This Romanian Meatballs Sour Soup is one of the most traditional soups of Romanian cuisine, the glory of the soups and the pride of every Romanian cook.
It is called "ciorba de perisoare" in Romanian.
"Perisoare" means meatballs usually made with minced pork, beef, or both mixed with rice, egg, and spices, then boiled in the soup.
Sometimes, the meatballs are made with ground chicken or even turkey for a lighter version of the soup.
We eat many soups in this family because we live in a cold climate where hearty soups are perfect. I also think that soup is the best way to eat healthier during the cold season.
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Why is this soup awesome?
- Nutritious, low-carb soup, perfect for the cold weather. With vegetables, meat, and a little bit of rice, this soup is a complete meal.
- Easy to make. If you have all the ingredients around, the soup takes about an hour to make, and it is easy to put together.
- Leftovers are excellent and make a great lunch or dinner the next day. You can even freeze it, if you want, for a make-ahead meal.
What is "ciorba"?
Romanian cuisine has many soup recipes, "ciorba" being the sour version. To say it better, a "ciorba" is a soup, but not every Romanian soup is ciorba.
These soups are made with vegetables and meat. What makes them different is the addition of vinegar, lemon juice, or sauerkraut juice. Sour cream is also used in abundance to complement the dish.
One of the most traditional herbs to flavor Romanian sour soups is the lovage. I know you can find it in the US, but personally, I never saw it in my area.
I usually bring dried lovage from Romania when I visit or order it online on Amazon (affiliated link) when available.
We make this Romanian Meatballs Sour Soup all year round. However, Christmas and New Year's Eve are perfect opportunities to make this soup, as people believe that sour soups work perfectly for a hangover.
How to make
Step 1- Clean, chop, or dice the vegetables.
The recipe for this soup is an easy one. It all starts with cleaning and chopping the vegetables: onions, carrots, celery, and potatoes. You can use green celery or celery root, whatever you have available or like.
You can also add bell pepper, any color you like. I like the red ones, as they are sweeter and bring color to the soup.
Separate the potatoes from the rest of the vegetables, as we will use them a little bit later. Potatoes cook faster than other root vegetables, so for this reason, they go later in the pot.
Step 2- Saute the vegetables.
In a large soup pot, add the oil and saute the vegetables for a few minutes, enough to develop the flavors.
Step 3- Add broth and tomato paste/sauce.
Add water or chicken broth (I prefer low sodium) and also tomato paste or sauce. This soup is not a fancy one. Therefore, please feel free to use what you have in the pantry.
Bring the soup to a boil and reduce the heat to medium-low. Let it simmer for 15-20 minutes until the vegetables are half-cooked. Now you can add the potatoes cut into cubes.
Step 4- Make the meatballs.
While the soup is simmering, we will prepare the meatballs.
In a bowl, mix the ground meat (beef, pork, or a mixture of them), uncooked rice, egg, parsley, salt, and pepper. Combine all the ingredients to obtain a paste.
Note: These meatballs are not made with breadcrumbs, like the Italian ones, for example. We use only plain rice in the mixture.
Step 5- Form the meatballs.
With wet hands, grab a dollop of the ground meat mixture and roll it between your palms to create a meatball.
Keeping your hands wet, drop the meatballs into the soup.
Step 6- Simmer the meatballs.
Allow the soup to simmer for 10-15 minutes, so the rice and the meat get cooked. Taste for salt. Chop some fresh parsley and add it to the soup.
Expert Tip: The meatballs are cooked when they float to the top of the soup. This is how you know that the soup is ready to be served.
Serve hot with fresh slices of bread.
How to make the soup sour
Add 1-2 tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice to the soup. Taste and add some more as you like.
You are the boss, and you can make it more or less sour based on your preference. Add little by little to make sure you don't sour it too much.
Serve it with a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt. It also goes well with spicy, hot peppers like the ones in this recipe.
Leftovers
The soup is good for up to 3 to 4 days if you keep it in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
You can also freeze it for later consumption for up to 6 months. Allow it to thaw in the refrigerator overnight and reheat it on the stove or in the microwave.
More recipes to love
- Romanian Meatballs (Chiftele) Recipe
- Chicken Soup With Sour Cream And Garlic
- Traditional Romanian Sour Soup with Pork and Vegetables
- Instant Pot Beef Vegetable Soup
- 43 Chicken Soup Recipes Made From Scratch
Enjoy!
📖 Recipe
Romanian Meatballs Sour Soup (Ciorba De Perisoare)
Equipment
- 1 6 Quart Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven
Ingredients
For the meatballs:
- 1 pound ground meat pork, beef or a mixture of both
- ¼ cup uncooked rice long grain
- 1 medium onion diced
- ½ bunch of parsley
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
For the soup:
- 1-2 tablespoons vegetable oil or extra virgin olive oil
- 2-3 medium size carrots diced
- 2-3 celery stalks diced or one small celery root diced
- 1 medium onion diced, or 2-3 diced green onions
- 1 medium bell pepper diced
- 3-4 medium potatoes peeled and chopped in cubes
- ½ cup tomato sauce or 1-2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 8 cups water or chicken broth
- ½ bunch parsley chopped or lovage-as it is traditional
- Optional: hot peppers sour cream, or yogurt for serving.
Instructions
- Clean and chop/dice the vegetables.
- In a soup pot, pour oil and add the chopped vegetables except for the potatoes. The potatoes cook faster than the other vegetables, so they go into the pot later. Saute the vegetables until they develop the flavor, about 3-4 minutes.
- Add water or chicken broth. Add tomato paste or tomato sauce and cubed potatoes. Simmer the soup until the vegetables are half cooked, about 10-15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place the ground meat, rice, egg, chopped onion, parsley, salt, and pepper in a bowl.
