Sotanghon Bola Bola Soup

About

This delicious warm, comforting Keto soup recipe is made with simple ingredients yet has the most amazing flavor. Add this to your list of classic Keto diet Tagalog recipes. Tender ground pork meatballs made by mixing the meat with savory onions, carrots, garlic, and soy sauce are delicious. They are simmered in a chicken broth made from a chicken bouillon base along with sweet napa cabbage. These two flavors alone season the soup along with a little fish sauce. Kelp noodles are added to substitute for glass noodles, and they have the same texture as the real deal!

What kind of fat to lean ratio ground pork should I use?

80% lean to 20% fat ratio is the best and the most common ground pork ratio. The extra fat helps to flavor the soup by lending delicious drops of pork fat throughout the broth. You can use ground turkey at the same fat percentage as well.

How should I prepare the vegetables for the meatballs? How should I mix the meatballs?

A fine dice is the best for meatballs as they incorporate easily. The meatballs should be mixed by hand using a fork. Mixing in this manner will help the strands of meat to begin to bind together, so they do not fall apart in the soup. You will know when you have mixed it well enough when you can see the strands of meat starting to stretch and bind together (the mixture will also start to become harder to mix as well).

How should I shape the meatballs?

If your meatball shaping skills are lacking, you can use a 1 oz ice cream scoop to portion them directly into the soup. However, you can take two small spoons to shape the meatballs. Take the raw meatball mixture onto the first spoon and then transfer it to the second spoon. Keep moving the meatball back and forth until it is a nice shape, then plop it into the Sotanghon Bola Bola soup.

Serving suggestions

Serve this low carb soup with another great Keto Tagalog recipe like Keto Spam Musubi

Ingredients

1 ½ pound ground pork
½ cup onion
⅓ cup carrots
1 clove garlic
2 large scallions
4 teaspoon soy sauce
1 ¼ teaspoon coarse kosher salt by morton
¼ teaspoon black pepper
3 quart water
2 tablespoon better than bouillon chicken base by superoir touch
1 ½ pound napa cabbage raw
1 tablespoon fish sauce (nam pla or nuoc mam)
48 ounce kelp noodles by sea tangle

Instructions

Combine the ground pork, diced onion, diced carrot, minced garlic, chopped scallions, soy sauce, salt and pepper to a medium sized mixing bowl. The meatballs should be mixed by hand using a fork. This will help the strands of meat to begin to bind together so they do not fall apart in the soup. You will know when you have mixed it enough when you can see the strands of meat starting to stretch and stick together (the mixture will also start to become harder to mix).
To a large pot, add 3 quarts of water and the chicken bouillon base. Mix to dissolve the base. Bring the pot to a boil and then down to a simmer.
Begin to add the meatballs to the soup. If your meatball shaping skills are lacking, you can use a 1 oz ice cream scoop to portion them directly into the soup. However, you can take two small spoons to shape the meatballs. To do this, take some raw meatball onto the first spoon and then transfer it to the second spoon. Keep transferring the meatball back and forth until it is a nice shape then plop it into the soup. The technical term for the shape of this is a quenelle.
Allow the meatballs to cook at a simmer for 10 minutes. They should be fully cooked at this point.
Then add the washed and chopped napa cabbage to the soup. The leaves should wilt quickly, about 2-3 minutes. Then add the fish sauce. Taste the soup and see if you would like to add more. You can omit the fish sauce if you’d like and add more bouillon base or salt. Add the kelp noodles to the soup and allow them to cook until softened, about 2-3 minutes.
Serve the soup hot! Add some freshly cracked black pepper on top of each bowl.