Chinese Meat Ball Soup - AKA Lion Head Soup

Originally posted May 2009 on my Facebook:

I grew up eating this soup and it is so easy to make I wanted to share it with my friends. The end product is a light broth infused with the sweetness of Napa cabbage and the flavor of the meatballs.

Serves 4-6

You'll need for the meatballs:
1 - 1.5 lbs of ground pork
2-3 cloves minced garlic
1 cup of chopped green onions
3 tbsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 eggs
2 tbsp corn starch
1/3 tsp sesame oil (optional)

For the broth:
1 large head of Napa cabbage, chopped into 4 inch pieces
Salt to taste, 1-2 tbsp
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sugar

Optional: pieces of soft or medium firm tofu, which will puff up luxuriously in the broth

Put 4-6 cups of water in a large pot to boil. When the water hits boil, put in the cabbage and reduce to medium heat. In a large bowl, combine all the meatball ingredients until well mixed. Keep mixing depending on how firm you want the meatballs to be. The more you mix the more elasticity will develop and the harder the meatballs will be.

Heat some oil in a large skillet and prepare to brown the meatballs. I make mine about 2.5 inches in diameter but my mom used to make them 3-4 inches! Hence the name lionheads. But since the smaller meatballs brown better, I suggest the 2.5 inch size. Don't go smaller because then it loses that nice mouth feel of biting into a large meatball floating in sweet broth.

Wet your hands! This is important or the meat will sticking to them! Scoop up the meat and gently but quickly squeeze it out of the top of your fist through your thumb and index finger. This gets rid of air bubbles. Pat the meat blob into a ball and place in skillet. Turn after one sde is brown. Toss the browned meatballs into the pot of cabbage broth. Add the remaining broth seasonings and tofu. Bring back to high boil and reduce to low heat. Cook for about 20 minutes.

Serve with rice! We used to love mixing in the rice as a kid into the broth!

You can sub turkey or chicken for the pork. I don't recommend beef because that would make the broth too rich and fatty. It's meant to be a "clean" broth. Great for when people are sick.