Greek Turkey Meatball and Lemon Soup with Dill
Small turkey and rice meatballs poached in a lemony broth with peas and kale, finished off the heat with skyr whisked into the pot until the whole thing turns pale and velvety.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
This is the soup I make when I want something that tastes like a long afternoon and have half an hour. Greek cooks build it around small meatballs with the rice mixed in rather than served underneath, so each one cooks up soft and a little craggy, and the starch the rice sheds thickens the broth while they poach. The traditional finish is a whisked egg and lemon liaison. I use skyr whisked with lemon and a ladle of hot broth instead, which lands in the same place, pale and glossy and sour, and is a good deal harder to break.
The eating is the pleasure. You get a spoon that holds broth, a piece of meatball, a few peas, and a scrap of kale all at once, and the flavor changes depending on what makes it in. Dill goes in twice, half of it into the meat where it perfumes from the inside and half over the top where it stays green and grassy. The lemon is not shy. It should make you sit up. If the first spoonful tastes rounded and comfortable rather than sharp, squeeze in more, because this soup lives on that edge. The peas go in at the very end for the same reason, so they stay sweet and separate rather than turning gray in the pot.
It belongs on a Monday, or on any day when the week has already gotten away from you. Everything in it is a pantry item or a bag from the freezer, the meatballs take five minutes to roll, and the whole pot is done in the time it takes to answer a few emails. I make it for lunch through the cold months and again in April, when the peas and the dill make it taste like the first warm week of the year rather than the last cold one. It is also the soup I send home with people. It travels well in a jar, and a bowl of it is enough of a meal that nobody needs to think about what else to put with it.
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1 cup cooked short grain white rice, cooled
- 1 1/2 cups plain skyr, left out on the counter while you cook
- 1 small bunch lacinato kale (about 7 oz), stems stripped and leaves torn into bite-sized pieces
- 1 1/2 cups frozen peas
- 2 1/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 medium yellow onion, half grated and half finely chopped
- 2 celery stalks, sliced thin, plus any pale leaves
- 2 medium carrots, halved lengthwise and sliced into thin half moons
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup dill fronds, chopped, divided
- 1 1/2 tsp dried Greek oregano
- 3 tbsp lemon juice, from 1 large lemon, plus wedges for the table
- 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 3/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
- a scant 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
Instructions
- Mix and roll the meatballs: Put the turkey, the cooked rice, the grated half onion, half the garlic, half the dill, the oregano, the black pepper, and the salt in a bowl and mix with your hands just until it comes together. Roll into small balls about an inch across, around twenty four of them, and set them on a plate. Wet hands keep the mixture from sticking.
- Start the broth: Warm the olive oil in a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the chopped onion, the celery, and the carrot and cook for four minutes, stirring, until they soften and smell sweet. Add the rest of the garlic and stir for another thirty seconds.
- Poach the meatballs: Pour in the broth along with 2 cups of water and bring it to a gentle simmer. Lower the meatballs in one at a time, cover, and simmer for ten minutes without stirring, so they set before anything moves them. They will bob to the surface and firm up. Cut one open to check that it is opaque all the way through and reads 165°F.
- Add the greens and peas: Stir in the kale and simmer for two minutes, until the leaves go glossy and dark. Add the peas and give it one more minute, just long enough to heat them through while they still taste sweet. Taste the broth and adjust the pepper now, before the skyr goes in.
- Whisk the skyr and lemon in off the heat: Take the pot off the burner and let it stop bubbling. Whisk the skyr and the lemon juice together in a bowl, then ladle in about a cup of the hot broth in a thin stream, whisking constantly, until the mixture is loose and warm. Pour it back into the pot and stir gently until the broth turns pale and slightly thickened. Do not return it to a boil.
- Finish with dill: Stir in the remaining dill, let the pot sit for two minutes so the soup settles and the flavors come together, and ladle it into wide bowls. Put lemon wedges and the pepper grinder on the table, since people vary a lot in how sour they like this.
Variations
- Avgolemono with orzo: Skip the rice in the meatballs and simmer half a cup of orzo in the broth instead, which gives you a soup closer to what you get in a Greek taverna.
