Albondigas Soup, Mexican Meatball Soup with Rice and Mint

A scant ⅓ cup (65 g) of rice goes into these meatballs raw, straight into the uncooked meat. It looks like a mistake on the ingredient list, but those grains soften inside the meat as it poaches, soaking up juice so the meatball stays tender and light. Albondigas (al-BOHN-dee-gahs) is simply Spanish for meatballs. In Mexico they come two ways, as English Wikipedia notes: in a light broth with vegetables, or in a mild chipotle sauce. This is the broth version, flavored with fresh mint, the herb that makes it smell like a Mexican home kitchen and not like Italian wedding soup. Below: how much rice, why meatballs fall apart and how to stop it, the order the vegetables go in, safe temperatures, scaling for a crowd, cost and freezing.

What is albondigas soup, and is it worth making?

How do you make albondigas soup? Mix 750 g (1 lb 10 oz) of ground beef and pork with ⅓ cup (65 g) raw rice, an egg, grated onion and chopped mint, roll 30 meatballs of 30 g (1 oz), and simmer them gently for 35 minutes in a fried, blended tomato broth, adding carrots at the start, potatoes at 15 minutes and zucchini at 27. They’re done when the centers reach 160°F (71°C). 80 minutes for 6 servings.

Worth it if you want a full meal from one pot. Meat, vegetables and broth land in the same bowl, everything comes from an ordinary supermarket, and the soup tastes better the next day.

Good for. A weeknight dinner with warm corn tortillas, Sunday batch cooking for several lunches, or feeding 12 from a single pot without standing over the stove.

Less good for. Dinner in 30 minutes. Raw rice takes over half an hour, though the cooked-rice shortcut below gets you there in 50. Not for anyone avoiding red meat either, although a turkey version is below.

Time. 80 minutes on the clock, about 40 of them hands-on. The rest is chilling meatballs and a pot that simmers on its own.

How hard is it? Easy. The one skill is heat control: a hard boil splits meatballs.

Mexico’s consumer protection agency, PROFECO, printed a caldo de albóndigas with vegetables as a budget recipe in its Revista del Consumidor in September 2022.

Ingredients, how much rice, and US and UK swaps

Exact amounts are in the recipe card. Three choices shape the result: the rice, what holds the meat together and the mint.

How much rice goes in albondigas

⅓ cup (65 g) of raw long-grain rice for 1 lb 10 oz (750 g) of meat. Published recipes range widely. Converted to the same 1 lb of meat, Food.com uses ¼ cup, Confessions of a Foodie about ⅓ cup and The Endless Meal ½ cup. I sit in the middle: much more and the meatball turns soft and fragile in the broth; much less and the meat tightens into a dense ball.

Raw or cooked rice. Both are traditional. PROFECO uses cooked rice; Maricruz Avalos, The Endless Meal and Confessions of a Foodie use raw. Dinner at the Zoo points out that the long simmer raw rice needs can sometimes break meatballs, and suggests cooked rice to shorten it, at ½ cup cooked for every ¼ cup raw. By that ratio, ⅓ cup raw becomes ⅔ cup cooked (about 105 g), and the meatballs need only 20 to 25 minutes. Skip parboiled (converted) and brown rice: neither softens in 35 minutes.

Mint, chipotle and the other swaps

Hierbabuena is spearmint (Mentha spicata). A Food.com reviewer who says he has spent nearly two decades in Mexico puts it in both the meatballs and the broth. I do the same, with a couple of tablespoons chopped into the meat and two sprigs dropped in for the final 8 minutes.

Chipotle is optional. One canned chipotle in adobo plus a teaspoon of its sauce, blended with the tomatoes, adds smoke and a mild kick. Confessions of a Foodie and the Mexican food site Gastrolab both list it as optional. Look in the Mexican or international aisle in the US, and the world-foods aisle or online in the UK.

The meat. 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) of 85% lean beef plus 250 g (9 oz) of ground pork. USDA data puts raw ground pork at about 21 g of fat per 100 g against 15 g for 85% beef, and that difference keeps the meatballs soft. All-beef works and gives a firmer bite.

The vegetables. PROFECO’s version uses zucchini, carrot and potato. The Food.com reviewer drops the potato because it clouds the broth and doubles the starch, and adds green beans. I keep the potato in ¾ in (2 cm) cubes: it clouds the broth a little but makes the bowl more filling.

Equipment. A 5 to 6 quart pot with a lid, a blender, and ideally an instant-read thermometer. No blender? Grate halved tomatoes on a box grater and discard the skins.

Why albondigas fall apart in soup, and how to keep them whole

Raw rice is not the glue. What holds a meatball together is the egg (PROFECO and Gastrolab use 1 egg per 500 g / 1 lb 2 oz of meat), firm rolling and a broth that never boils hard. Mint holds nothing; it’s there for aroma.

