Sudado de Albóndigas (Colombian Meatball Stew)

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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. It is a stew rather than a soup, it takes an hour, and it serves five.

Prep Time10

Cook Time1

Total Time1 10

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Colombian

Keyword: meatball sweat, sweaty meatballs

Servings:

Calories: 391kcal

Author: Angela Giraldo

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
½ cup white cornmeal or wheat flour to bind the meatballs
4 cups water or beef broth, which the method assumes
½ teaspoon saffron
2 potatoes cut into pieces
4 pieces cassava
1 cup onion and tomato chopped, together
Fresh cilantro to taste
Salt to taste

Instructions

In a bowl, mix the ground beef with the onion and garlic powder and the cornmeal, and knead it with your hands until everything is evenly combined.
Divide the mixture and roll it into meatballs, about 10 or 12, and set them aside.
In a large pot put the water or beef broth, the meatballs, the cup of chopped onion and tomato, salt and saffron. Cook over medium-low heat for 30 to 40 minutes.
Add the potatoes and the cassava and cook for another 20 to 30 minutes, until they are tender.
Add more water if it needs it, taste and adjust the salt, stir in the cilantro and turn the heat down.
Serve immediately.

Notes

You can cut the time with a pressure cooker: about 10 to 15 minutes from the moment it starts to whistle. The note on this page said after it starts chopping, which was the Spanish pitar, to whistle, translated as though it meant something else. Cornmeal is what binds these rather than breadcrumbs, and half a cup for a pound of beef is a firm mix that holds together in the pot without needing egg. Wheat flour does the same job if that is what you have. Order matters. The meatballs go in first and get 30 to 40 minutes, and the potato and cassava go in after, because cassava in particular falls apart if it is cooked as long as the meat. What thickens this is the starch coming out of those two vegetables, which is why it ends up a stew rather than a soup.

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