Mexican Meatball Soup (Super Easy and One of My Favorites)

It’s All in the Base

The first thing that you’ll want to do when making this recipe is prepare your soup base. Start out by heating some olive oil over a medium heat in a pot, and then begin to add your vegetables. Start with the onion, carrots, celery, and jalapeno peppers. With the addition jalapeno peppers, you’re immediately getting this spicy soup off to a great start. As with most types of peppers, jalapenos contain capsaicin, and they’re also an excellent source of disease fighting antioxidants. (1)

After cooking your veggies for about five minutes, the next step is to add your minced garlic cloves. You’re only going to be waiting about 30 seconds before moving on to the next step, but in those 30 seconds, you better believe that the garlic is going to be infusing your soup with a TON of flavor. Along with the onion, garlic contains allicin, which has been shown to have certain beneficial cancer fighting properties. (2)

Next up, add in the zucchini, ground cumin, and dried oregano. The cumin and oregano both help to add even more heat to your soup, and zucchini is an incredibly healthy and versatile paleo vegetable. As with many green veggies, zucchini is loaded with vitamin C and antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. (3) Let your soup cook for another couple of minutes, and then add in your beef stock, water, and diced tomatoes. You can let the soup begin to boil as you turn your attention to making the meatballs next.

The meatballs are incredibly simple to prepare.  Just mix your ground beef, almond flour, and other ingredients together in a bowl, season with salt and pepper, and form the mixture into meatballs before adding them into the soup. At this point, you’re going to want to reduce the heat and let the soup simmer for about 20 minutes. Finally, add in the kale (you can use spinach or chard if you’d like) and then let it simmer for an extra 15 minutes before serving.

It’s incredible that with how simple this Mexican meatball soup is to prepare, it ends up making a relatively low calorie meal that’s just about as close to a gourmet soup as it gets while still being very filling. If you like spicy soups, you’re going to absolutely love this dish. For those of you who are a bit more hesitant when it comes to enjoying hot foods, I’d recommend serving this alongside some lime wedges to help offset the spiciness a little bit. 

PS. If you loved this recipe and you’re looking for some more inspiration when it comes to paleo friendly spicy soups, then I’ve got a few recipes I can recommend for you. The first is for a spicy beef tortilla soup with avocado. And if you love to use a crockpot, then you’ll definitely want to try this slow cooker taco soup.