Sudado de Albóndigas: Colombian Meatball Stew

Name: Sudado de Albóndigas (Colombian Meatball Stew)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 70 min
Ingredients: 1 pound ground beef; 2 tablespoons garlic powder; 2 tablespoons onion powder; 1/2 cup white cornmeal or wheat flour (to bind the meatballs); 4 cups water (or beef broth, which the method assumes); 1/2 teaspoon saffron; 2 potatoes (cut into pieces); 4 pieces cassava; 1 cup onion and tomato (chopped, together); Fresh cilantro (to taste); Salt (to taste)

Beef meatballs bound with cornmeal and simmered in broth with potato, cassava and saffron until the vegetables give the pot its body. It is a stew rather than a soup, it takes an hour, and it serves five.

Total: 1 10

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Beef meatballs bound with cornmeal and simmered in broth with potato, cassava and saffron until the vegetables give the pot its body. A stew rather than a soup, and it serves five.

Sudado de albóndigas, Colombian meatball stew

Two stages in one pot

Meatballs first, for 30 to 40 minutes. Potato and cassava after, for another 20 to 30. The order is not arbitrary.

Meatballs need the longer time to cook through and to give their flavour to the liquid. Cassava needs the shorter one, because it goes from firm to collapsing quickly and an hour in the pot leaves nothing but cloudy starch.

That starch is also what thickens the stew, which is why this ends up with body rather than staying a broth.

Cornmeal is the binder

Half a cup of white cornmeal kneaded into a pound of ground beef with garlic and onion powder. No egg, no breadcrumbs.

Cornmeal absorbs liquid and swells, and it holds the meatballs together through a long simmer better than bread does. Knead it properly with your hands until the mixture is even, which is what makes them hold their shape when they go in.

The pressure cooker note

The recipe suggests finishing this in a pressure cooker in 10 to 15 minutes, which is a genuinely useful shortcut for a dish that otherwise takes an hour.

The timing starts when the cooker begins to whistle, not when it goes on the heat. The note on this page had that as after it starts chopping, which is what happens when pitar gets translated by something that does not know what a pressure cooker sounds like.

Water or broth

The ingredient list asks for four cups of water and the third step calls it beef broth. Both work and the difference is depth: water lets the meatballs make their own broth as they simmer, and stock gives you a head start.

With forty minutes of meatballs in it, water becomes broth on its own, so this is a genuine choice rather than a compromise.

More stews

Meatball soup — the thinner version.
Homemade meatballs — the meatballs on their own.
Beef stew — with pieces instead of meatballs.
Cassava and potato soup — the same two roots.

Meatball Stew FAQ

Can I use a pressure cooker?

Yes, and the recipe's own note recommends it: about 10 to 15 minutes from the moment it starts to whistle. That note used to say after it starts chopping, which was the Spanish pitar, to whistle, mistranslated.

Why cornmeal instead of breadcrumbs?

It is what a Colombian kitchen has. Half a cup of white cornmeal binds a pound of beef into meatballs firm enough to survive forty minutes of simmering without egg. Wheat flour does the same job.

Why do the potato and cassava go in later?

Because they need less time than the meatballs, and cassava in particular falls apart if it is overcooked. The meatballs get 30 to 40 minutes on their own, then the vegetables get 20 to 30.

Is this a soup or a stew?

A stew. It starts as meatballs in liquid and thickens as the potato and cassava release their starch, so by the end there is body to it rather than broth.

What does saffron do here?

Colour more than flavour at half a teaspoon. It turns the liquid golden, which is what a sudado is supposed to look like. Many Colombian kitchens use colorante or achiote for the same purpose.

How many meatballs does it make?

Ten or twelve from a pound of beef, which is what the second step says. That is two or three each across five servings.

What is cassava?

Yuca: a starchy root, sold fresh or frozen in most Latin markets. It is denser than potato and turns creamy rather than fluffy, and it is what gives this stew its texture.