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Albondigas Soup is made with beef and rice meatballs, carrots, potatoes, and zucchini in a rich tomato broth. Packed with flavor, this simple Mexican Meatball Soup recipe will quickly become a family favorite.
Some of our other favorite Mexican soups include Caldo de Pollo (Mexican Chicken Soup), Instant Pot Chicken Tortilla Soup, and Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Soup.
Table of Contents
Albondigas Soup Recipe Highlights
Albondigas Soup is a flavorful Mexican meatball soup, that is both satisfying and comforting. It’s full of thick, juicy meatballs, potatoes, vegetables, and Mexican spices in a rich tomato broth.
My Albondigas Soup recipe is similar to an Italian Wedding Soup, where the meatballs and broth are cooked together to make the meat super tender and for the best flavor. The potatoes are starchy and thicken the soup just slightly, while the veggies add bulk.
You can serve it as an appetizer course before another traditional Mexican dish like Chicken with Mole Sauce or Green Chicken Tamales. Or serve it as the main dish with Mexican Rice and Homemade Flour Tortillas on the side.
Ingredients
- Lean ground beef – You don’t want a lot of grease seeping into your soup, so stick with the leaner 90% ground beef.
- Egg – to moisten and help hold the meatballs together.
- White onion – Finely chopped. You can substitute yellow or red onion.
- Long grain white rice – This acts as the binder (similar to breadcrumbs in Italian meatballs), and it cooks within the meatball.
- Garlic cloves – 2 or 3, finely minced.
- Salt – Needed for flavor. Ground beef needs to be properly seasoned.
- Spices and herbs – ground cumin, garlic powder, black pepper, dried oregano.
- Low-sodium chicken broth – I always choose low sodium so I can have better control of the salt content.
- Vegetables – Crushed tomatoes, carrots, russet potatoes, zucchini.
- Optional – freshly chopped cilantro and lime wedges.
How To Make Albondigas Soup
There are two parts to this recipe – the meatballs and the broth.
Mexican Meatballs
- The meatballs are formed from ground beef, raw rice, egg, onion, garlic, and spices, then simmered in the soup broth over medium heat for about 30 minutes. Feel free to add fresh herbs if you have them on hand.
- The rice is added raw and will cook with the meatballs as they are simmered.
- You can make the meatballs large or small, but they are traditionally fairly large. Aim to make similarly sized meatballs for even cooking.
Broth: The broth is made with chicken broth or beef broth, crushed tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, and zucchini. You can add minced cilantro to the soup if you like, and lime to brighten the flavor.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you are worried about your meatballs falling apart, using cooked rice will help. As the raw rice cooks, it expands, which can cause the meatballs to break apart. It doesn’t happen to me all the time, but it has happened. Instead of ¼ cup of raw rice, use ½ cup of cooked rice.
This soup has tender meatballs made with ground beef, rice, onions, garlic, an egg, cumin, and oregano. The broth is simple and made with chicken broth, crushed tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, and zucchini. Sometimes carrots or celery are added, and occasionally you’ll find some jalapeno added for heat. Cilantro or lime juice are usually added at the end.
You can! Just add all of the ingredients to your crockpot and cook on low for 4 hours. Taste and add salt and pepper at the end. Important note – Make sure the meatballs are fully cooked by testing with a meat thermometer. For more information on meat safety, read my Meat Temperature Chart.
Serving Suggestions
This hearty soup can be served in smaller portions as a starter or appetizer. Or, you can serve it as a complete meat with flour or corn tortillas on the side.
This soup is actually quite beautiful on its own, with the rich broth and colorful veggies. To dress up the soup before serving, sprinkle on some chopped cilantro or parsley.
Variations
Using a different meat. You can use basically any ground meat – ground turkey, ground pork veal, chicken etc.
Make it spicy. Add a slice jalapeno to the broth or some red chile flakes or a pinch of cayenne pepper.
Store bought meatballs? I don’t recommend store bought meatballs. This recipe is all about fresh, homemade meatballs and you just won’t get the same flavor with store bought frozen meatballs. It will just be plain meatball soup, which is fine, but it won’t have the traditional Mexican flavors and spices.
Make Ahead, Storage and Freezing
Make Ahead: You can make this soup a couple of days in advance, and store it, tightly covered (or even in the soup pot), in the refrigerator. To serve, bring to a simmer on the stovetop until everything is warmed through.
Storage: Cool soup completely, then store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheating on the stovetop is recommended, but you can also use the microwave.
Freezing: Cool completely, then store in airtight, freezer-safe containers or freezer bags for up to 6 months. Thaw in the refrigerator, then reheat on the stovetop (recommended) or in the microwave.
