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March 28, 201013 Comments

Matzo balls in Persian fruit soup

Liz Steinberg

I had a particular Persian meatball dish in mind when I made this — meatballs stewed in a broth of dried fruit. Fruit plays a central role in savory cooking in Persian cuisine. While dried fruit is more commonly associated with another holiday, Tu Bishvat, Passover also happens to fall in the spring, and thus fruit is still appropriate.

In this dish, it gives Ashkenazi matzo balls an unusual twist. The matzo balls provide firm texture in place of meatballs, and the fruit soup — well, it speaks for itself, a mix of sweet and savory thanks to some onions and garlic.

In terms of the fruit you use, you could follow my lead, or improvise.

I added some grated zucchini into my matzo balls in order to soften the texture. The main factor affecting how soft (or hard) your matzo balls are is whether you add water — I added 8 teaspoons, which made mine pretty fluffy, but if you like them denser, you could reduce that. And if you like them REALLY hard, you could leave the water out of the batter altogether.

Note: For those who eat kitniyot over Passover (you know who you are), this goes great served as a stew alongside rice. For those unsure, many Ashkenazi Jews do not eat rice (or other kitniyot) during Passover.

For two liters of soup:

125 grams dried apricots
125 grams prunes
70 grams dried sour apricots
70 grams raisins
5-6 garlic cloves
150 grams onion (1-2 onions)
2 teaspoons salt
oil for frying

For the matzo balls:
1 cup matzo meal
1 cup grated zucchini
4 eggs
8 teaspoons water (about 3 tablespoons)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, nutmeg
salt (I used 1 teaspoon)

Chop the onion and fry until translucent in a thick-bottomed pot in a bit of oil. Crush the garlic, add to the pot and fry until lightly golden.

Rinse and chop the fruit, and add to the pot. Add enough water so that the fruit is covered 2-3 times over — the fruit will swell up. Add the salt and let simmer.

Once the fruit looks fully saturated with water, blend the soup until smooth. Let simmer as you make the matzo balls.

Meanwhile, make the matzo balls: Grate the zucchini and measure out a cup. Mix with the eggs, matzo meal, spices and salt. Let sit for a few minutes so that the matzo meal can absorb the liquid.

Bring water to a boil in a second pot. Form the matzo batter into balls, and drop into the boiling water. Let cook for a few minutes, until they start to float and then some. (You cook the matzo balls on their own first, as opposed to in the soup, so that extra starch doesn’t get into it).

Once the matzo balls have taken form and look cooked on the outside, use a slotted spoon to transfer them into the soup pot, and let boil there for another 10 minutes or so to absorb the flavors.

(Full disclosure — the matzo balls in the photo weren’t boiled in the soup; they pick up some of the soup’s color in the cooking process)

Related Posts:

More on: apricot, fruit, holiday, Parve, Passover, prune, soup

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13 Comments »

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1. What an interesting recipe! I am not a big fan of matzo balls, but this recipe sure makes me want to try to make them.

   Comment by Yael — March 28, 2010 #

2. Your matzo ball recipe looks exciting. What is the matzo flour made of ?

   Comment by bobbinis-kitchen.com — March 28, 2010 #

3. Yael, you could always make the soup without the matzo balls

   Comment by Liz — March 28, 2010 #

4. Matzo flour is basically finely ground matzo — and matzo is a cracker made from only water and flour, that wasn’t allowed to rise. It’s pretty common around Passover time.

   Comment by Liz — March 28, 2010 #

5. I am always on the lookout for variations on matzoh ball soup to serve at our second night seder. Thanks for sharing, this sounds so interesting! I have never had a fruit based soup like this. I also really like the idea of adding a vegetable to the matzoh balls.

   Comment by Cara — March 29, 2010 #

6. So does the zucchini make up for the lack of the secret fluffy making usual ingredient of seltzer?

   Comment by Leah — March 30, 2010 #

7. Hi Leah, the zucchini does contribute, but the real ingredient making the matzo balls fluffy is the water in the batter. I’ve never used seltzer, and while I’m satisfied with the texture of my water-enhanced matzo balls, I’d love to hear if you’ve had any experience comparing water vs. seltzer.

   Comment by Liz — March 30, 2010 #

8. Well, in my family’s recipe, the seltzer instead of regular water is what makes them fluffy with no lumps. At least that’s what my mom says .

   I actually like lumps on occasion though .

   Comment by Leah — March 30, 2010 #

9. I’ve found that there aren’t any lumps with the water (don’t tell your mom ), because once you let the batter sit and absorb the liquid, it becomes pretty consistent. You could try a variation of the recipe with seltzer, though.

   Comment by Liz — March 30, 2010 #

10. I still think the seltzer makes them fluffier. I haven’t had fluffier than my mom’s. She also makes hers with whole wheat matzah meal, so that might add to the necessity of the seltzer.

    But anyhow the soup broth itself seems incredibly awesome, so I will definitely be bookmarking this page!

    Comment by Leah — March 30, 2010 #

11. Awesome, I’ll have to give seltzer a try sometime myself.

    Comment by Liz — April 11, 2010 #

12. Hi,

    LOVE the matzo balls! And they’re so easy!

    The soup was a little sweet, and a little chunky for me. Maybe straining it would help? Also, we couldn’t find dried sour apricots, so we had to substitute tart cherries. Maybe something else would have been better?

    Thanks for all the recipes– your food is delicious!

    Comment by Allison — January 8, 2012 #

13. Thanks Allison! If you found that straining the soup made it more to your liking — great. I would also suggest maybe not cutting the dried fruit, and just putting them in the pot to simmer whole. That way you’d have a thinner broth with chunks of fruit in it. I think it would also be less sweet that way because the fruit flavor wouldn’t be as powerful.

    I can’t really tell you what a good substitute for the sour apricots would be — some other sour dried fruit that’s common in your area, I guess. If you thought it went well with dried cherries, then that works, you found a solution

    Comment by Liz — January 20, 2012 #

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