Butterball soup is one of my very favorite things in the entire whole world. Seriously.
Now, my husband is one of “those” cooks. The ones who don’t use a recipe or measure things and just throw stuff in and see what happens. And it turns out amazing. But never the same way twice. So, attempting to give a recipe for butterball soup is a little tricky, but I’m going to try.
First things first: this soup is not for the faint of heart. It is also not for the weak hearted, because the word BUTTER is featured predominantly in the title for a reason.
This comes with photos, because it’s easier to see then it is to fully explain, sometimes. Also, the amount of soup we make at one time is hilarious. We eat it until we’re out of butterballs. Then we make more of those, and eat it until the broth is all gone. Then we make more broth. So, sometimes, this is the never ending soup, and we make a huge pot of it for the three of us. So, adjust amounts as you see fit. Or go for it, make the huge pot, and see what happens.
Basic ingredient list:
veggies of whatever sort – celery and carrots and garlic are required, but throw in whatever else you’ve got
bullion – chicken or veggie
loaf of bread – sourdough is best, italian is fine, sandwich loaf works if you’ve got nothing else
eggs – two or three
small shaped pasta
parm cheese
mozzarella cheese
butter – and a lot of it
To start: obtain bigass pot. Add heart attack worthy glob of butter.
Chop/dice/cut up veggies. Really, it doesn’t matter how – here’s the food processor version. Carrots, celery and garlic are required, but anything else is fine, really. We’ve even done artichoke hearts when we didn’t have anything else. I wouldn’t suggest a lot of a strong tasting veggies, though.
Saute the veggies til translucent. Brandus also throws in a couple of chicken breasts at this point – they aren’t necessary, as we’ve done it plenty of times without it. We don’t even eat the chicken in it – Brandus due to vegetarianism, and me due to not liking chicken in butterball soup. We pull it out and use it in something else, so no worries if you don’t want to add it.
Add bullion and water to pot to make a fuck ton of broth. Seriously, this jar was FULL when we started. The broth for butterball soup needs to be a very strong, rich, tangy broth. We use this kind of bullion, as it’s very yummy, and very strong.
I wasn’t kidding about a lot of broth.
At this point, turn the heat up and let it simmer. You’ve got the fuck ton of broth, so this will take a while. That’s ok, you have something else to do.
Take your loaf and bread and tear it up into small chunks. Dump some parm cheese in there on top of it. Add spices if you want – sometimes we add bits of the carrots and celery in there, too. Yummy.
Melt more butter – one loaf of regular sized French bread equals about a stick a butter. Beat in two or three eggs into the butter. Pour over the top of the bread chunks.
Remove rings, stick your hands in the bread and butter mess, and squish to a uniform consistency.
Add in your small shaped pasta to the broth – not a ton, maybe a fourth of the box. You want to add this now, as you don’t want the pasta to get overcooked.
Back to your bread and butter mess. Pinch of a chunk and make a ball out of it. Add more butter or more bread if you can’t make a ball. It needs to be tightly packed – here’s one in Brandus’ hand to help you get an idea of size. No bigger then 2 inches, really.
Feel free to enlist help.
Make all the butterballs, and drop them in the soup. They’ll sink immediately, which is what you want.
The butterballs will float when they’re done.
Serve – 3 or 4 butterballs, some pasta and veggies and broth, and sprinkle with mozzarella. YUM.
If you make it, let me know. I’m curious to know what you think!
