This is another Wedding Soup from the Southern Turkish city of Alanya. As expected from a wedding soup it is rich with meatballs and chopped chicken pieces. It is like a whole meal. It is typically served during wedding celebrations and also at Ramadan dinners and special occasions.
The ingredients can be generally easily accessable, such as ground beef, chopped chicken, tomatoes, etc. If you are in Turkey, you can ask the butcher to chop the chicken even when shopping in a large supermarket.
Making these tiny meatballs does not take too much time either. You can even do two or three at a time. Place little amount of meat chunks in your palm. Make sure they are not touching each other. Then close your other palm on top and gently sway. There; you have 2-3 (depending on how many chunks you have placed in your palm) tiny meatballs. First time I tried, I kept on doing one at a time, but it really works with more then one, try. Try also to make the meatballs about the size of chick peas.
You should boil the chickpeas separately, as it takes more time to cook chickpeas. It is up to you soak it in water the night before, this definitely reduces the time.
Some recipes demand that you should boil the chicken separately too. I find this as an additional effort and makes you wash more pots than necessary. So you can just go ahead and boil the chicken together with the rice and the tomato.
I hope you will try and enjoy this delicious soup, perhaps it will bring up memories of a happy wedding.
Wedding Soup
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 100 grams ground beef
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch black pepper
- ½ tablespoon red pepper flakes
- 3 tablespoons olive oil to fry
Chickpeas
- 60 gram chickpeas
- water to cover
Soup
- 300 grams chicken thighs chopped (without bones, 2 pieces)
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 tomato grated
- 100 grams rice washed, drained
- 750 mililitres boiling water
Garnish (optional)
- several drops lemon’s juice
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes
- 1 pinch ground black pepper
- 1 pinch dry mint flakes
- 1 tablespoon butter
Instructions
Soup
- Start boiling the chickpeas. When they are soft enough to be eaten, drain and set aside. Soaking the night before will shorten the time.
- In a small bowl, add salt, ground black pepper and red pepper flakes and the meat. Knead with your hands, until all are well combined. Then make tiny meatballs and set aside. You can make 3 meatballs at a time.
- Meanwhile cut a tomato into half and grate, do not include the peel.
- Use a large deep pot. Add 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Heat slightly and add the meatballs. Fry gently on all sides.
- Then add the grated tomato and saute for 2-3 minutes.
- Wash the rice under flowing water, drain and add to the pot.
- Then add the chopped chicken and the boiling water.
- Also add the already boiled chickpeas.
- First use high heat, when the soup comes to boil, lower the heat and let simmer. Cook until the rice and the chicken are done.
- Adjust the spices to your taste. Bring to boil one last time and remove from heat. Serve warm
Garnish
- The soup can be served without any garnish.
- If you choose to garnish, melt 3 tablespoons of butter together with all or some of the spices listed under the garnish ingredients.
- Another alternative for garnish is to add the spices directly without butter.