Recipe: Matzoh Ball Soup

Perhaps not surprisingly, Passover is one of Jake’s all-time favorite holidays because it's a night on which we use food to tell a story about justice. And this year's seder was particularly momentous because it marked our first full week living in New Marlborough, MA. So we invited the usual suspects to join us for a long night of singing, eating, drinking, and telling stories. 

Our (semi-) traditional seder dinner consists of the standard matzoh, hard boiled eggs, parsley, charoset, horseradish, and matzoh ball soup - but instead of brisket, we like to serve a leg of lamb. It just seems more fitting to Spring - and especially on this holiday in which the paschal lamb looms so large. We were really excited to get the leg at the awesome The Meat Market in Great Barrington - Jake's new place of employment! The whole meal came together perfectly!

Recently, in our hasty head-first dive into Spring, we've posted a lot of lamb so we thought we'd take this opportunity to share Jake's family Matzoh Ball Soup recipe. The recipe is borrowed from a A Little Jewish Cookbook, literally a pocket-sized book that Jake bought for his mom on a childhood trip to Ellis Island. It makes the lightest, most warming matzoh balls we've ever had!  But of course, we're a little biased.

Matzoh Ball Soup 

+ 2 tbsp chopped parsley, plus more for garnish

+ ½ tsp ground ginger

+ 6 tbsp of freshly melted schmaltz (rendered chicken fat) or olive oil

+ salt and pepper to taste

+ ¾ cup of sparkling water

+ 1 ½ cup of matzoh meal

+ 6 eggs, beaten

+ 2 quarts of chicken stock

+ 4 large carrots sliced into ¼” thick wheels

1. Stir parsley, ginger, salt, pepper into schmaltz.

2. Add eggs and sparkling water and beat to blend. Stir in matzoh meal.

3. Refrigerate for one hour. In the meantime, bring the chicken stock to a boil.

4. Wet hands and form chilled matzoh mixture into golf ball sized balls. Drop into boiling chicken stock, along with sliced carrots.

5. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes or until balls float to top. Sprinkle with remaining parsley and serve.