This Tunisian dish struck my fancy as soon as I laid my eyes on it. Individually I love all of the ingredients (meatballs, white beans, spinach), so together it must be magic! It did appear a little bit of a meat overload though and being that I feed only 3 people, I decided to make it without the ribs.
Meatball ingredients
You start with the meatballs. These were fairly similar to the ones I usually make, but without garlic and with cinnamon and an egg. I'm not very good at mincing, so my onion was probably a bit larger than the ideal.
Mixed, molded and ready to go
You brown the meatballs on all sides for a few minutes and then put them aside to start the soup. (This is when I got a much anticipated Skype phone call from my friend Rebecca! My happy distraction means you have fewer photos- sorry!) The soup starts as anything delicious does, with garlic and onion sizzling in olive oil. This is one of my favorite smells. Soooo good! At that point if you were adding the ribs, you'd do so.
As I was skipping the ribs, I just added the beef stock and the meatballs. This also made the dish much quicker to make- no need to let the ribs simmer for 60 minutes! After the meatballs are fully cooked, you add the spinach and white beans along with some salt and pepper as needed.
The verdict- Delicious. I absolutely loved the spinach, white bean, meatball combination. As one reviewer said, the meatballs are HEAVILY spiced. I can still taste the pepper on my tongue and I at 45 mins ago. If you're not into strong flavor, I'd cut the cumin and black pepper down by a third. Skipping the ribs was also a bonus as the rest of the recipe was quick! Perfect soup for a cold evening. Mohamed approved as well giving it a score of 7/10. The only recipe so far that's scored better was day two's Roasted Cod on Garlic Croutons!
If you'd like to try it out, find the recipe on Saveur here- T'fina Pkaila
photo by CIA/Keith Ferris for Epicurious
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