- Mix everything to incorporate all the ingredients and make a paste. Set aside.
- With wet hands, grab a dollop of the meat mixture and roll it between your palms to create a meatball. Keeping your hands wet, drop the meatballs into the soup.
- Let the soup simmer for 10-15 minutes so the meatballs get cooked. Taste for salt.
To make the soup sour:
- Add two tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice. Taste and add some more as you prefer.
- Chop the parsley and sprinkle it over the soup.
- Serve with a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt and hot peppers.
Sean says
You mention Lovage. When and how much do you add to the soup?
The Bossy Kitchen says
Hi Sean,
The same way you would add parsley, you add chopped fresh lovage or dried. At the end, before you take the soup pot off the heat.
Sean Dobbs says
Duh, of course. 🙂 Thanks
The Bossy Kitchen says
🙂
Mihaela says
How are you making it sour? Aren't you using sauerkraut juice or "bors"?
The Bossy Kitchen says
Hi Mihaela, it says in the article : "We make[the soups] them sour by using vinegar, lemon juice, sauerkraut juice etc. We also use a lot of sour cream to complement the "ciorba"." You are right, if you live in Romania, you can use sauerkraut juice or "bors", but most people in United States do not have access to these ingredients, so another option is to use lemon juice or a little bit of vinegar. Bors is definitely not available here or heard of.
Kimberly says
Delicious! One of my favourite soups. Reminds me of my childhood. I have missed the Romanian cooking of my childhood and am looking forward to adding these recipes to my dinner rotation. In SE Pa we do not have Romanian stores. You can actually get Bors on Amazon. I use the vinegar lemon juice or sauerkraut as we are gluten-free.
Gabriela says
This is indeed a good soup. There are a few more Romanian recipes on the blog that you might like. Check them out! Thank you for visiting.
Mihaela says
That'S true. I live in Toronto and consider myself lucky to have a Romanian store close to my home where I can find lots of Romanian products, among them of course borsh and sauerkraut juice. And for this kind of soups (chorba ) the lovage is a must which I have plenty in my backyard.
I am glad I found your website with lots of Romanian recipes I know from my childhood and which I missed a lot since I left Romania 40yrs. ago. I can't wait to make the no bake orange mousse cake. It looks exactly like my mother used to make. Thank you for making known the wonderful Romanian cuisine.
The Bossy Kitchen says
You are very lucky. Here in Minnesota we do not have any Romanian store. I bring a lot of dried ingredients from Romania when I visit. I stock up on dried lovage and other spices for my specific recipes. Thank you for visiting and I hope you make that cake. It is absolutely delicious and so popular back there!
Mihaela says
For sure I will and I hope my family will love it as much as they like the cremschnit.
RE the meatballs sour soup I made and it was delicious with sauerkraut juice and fresh lovage. Even my son in law, who is not romanian and tried it for the first time, loved it.
Carol says
I am wondering about that orange mousse cake mentioned here. If I look it up I find Orange Charlotte and some other recipes but nothing looks like the orange mousse. Can you tell me what the name is?
Gabriela says
I think the recipe is the Orange Charlotte Cake. The inside of the cake is an orange mousse made with orange juice.
Claudia says
I never heard or seen anyone put celery and potatoes in the perisoare soup. Onion, carrots, red and green pepper yes.
The Bossy Kitchen says
Hi Claudia, I would suggest you do some more research on this matter. This type of soup is made with vegetables you have available each season, and that could be carrots, parsley root, parsnip, potatoes, celery root(celeriac), red/green peppers, sometimes zucchini etc. Each Romanian makes it different and it is not a right or wrong way to cook it. I also adapted this recipe to fit the ingredients I have available in the US. For example celeriac is not wildly available, so I replaced it with green celery, to be closer to the taste I know from my childhood.My family always put potatoes in this soup and also all kinds of root vegetables, especially in the winter. You can skip the potatoes if you do not like them. The rest of the vegetables bring flavor to the soup and also nutrients, so why not add them?
Joseph says
great answer. folks think before ya post !! no lovage ,yet will grow this soon,200 sq ft garden in progress ,,will make this soup with Italian parsley got plenty in containers nuttin like home grown. will make those meatballs raw rice intriguing. some stuffed cabbage calls for raw but never seems to cook wit for me Ill try anyway ,and also try some with ardent rice and post after I make this recipe ,,,thank you ,,,from a Lithuanian Italian Polish. old man
Cristina says
WOW - I thought I knew how to make soup and hardly ever followed a recipe. This one is beyond excellent, all the flavors blended nicely reminding me of Romania. Even without the lovage which doesn´t exist here where I live, it came out perfect, splendid taste. Thank you Gabriela!
The Bossy Kitchen says
Thank you, my friend! I am happy you liked the soup, this recipe is a good one indeed!
Joseph says
Is the rice raw or cooked ??
The Bossy Kitchen says
it is raw rice.
Heather says
This recipe sounds great! What type of vinegar do you recommend using? White? Red wine?
The Bossy Kitchen says
Both kinds of vinegar are OK to use.
Joseph says
great soup. willl pickled hot peppers change this recipe in stead of vinegar if so how many would I add. and should I cut them up ????
Gabriela says
Hi Joseph, for an authentic Romanian flavor, I recommend seasoning the soup with regular vinegar or lemon juice. Using the vinegar from pickled hot peppers might make the soup too spicy and overpower the traditional flavors. Traditionally, the soup is served with hot peppers, either fresh or pickled, on the side. However, if you enjoy spicy soups, feel free to experiment with your idea! I'd love to hear how it turns out.