1. Squeeze, don’t knead. Mix only until combined, about 2 minutes. Gastrolab warns against overworking the meat. Then press each ball between wet palms until it has no cracks.
2. Chill before cooking. About 20 minutes in the fridge firms the fat so the ball keeps its shape when it hits the broth.
3. Gentle simmer only. Small bubbles breaking slowly at the surface. Maricruz Avalos adds the meatballs slowly and lets the hot broth seal them.
4. Hands off for 10 minutes. The outside sets into a skin. After that you can move the pot.

Timeline, vegetable order and make-ahead plan

80 minutes from start to bowl. Roll the meatballs first so they chill while the broth comes together, then add the vegetables by how long they take.

Vegetable order.

• Carrots, with the meatballs. Sliced ½ in (1 cm), they hold up through 35 minutes.
• Potatoes, at 15 minutes. In ¾ in (2 cm) cubes they’re tender in 20.
• Zucchini and mint sprigs, at 27 minutes. Eight minutes is enough; added earlier, the zucchini falls apart and tints the broth green.

Confessions of a Foodie simmers the meatballs 30 minutes, then potatoes and carrots 15 and squash 5. Staggering from the start, as above, gets the same result in a 35-minute simmer.

Make ahead.

• The night before, roll the meatballs and keep them covered in the fridge. Raw ground meat keeps 1 to 2 days, per the FoodSafety.gov storage chart.
• Blend the tomato base a day ahead and keep it in a jar.
• Or make the whole soup. The rice keeps absorbing broth overnight, so add about 1 cup (250 ml) of water when you reheat.

How to tell each stage is right.

• Fried tomato → after 8 minutes, brick red, slightly thicker, and no longer smells raw. This frying step is also what keeps the broth from tasting sharp; with very pale tomatoes, swap 200 g (7 oz) of them for canned crushed tomatoes, and if the broth still tastes acidic at the end, add ¼ tsp sugar.
• Meatballs at 10 minutes → gray outside and firm to the touch.
• Simmer → lazy bubbles, never a rolling boil.
• Done → 160°F (71°C) in the center, tender rice, and potatoes a knife slides through.

Scaling for 6, 12 or 20

Five 1 oz (30 g) meatballs per person as a main course.

A bigger pot takes about 10 minutes longer to come to a boil. Once the meatballs are in, the simmer is still 35 minutes. If they end up stacked in a narrow pot, the bottom layer gets crushed; two pots work better.

Food safety, spice level, kids and allergens

Safe temperature. USDA FSIS sets 160°F (71°C) for ground beef and pork, and 165°F (74°C) for ground turkey or chicken and for reheated leftovers. Color isn’t a reliable test, so check the largest meatball with a thermometer. MedlinePlus lists 165°F (74°C) for its albondigas soup because it allows any meat, poultry included.

Spice level, 0 out of 5 without chipotle, 1 out of 5 with one. For more heat, put chopped serrano or a Mexican red taco salsa on the table.

Kids. Small meatballs, soft vegetables and a mild broth usually go down well. Without the chipotle there’s no heat; if some of the table wants it, blend the chipotle with a ladle of broth and serve it on the side. Cut meatballs in half for small children.

Allergens. Contains egg. No gluten (rice replaces the breadcrumbs), dairy or nuts as written; check the label of the chipotle in adobo if you use it. Versions with breadcrumbs contain gluten.

Variations, and how it compares with other Mexican soups

• Short on time, 50 minutes → about 105 g (⅔ cup) cooked rice instead of raw, and smaller vegetable cuts. The meatballs take 20 to 25 minutes to reach 160°F (71°C).
• Lighter → all 90% lean beef, no pork, and 150 g (5 oz) green beans instead of the potatoes: about 100 kcal less per bowl. With ground turkey, cook to 165°F (74°C).
• For a party → the 20-serving batch in two pots, made the day before and reheated over low heat.
• Smoky → 1 chipotle in the blender, as above.
• Vegetarian → I don’t make a meatless albondigas soup. The tomato broth with the vegetables and 400 g (14 oz) of cooked chickpeas is a good soup, just a different one.
• Pressure cooker → I don’t use one here: the meatballs gain nothing and the zucchini turns to mush.
• Other versions → PROFECO fries a halved serrano chile with the onion and uses cooked rice; Texas chef Adán Medrano uses raw brown rice plus breadcrumbs and simmers 45 minutes.

