Meat Balls Soup

This is a recipe that I know from my mother, it is traditional in my country of origin, but I like to change it a bit to my taste, and my family's. I don't know anyone that does not like it, and I truly hope you will find it easy enough to make and really delicious!

Here are the ingredients:

3 liters water

3 average sized carrots

1 onion (chopped into small pieces)

200 grams celery (chopped into small pieces)

2-3 bell peppers

1 bundle of lovage (approx. 50 g.)

1 bundle of parsley (approx. 50g)

200 ml. tomato paste

500 grams minced meat (pork only or pork-beef mix)

100-150 gr. rice

1 egg

salt and pepper

How it's done:

Put the water in a pot and add all the vegetables, chopped into small pieces. Let them boil for 45 minutes. From the Onion, you only need half here. The other half you keep for the meatballs.

In the meantime, you start making the meatballs.

Put the minced meat in a bowl and add the other half of the onion, a bit of salt and pepper, the egg, and the rice. 

Mix really well (I use the traditional method of mixing with my hands). 

Spread flour on a  plate.

Use a teaspoon to scoop a bit of meat from the mixture and make meatballs with your hands (roll them in your palms).

Put them in the boiling pot, after the 45 minutes have gone. 

After you have put them all in, add the tomato paste. 

Allow 20-25 more minutes to boil, after which you add the lovage, wait for 5 minutes, and then add the parsley.

Put a lid on the pot and turn off the heat.

Leave it like that for half an hour.

Now it's ready to serve!

Bon Appetit!

More pictures:

As you can see, some people have lost their patience already while waiting at the table, and came straight to the source!

Potato Salad with Leek

To make about 4 servings of this very tasty and healthy salad you will need:

1 kg of best quality potatoes (they are the stars in this, after all) 
(here in Germany we have a kind of potatoes that are recommended for salads, because they boil well, maybe you can fing something similar wherever you are)
2 pcs  fresh Leek
Bell Peppers in 2 colors (I used red and green)
6 hard boiled eggs (you will only use the whites)
Black olives - 150-200 grams (with or w/o stem)
Sea salt
Sunflower oil (the best/cleanest that you can find)

Let's start :

Wash the potatoes in cold water (do not peel them!). Don't cut them either, just put them in a pot with water and let them boil for about 35-45 minutes, depending on their kind. Try them out with a toothpick to see when they are ready (they should be soft but not too soft!). Be careful NOT to leave them less or more than they need, because here is the most important part. If they are too hard or if you can't cut them propely because they became too soft and crumbly, the whole thing is ruined. 

After boiling, put the potatoes right away in a bowl with cold water and leave them there until they cool off (this will help you peel them easier). In the meantime, start cutting the bell peppers, the leek and the egg whites in little pieces (like in the picture).

When the potatoes have cooled, peel them and cut them in little cubes. Put them in a bigger bowl, add a little bit of sunflower oil (about 50 ml) and the sea salt (by taste) and mix. 

Add the leek, the olives and the egg whites and mix some more.

That's it! I like serving this with some kind of sweet wine.

Bon appetit!