- Mint rather than dill: Use chopped fresh mint in the meatballs and over the top for a cooler, sharper version that leans toward the Turkish side of the same idea.
- Spring vegetables: Add a cup of sliced asparagus or a handful of snap peas with the peas at the end for more green and more crunch.
- Brothier: Add another cup of water and hold back a third of the skyr for a thinner soup that suits a warm day, served closer to lukewarm than hot.
- With butter beans: Fold in a drained can of butter beans with the kale for a thicker, more substantial pot.
Storage & Leftovers
It keeps four days in a sealed container in the refrigerator. The rice inside the meatballs keeps drinking up broth, so the pot will be noticeably thicker on day two. Loosen it with a splash of broth or water as you reheat and it comes back to where it started.
Reheat gently over medium-low, stirring occasionally, and take it off as soon as it steams. A soup finished with dairy will separate if you boil it, so keep the heat under it modest. In the microwave, use half power and stir every minute.
For the freezer, poach the meatballs in the broth with the vegetables, cool the pot, and freeze it for up to three months before the skyr goes in. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, reheat, and whisk in the skyr and lemon fresh. The peas and dill are best added at that point too.
Notes & Tips
- Grate half the onion into the meat: Grated onion melts into the meatballs and keeps them tender from the inside, where chopped onion would leave hard little pieces. Chopped is right for the broth, grated is right for the meat.
- Use cool rice: Warm rice makes the mixture sticky and the meatballs dense. Leftover rice straight from the refrigerator is ideal here.
- Do not stir for the first ten minutes: Meatballs need time to set. Stir too early and they shed rice into the broth and lose their shape.
- Temper the skyr, always: A ladle of hot broth whisked into the skyr before it meets the pot is the difference between a velvety soup and a grainy one.
- Add the lemon in two stages: Some goes in with the skyr and the rest at the table. Lemons vary enormously, and this soup is worth adjusting bowl by bowl.
- Save half the dill for the end: Dill cooked into the meat tastes deep and almost anise-like. Dill added at the end tastes green and fresh. You want both.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- The meatballs, the skyr, and the greens each carry part of this bowl. The turkey and rice give you something solid to eat, the skyr thickens the broth and brings both protein and calcium into the liquid itself, and the kale and peas fold in fiber and color right at the end.
- Ground turkey rolled with rice stays tender through a poach and carries protein and iron together, which is a useful pairing in a pot where the lemon juice is already there to help you take that iron up.
- Skyr is strained until it is thick enough to stand a spoon in, and that concentration is why a cup and a half of it turns a thin broth velvety while carrying a good deal of calcium into every ladle.
- Kale torn into the pot at the last minute keeps its structure and its dark green color, and it brings calcium of its own along with the vitamin K that leafy greens are known for.
- Dill, oregano, lemon, and a lot of black pepper are what make this taste Greek rather than simply savory, and the acid at the end is what keeps a soup thickened with dairy from ever tasting heavy.
- As you eat, pay attention to how the lemon and the dill keep lifting the bowl as it cools, and let yourself stop when the warmth has settled rather than when the bowl happens to be empty.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I finish it the traditional way with egg?
You can. Whisk two eggs with the lemon, temper them with hot broth the same way, and return the pot to low heat for two or three minutes, stirring, until it thickens and reads 160°F so the eggs are fully cooked. The skyr version is faster and much less likely to curdle.
Why is my broth cloudy and full of loose rice?
The meatballs were stirred too early. Let them sit undisturbed for the first several minutes so the surface sets, and keep the pot at a lazy simmer rather than a rolling boil. A little cloudiness is normal and is part of what thickens the soup.
Can I use ground chicken or ground beef?
Ground chicken behaves almost identically, though it wants a little more salt and pepper. Ground beef makes a heavier, darker soup that fights the lemon a bit, so if you go that way, cut back the lemon by a tablespoon and add a bay leaf to the broth.
My skyr is too thick to whisk smoothly.
Thin it with a few tablespoons of the hot broth before you add the lemon, and whisk it with a fork until it looks like heavy cream. Skyr is much stiffer than yogurt, and going straight from the tub into the pot is what leaves little white specks behind.