Expert Tips
- Combine the meat mixture with your hands, to avoid overmixing.
- Squeeze some fresh lime into your bowl for a burst of freshness.
- Feel free to adapt this recipe, using fresh herbs, different veggies like green beans or use tomato sauce instead of the crushed tomatoes.
- To add heat, toss in some sliced jalapenos.
More Mexican Inspired Recipes
- Mexican Sopes Recipe
- Pozole Rojo with Chicken
- Carne Asada Fries
- How to Make Homemade Taquitos
- Best Guacamole Recipe
Albondigas Soup
Ingredients
Albondigas (Meatballs)
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 large egg
- ½ cup white onion finely diced
- ¼ cup long grain white rice uncooked
- 3 garlic cloves finely minced
- 2 teaspoons salt plus more to taste
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
Soup
- 48 ounces low-sodium chicken broth
- 15 ounce can crushed tomatoes undrained
- 3 large carrots peeled and chopped into 1-inch pieces
- 3-4 large russet potatoes about 1 pound, peeled and chopped into 1-inch pieces
- 2 zucchini squash about 12 ounces once chopped, cut into 1-inch pieces
- Optional: freshly chopped cilantro and lime wedges
Instructions
- Add the ground beef, egg, onion, rice, garlic, salt, cumin, garlic powder, pepper, and oregano to a large bowl and stir by hand or with a spoon just until combined.
- Form 2-inch balls from the mixture and set the balls on a plate for later.
- Add the chicken broth and crushed tomatoes to a large soup pot or Dutch oven and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat.
- Gently add the meatballs to the broth and let them cook for 10 minutes then add the carrots, potatoes and zucchini to the pot and let them boil for another 5 minutes then reduce the heat to medium-low.
- Add 2-3 more cups of water if needed and let it simmer for 10-15 more minutes, or until the vegetables are fork tender.
- Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool for 5 minutes before serving with freshly chopped cilantro and lime wedges.
Great recipe! Made this last night and followed the recipe somewhat closely, but took the liberty to add a can and a half of El Pato sauce in place of the tomatoes and I added some chopped mint to the meatballs. So good! Thank you!
You are so welcome Monica! Thanks for stopping by.
This recipe is delicious. I have made it three times this past week to share with family.
Thank you Jan!
I usually take some liberty with online recipes. But this one I followed closely. It turned out great!
The only thing I would do different next time is to dice the onion more finely than I did. And, I might try to mix a little chorizo in with the ground beef.
I can’t wait to order this at my favorite Mexican restaurant to see how it compares!
Love the feedback Ken! Thanks for stopping by.
Absolutely delicious! Added a little extra Seasoning, reduced the salt & didn’t add water but more chicken broth.
Thanks for stopping by to share your feedback Amanda.
Closest recipie I have found to my family’s Mexican Albondigas, just missing finely chopped mint in the meatballs.
I have made this recipe 3 times as of now 1st time was in Nov,2022, 1st reason I made the soup is because my daughter came down with the covid while I visited her in Tx. and of course, that’s what we do as mothers if someone near and dear to us becomes ill we cook and serve them our homemade medicine (aka FOOD) the 2nd reason I made this soup is because I absolutely LOVE ALBONDIGAS SOUP!
I compared recipes on several sites and my 1st criteria was the meatball had to start out with raw white rice and seasonings like this recipe. I like to make a new recipe as it is written so you have a good idea if the recipe is what you’re looking for and from that point if I decide that its a good recipe, I will then tailor the recipe, if need be, which is what I did. We love lots of veggies in our soups if it’s called for, so I tripled the amount. I have to tell you if you are looking for delicious authentic Mexican meatball soup Aka Albondigas you just found it, I made my meat balls with
2meats ground beef and ground turkey both lean very little fat on top after your soup cools.
the 3rd pot I made was for a friend on restricted diet, so I made the meatballs out of ground turkey and chicken both very lean but everything else was the same as the recipe was written +extra veggies. I made them simultaneously which was 2nd & 3rd time I made the delicious Soup
and I will most definitely put this in as my go too recipe. and will look for more of her recipes to add to my list of dishes that my loved one’s request and believe me that’s saying a lot, seeing how we have quite a number of excellent cooks in the family. thank you for this awesome recipe I hope others will enjoy making and serving up this Albondigas soup that’s not only delicious but also easy to make even the meatballs which can make or break a recipe if they aren’t made correctly which these were fool proof if you follow directions.
Jacqui
What a great review! Thank you!
