Chinese Paleo Chicken Meatball Soup (or Turkey) with spinach and no eggs in Asian ginger chicken bone broth and all made in one pot! Makes about 18 meatballs (weight 1.4 oz. per meatball).
In a food processor, press pulse a few times to finely chop carrots and shiitake. Chop scallions with a knife and prepare grated ginger.
In a 4-6 qt. Dutch oven or heavy soup pot, add 6 cups chicken bone broth with ginger slices. Close with a lid and bring the broth to a gentle hot simmering.
In a large mixing bowl, add all ingredients from carrot to ground chicken (or turkey). Use your hand to gently combine and mix well. The meatballs should feel moist and a bit slippery because of the oil. This helps the meatballs stay moist and also prevents the ground meat from sticking to your hands.
Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper. Form roughly 18 meatballs with each weight about 1.4 oz. Try to keep them in similar sizes so the cook time will be similar. If the ground meat becomes sticky to your hands, drizzle with a bit more olive oil.
Carefully and gently place meatballs one-by-one to the hot simmering broth, simmer the meatballs over medium-low to low heat until they flow to the top of the broth, about 10-12 minutes. You can also test by breaking the meatball in half with a fork to see if they are cooked through. Do not use high heat the broth will be less flavorful.
In the meantime, rinse and wash spinach. Set aside to drain. Once the meatballs are cooked through, taste the broth then decide if you like to add broth seasonings - coconut aminos, fish sauce, white pepper, and sesame oil. Stir-in spinach. Serve hot or warm.
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Notes
How to rehydrate dry shiitake: Soak the dry shiitake mushrooms in room temperature overnight. If in a rush, soak them in warm water for at least 1-2 hours. You can use the shiitake mushroom water to replace chicken stock or combine mushroom water with chicken stock to make the soup broth.Check out my youtube channel on how to select and prepare dry shiitake. Remember to subscribe to my channel! To make-ahead: Form the meatballs without cooking them. Flash freeze over a flat plate/tray then store in a freezer friendly bag or container. When you are ready to cook them, no need to defrost. Bring the bone broth with ginger to hot simmering, add meatballs and simmer/cook until the meatballs are completely cooked through. Add spinach and serve.Alternatively, you can also cook the whole recipe. Let cool and freeze the meatballs with the broth in freezer friendly containers.You can easily double the meatball recipe quantity with 2 lbs ground meat and make about 36 meatballs.The nutrition label is calculated for 1 serving out of six with 3 meatballs per person and not including the broth seasonings.