Add oil into a large pot over high heat, add meatballs and leave to brown on one side for 3 minutes. Carefully flip meatballs over and brown for another 2-3 minutes.
- 05Add simmering stock to the pot with the meatballs through a sieve (to catch the ginger and lemongrass, which you can discard). Turn the heat down and let the meatballs simmer gently for 5 minutes.
- 06Add the soba noodles and cook for 3 minutes. Add sugar snap/snow peas, cook for another minute.
- 07Serve soup in large bowls, with generous squeeze of lemon juice and some sesame seeds sprinkled on top.
03
Chef's tips
- To bruise the lemongrass, simply bash it with the back of a heavy knife on your cutting board all along the stalk. If you cannot find lemongrass, you may replace it with a few strips of lime peel instead.