Albondigas soup or a sauce? Albondigas in chipotle sauce use the same rice-bound meatball in a thick tomato-chipotle sauce, eaten on a plate with rice, in 60 minutes. For beef in broth without the grinding, caldo de res with shank and vegetables is the slow Sunday option at 185 minutes. Caldo tlalpeño shares the tomato and chipotle base but uses chicken and chickpeas, and sopa de fideo is the 30-minute noodle soup when time is tight.

What albondigas soup costs to make

About $17.54 for 6 bowls, or $2.92 each, made all-beef because BLS doesn’t publish a ground pork price. Prices are BLS US city averages for August 2026 (ground beef, tomatoes, potatoes, rice, eggs) and USDA AMS advertised supermarket prices for October 9, 2026 (zucchini, carrots, onion, garlic).

Beef is 65% of the pot, and the 16 cents of rice is what stretches it. Doubling for 12 comes to about $35. I couldn’t find an official UK price series for these ingredients, so there’s no sterling figure.

Taste, serving, storing and reheating

What to expect. Soft meatballs with visible grains of rice and a fresh mint aroma, in a light tomato broth that’s neither sauce nor water. Carrots and potatoes are tender; zucchini holds its shape.

How to serve it. In deep bowls, with lime squeezed in at the table and warm corn tortillas. Some people serve Mexican rice made from fresh tomatoes on the side and spoon it into the broth. Chopped onion, cilantro and serrano on the table let everyone adjust.

Fridge. Refrigerate within 2 hours of cooking, per USDA FSIS, and eat within 3 to 4 days, kept at 40°F (4°C) or below. Split a big pot into shallow containers so it cools quickly, as FSIS recommends.

Freezer. Soups and stews with meat keep best quality for 2 to 3 months at 0°F (-18°C), per FoodSafety.gov. Potatoes go grainy after thawing (The Big Man’s World found the same in testing), so lift them out before freezing or leave them out of a freezer batch. Raw meatballs freeze for 3 to 4 months; FSIS says frozen meat can be cooked without thawing if you allow about 50% more time, so give them roughly 50 minutes in the broth and add the carrots at 15.

Reheating. Thaw overnight in the fridge, then heat in a covered pot over medium-low, swirling the pot instead of stirring, until it simmers and the meatballs reach 165°F (74°C). In the microwave, use a covered bowl at medium power in 1-minute bursts.

Albondigas soup FAQ

Are albondigas Mexican or Spanish? The word is Spanish for meatballs, and both countries make them. Spain usually serves them in a sauce; in Mexico they’re common in broth, as here, or in chipotle sauce.

Do you cook the rice before adding it to the meatballs? No, it goes in raw and cooks in 35 minutes of simmering. Cooked rice also works and cuts the time to 20 to 25 minutes.

Why is there mint in albondigas soup? Mint, specifically spearmint (hierbabuena), is the signature aroma of the Mexican version. It goes in the meatballs and a sprig goes in the broth.

Can I use dried mint? Yes, about 1 tsp in the meatball mix and none in the broth. It’s less fresh but still recognizable.

Should I brown the meatballs first? No. They go in raw, which flavors the broth. Browned meatballs are firmer, but the broth is weaker.

How is this different from Italian wedding soup? Wedding soup uses small meatballs with breadcrumbs and cheese in chicken broth with greens and pasta. Albondigas soup binds the meat with raw rice, adds mint, and uses a tomato broth with carrots, potatoes and zucchini.

Can I make it in a slow cooker? I haven’t tested it, so I can’t give you a time I trust. On the stove it takes 35 minutes of simmering.

Can you freeze albondigas soup? Yes. Without the potatoes, which turn grainy, it keeps its best quality for 2 to 3 months at 0°F (-18°C).

How long does it keep in the fridge? Up to 4 days, as long as it went into the fridge within 2 hours, per USDA FSIS.

Nutrition per serving

One bowl is a sixth of the pot: five meatballs with their vegetables and broth, without lime or tortillas. Figures are calculated ingredient by ingredient from USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy) per-100 g values and the amounts in this recipe. Pork is calculated as raw ground pork, potatoes with skin, and the chipotle as canned red chili, the closest entry; cumin isn’t counted.

• Calories: 454 kcal
• Protein: 28 g
• Carbohydrates: 30 g
• Sugars: 7 g
• Fat: 25 g, including 9 g saturated
• Fiber: 5 g
• Sodium: 940 mg

The meat supplies 64% of the calories. About 775 mg of the sodium comes from the 2 tsp of salt; with just one, a bowl drops to about 550 mg.

I grew up in Venezuela, where mint went into hot drinks and never near the meat, so the first time I chopped it into a meatball mix it felt wrong. Now it’s the first thing I smell when I lift the lid, and the soup seems flat without it. The lesson that cost me a pot was heat: the batch that fell apart was the one I left at a rolling boil while I cut the zucchini. Josnaisis.