Chef Monsta: I cook, therefore I blog

I know. I know. Today was 90 degrees F. It’s August. But I couldn’t help it…I was craving hot soup! Actually, I was craving Kubbeh Soup. I posted a recipe for this soup from Joan Nathan’s The Foods of Israel today in March but here is a much quicker, revised version that just came to me. Same idea, just a bit different, and a LOT spicier!!

Kubbeh dough ingredients:
1 cup matzo meal
1.5 cups semolina
1 tsp salt
1.5 cup water

Mix the dry ingredients together and add water.

Let dough sit for 15 minutes.

Kubbeh filling (meat):
½ medium white onion, chopped fine
1 tbsp olive oil
½ lb chopped beef
2 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp tumeric
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp pepper

Now we make the filling for the dumplings. Sauté the onions in the oil until translucent.

Season the beef

Add the beef to onions. Sauté about 5 minutes, breaking up the meat until it is cooked through. Drain off any excess fat.

With wet hands, take a small handful of the dough and make a ball (like a matzo ball). Press your thumb and tunnel out the center of the ball. Dip your hands in cold water and insert a tsp of the meat mixture into the hole. Try and roll dough around the meat to form a ball, or cover meat with more dough.

Now for the soup:

1 head of garlic
3 small zucchini, peeled and sliced
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 sweet potato, peeled and sliced
3 cups of vegetable stock (beef or chicken work as well)
3 cups of water
1 can of tomato paste
1 head of swiss chard, chopped
lots of salt and pepper
3 tbsp of spicy cayenne pepper
kubbeh dumplings

Heat up garlic in large soup pot with some olive oil. Peel vegetables and slice.

Throw in sliced veggies and let sweat for about 10 minutes over medium flame, till tender.

Add vegetable stock, water, and tomato paste (which gives it the rich color).

I usually make the kubbeh at this point. By the time I finish the dumplings, the veggies are very soft in the soup, and I add the swiss chard.

Add lots of cayenne, salt, and pepper. Throw dumplings in soup. Cook for another half hour on low to medium flame.

Enjoy!!