Mollie Katzen’s No-Chicken Soup with Vegan Matzoh Balls
Some days you want carbs, and on the days you don’t, you want a healing, delicious broth with just a few carbs. My fully vegan version of the great Mollie Katzen’s ridiculously easy No-Chicken Soup with Matzoh balls is just the thing for those days.
We all know about chicken soup for the soul, and how this chicken-infused broth has healing properties. These properties have been scientifically proven, but I am not here to discredit science. My version (borrowed from Mollie Katzen’s wonderfully inspiring book, Still Life with Menus) is completely vegan, but still tastes like it could heal a broken spirit. Or at least, put a small band-aid on it.
If you love nourishing brothy soups, you might also like to try my vegan Hot and Sour soup, my pasta in a rich Italian style soup, classic vegan French onion soup or my Caldo Verde too!
This soup is very flexible in that you can add or remove veg if you don’t fancy. For example, the original recipe had parsnip, which I love roasted, but I didn’t like the idea of the sweetness in the soup, so I omitted it. I added a few more carrots, and you can never have too much garlic!
I discarded most of the veg after you strain the stock, but I did eat the sweet, soft garlic that had melted down perfectly. If you prefer to be more frugal, feel free to strain the veg out so that you have a nice clear stock, then add it back in for a bit more of a filling soup.
Table of Contents
Ingredients
- vegetables: carrots, celery, mushrooms, onions and lots of garlic
- turmeric
- salt and water
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Place all the soup ingredients in a large pan and bring to a gentle simmer for an hour and a half
Meanwhile, prep the matzoh balls. Ingredients: matzoh meal, plain vegan yogurt, salt and parsley
Place all the ingredients for the matzoh balls in a bowl
Mix until you have a stiff dough. Chill for at least half an hour.
When thoroughly chilled, roll into balls, then into a little more matzoh meal, and drop into a pan of simmering salted water for 40 mins
Drop the poached matzoh balls into your warmed soup and serve
Storage
Store the strained soup in a covered container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Would also freeze beautifully.
Top tip
If I’m making the soup for the next day, I like to cook a couple of freshly chunked carrots to drop in the soup.
No-Chicken Soup with Vegan Matzoh Balls
Ingredients
For the Soup
- 2 carrots - peeled and cut into large chunks
- 2 celery - sticks, cut into chunks
- 2 onions - large, peeled and cut into chunks
- 8 cloves garlic - peeled, cut in half
- 8 mushrooms - I used chestnut, wiped clean and cut in half
- 2 tsp salt
- ½ tsp turmeric - powdered
- 6 cups water
Matzoh Balls
- ½ matzoh meal
- ½ cup plain yogurt - vegan
- ½ tsp parsley - finely chopped
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
To make the soup
- Place all the ingredients for the soup in a large pan, bring to a boil then turn down to a gentle simmer
- Simmer for an hour and half.
- Strain the soup, discarding the vegetables (or reserving them and making vegetable patties with them)
- Serve with matzo balls
To make the matzo balls
- Add all the ingredients to a large mixing bowl and combine thoroughly
- Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.
- Bring a pan of salted water to a brisk simmer
- Whilst the pan is heating up, roll the matzo ball dough into walnut sized balls
- Drop into the pan of water and simmer for 40 minutes
- Serve in the soup.
Please note that where the recipe asks for milk, butter or yogurt, this refers to any plant-based version that you prefer.