I love just about any kind of soup. But lately, I have been bored with making the same soups year after year, so I was interested in trying this one. I’ve never even heard of a Mexican Meatball soup even though I love every kind of Mexican food. Well, the soup was delicious! It has a very unique flavor especially after adding the lime juice along with the chopped cilantro. I like that it has meatballs and chunky pieces of vegetables in an awesome (chicken) broth. It almost felt like a stew, it was that hardy. It’s an easy soup to throw together quickly. I’ve shared this recipe with my family and friends. I hope that they are adventuresome and try this because it’s definitely delicious. Thanks for sharing!
You are so welcome Peggy! Fantastic feedback, thank you so much for taking the time to share.
Made as directed except I used Pomi Tomato Sauce. SOOOO yummy! Thank you!
You are so welcome Emjay! Thanks for stopping by.
I loved this recipe. It was my first time making this and my family loved it. Super delicious thank you!
You are so welcome Kween! Thanks for stopping by.
This, nearly, took my back to my childhood. My family is from Sonora Mexico, and I’ve been struggling to find an albondiga recipe that is similar to what I’m accustomed to. I tweeked to the recipe- no zucchini( didn’t have any), fresh mint in the meatballs, and I served it with lemon wedges and chiltepÃn. Other than that, I can say it’s spot on, filling, and nutritious!
Nice! Thank you for the awesome comment Chris.
Is the salt measurement for the meatball (2 – teasponns) correct ? That seems like a lot of salt for 1 lb.of ground beef. I have always used 1 teaspoon salt for every lb. of meat . I want to make this tomorrow for my famliy. It looks delicious but I don’t want to ruinit with too much salt !😋
It is because the rice is also part of the meatball mixture. But certainly, you could use less and salt to taste when it’s done.
Making this for the first time tonight for dinner. I haven’t finished it yet because I am waiting closer to when hubby comes home. I did make the meatballs and cooked it in the broth and crushed tomatoes. I used Better then Bouillon for the 48 oz of chicken broth. I noticed it said you might need 2-3 more cups of water or broth, since I like a lot of liquid I did just that. I made 3 cups of broth using 1 tsp each of Better then Bouillon Roasted beef and Roasted garlic. I added it to the pot and gave it a taste. Oh my goodness! 🤩 This recipe is just like what my local restaurant makes. I am definitely keeping this recipe! 😊 Thank you for sharing your recipe!
You are so welcome Chrissy! Love the feedback, thanks for taking the time to share.
I’m in the process of making the albondigas soup. But I had a question, I’ve noticed this in other recipes as well. Why is chicken broth used for a recipe that is beef, or turkey, etc?
That’s a great question! You can use beef broth for this recipe if you like. I just happen to prefer chicken broth for the lighter flavor so it’s what I use. And it’s more likely what I have on hand.
Will brown rice work just fine in the meatballs as well?
I’m not sure about brown rice since it has a different texture and cooking time. If it was already cooked before mixing (as shared in the notes) I think you’d be fine.
I made with brown instant rice and the meatballs were great ! My family loves this recipe and I make a pot of soup every week- it’s our lunch. Tjank you!!
Awesome, thanks for the great tip!
I have a dumb question, is the rice uncooked when adding to the meatball mix?
You can do it either with uncooked or cooked rice. There are notes to help you either way.
When you put the rice in the meat, is it raw or pre-cooked?
The recipe calls for putting uncooked rice. However, you can use cooked rice, just double the amount (1/4 cup uncooked rice, or 1/2 cup cooked rice).
DON’T FORGET THE CHIPOTLE CHILIS.
A LITTLE GOES A LONG WAY.
3T is the max for warm Smokey heat.
I food processed a bit into the meatballs…and blended the other 1.5 T in the tomato’s for the soup base.
I think corn is a must also for Albondigas.
Thank you for this wonderful recipe.
You are so welcome Holly! Love the feedback, thanks for stopping by to share.
Can you add rice to the soup, if so when?
If you want to add rice to the soup, cook it separately and add a couple of spoonfuls to the bowls of soup.
Best albondigas soup I’ve tasted with the exception of my mom’s
Nice! Thanks for stopping by Maria.
What do you think about baking the meatballs instead of cooking them in the soup? I don’t want the soup to be greasy, but I also like a flavorful soup. I defer to your expertise. Thanks in advance for your help.
I recommend cooking them in the soup – I actually just made this again yesterday and it was delicious! Not greasy at all.
Does this recipe work well using ground Turkey?
Sure, you can swap in ground turkey. The flavor won’t be as rich but it will still be yummy.