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Not Lion's Head Meatball Soup


Never thought the day would come so soon when grocery stores were barren of product.  Again.

Produce, zip. Meat, nada. Cheese, only generic American slices. Milk/Eggs/Dairy, closed. Bread, just broken chalula shells. Soups/Pasta/Sauces, zilch. Chips/Crackers/Cookies, few hit and miss brands nobody really likes anyways. Dry dog/cat food, zero. Toilet paper and paper towels, that's laughable as those shelves have never been fully restocked in the first place.  Good grief.

Covid-19 caused unplanned cooking. Winter Storm Uri, or The Great Freeze of 2021 as the locals are calling it, caused creative cooking. Meals,  healthy meals, well healty-ish meals require vegetables. The only veggies left in the pantry are broccoli, carrots, baby spinach, and kale and they are all frozen from the freeze. Have to say, Gluten Free Lion's Head Meatball Soup was looking more and more like my only choice.  I am sure there were other choices but the sight of the store depressed me so I went home to cook what we had.  Again.  First day with electricity and this table is stuck eating pantry food again.

Modification Made: Good
For the meatballs, one pound ground pork was mixed with 3 tablespoons minced garlic, one teaspoon dried ginger and white pepper, and half teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes.  Meatballs were formed and pan fried in a heavy lined dutch oven. 

While meatballs cooked, one box of thin spaghetti was cooked in UNsalted water till very al dente, drained, rinsed in cold water, and set aside.

To cooked meatballs, three reduced sodium chicken bouillon cubes, six cups water, and two tablespoons of soy sauce were added and allowed to simmer for 45 minutes on low.  One frozen bag of whole leaf spinach was added along with noodles and heat was turned off.

Scaled for Likability: Good
Was this soup good, absolutely.  Was this soup lionhead meatball soup, not even close.  This soup was nothing like my Lionhead Soup either.  This was more along the lines of soy broth noodle soup with wonton filling meatballs.  Would eat this again as it was super simple, filling, and made an army load for less than $5, even with a pound of pork.

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