Meatball Soup (I'm not a big soup fan, but this IS good!)

As you have read in the title, I am not the biggest soup fan. After eating soup, I usually am looking around for my actual meal! Let me tell ya, I was stuffed after this soup and a side salad.  I saw a lot of people talking about italian wedding soup so I wanted to see if I could come up with a primal version. There is cheese in this recipe, I assume you could leave it out. There is only a couple of Tablespoons of raw grass fed parm in the meatball. Also I would assume you could use any meat you want, but I did not test that. I have been hearing chefs talk a lot lately about mixing meats for meatballs....ya know beef, pork, and veal for the best meatball??? So I decided to mix the meat in this recipe as well. The end result turned out really good. I invited company over to try it along with me. I NEVER do that, but I thought with all these ingredients together, it HAD to me good. My company (my MIL) is not a kale fan (GASP, I know!!) but she really loved this soup. We also chatted about how good it feels to eat and eat good without any guilt. Try this recipe, I am sure you will like it.


For the meatballs
a little over 1/2 pound ground chicken (I asked my butcher to grind up some chicken thighs for me, It was a little over 1/2 pound that he gave me but I'm sorry I didn't look at the exact weight. I just threw it in)
1/2 pound of chicken sausage ( I show you what I used below)
1 T of minced garlic
2 T of raw, grass fed parmesan
1 egg
1/4 cup of minced parsley
1/3 cup of steamed, riced or pureed cauliflower
1 teaspoon of pepper

This is the chicken sausage I used for the meat mixture. You could use any chicken sausage as long as the ingredients are clean. These ingredients are organic chicken and spices. Period. Works for me. 

SO the first thing I did was to take out a couple of these links and process them just like this...

Then, I just dumped this mixture in a bowl and added all of the other meatball ingredients.

After mixing this all together, I formed tiny meatballs and placed them on a parchment lined baking sheet. I used about a teaspoon size scooper. We want some small meatballs for this recipe.

The mixture is pretty wet so after making the meatballs, I covered with plastic wrap and stuck them in the fridge for about a half an hour. Then bake them at 350 for 30 minutes. 

Next for the soup

1/2 large onion, small dice

4 small or 2 large carrots, small dice

1 celery stalk, small dice

2 Tablespoons of your favorite fat, I used 1 T of olive oil and 1 T of grass fed butter

8 cups of homemade chicken stock or low sodium high quality box stock 

4 cups of shredded kale, sliced in thin ribbons

2 Tablespoons of minced fresh dill

It will need salt and pepper for sure, so add to taste

SO in a heavy pot add your fat over medium heat and then add your onion, carrot, and celery. 

Let that cook for a while until your veggies are nice and soft. About 5-7 minutes. 

Then add your stock.

Turn up the heat and let the soup come up to a boil. 

Once boiling add your kale. 

Turn heat back down to medium and let the kale wilt down. About 5 minutes.

Then add in your cooked meatballs and let them re-heat if need be. Don't be to aggressive stirring the soup at this time. We want to keep the meatballs in tact. Let this cook for about another 5 minutes. Don't you want to just start eating this right now? But wait....hold out for more flavor, we aren't done yet!

Remove the soup from the heat and stir in the dill and taste for seasonings. I'm telling you, it will mos def need some salt. Add it. 

Stir in the dill gently and let is sit for about 5 minutes, just for that dill flavor to get all up in there!! YUM.

There ya have it, it's ready to go. Enjoy!

Crab Cakes and Yummy Chipotle Sauce!!!!

I adore crab cakes. It used to be what I always ordered when we went out to a seafood restaurant. But now I don't really like going out to eat and if I did I couldn't order the crab cakes any longer. :( Time to make my own and here's how I did it.

Crab cakes
12 oz of wild caught crab meat
1/4 cup PLUS 2 T of tapioca flour
2 T of coconut flour
1-2 eggs (will need to see how dry your mix is to determine how many eggs you need)
1 tsp of old bay seasoning
1 tsp of paprika
1 tsp of baking powder
4 scallions (sliced thinly whites and greens)
2 T of coconut oil

-In a mixing bowl combine crab meat, flours, 1 egg, seasonings and scallions
-IF your mixture is too dry and won't hold shape at all then add your other egg.
-Heat up the oil in a skillet over medium heat
-Make cakes out of your mixture. I used a 1/4 measuring cup and pressed the mixture down into that and flipped it out into my hand. It made about 8 cakes.
-Once your oil is hot and shimmering, add the cakes to the pan
-Cook for about 2-3 minutes per side until they are nice and golden brown


Chipotle Sauce
3/4 cup of home made mayo
1-2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (depending on how much heat you want. I used one for mine)
1 scallion
1 tsp of dijon mustard

-In a blender combine the above ingredients and serve along side or on top of crab cakes

I served myself these golden brown nuggets on top of some broccoli slaw and commenced to devour! I hope you enjoy these. Please share with others! :)