Try This Matzah Ball Soup for Passover

Come Passover on Monday evening, Remy Carroll will be making the soup she fell in love with years ago when she met her husband Doug’s family.

Using a recipe her mother-in-law Diane Carroll of Malibu gave her, she’ll follow years of Carroll family tradition and serve Matzah Ball Soup (Malibuites may know Diane Carroll in another realm—as a board member and frequent director at ).

She will start with a fresh whole chicken, and into the pot will go carrots, onions, celery and parsnips.

“I watched her make the soup, and I was trying to figure out what makes it taste the way it does, and it’s the parsnips,” Remy said.

Leave those out, and it just isn’t the Carroll family soup. Throw in some tradition and love too.

“I cook from experience and my heart,” Remy said.

Remy has a few other tricks up her sleeve, some of which she learned while making the soup for hundreds of schoolchildren at . She is a member of the Soup Cooks at Webster—a merry band of good cooks who volunteer to make soup each week, and serve it to Webster's 350 students.

1. Make the matzah balls small, because they do expand. For the Webster kids, she makes them the size of a dime, so each child gets a couple and they stretch to feed all. For home, she makes them the size of a walnut. “The smaller the matzah ball, the quicker it is to cook,” she observes.
2. If you are serving it to children and aren’t sure they want green stuff like parsley floating in the soup, leave the fresh parsley sprigs whole, tie them together and dip them in the boiling soup to impart the flavor. Then before serving, fish out the parsley bundle and toss it. If you have adventurous eaters who accept parsley, you can simply chop the parsley and add it to the soup near the end of the cooking time.
3. She often also adds egg noodles because the kids—both at school and at home—love them.

Although Remy is a Filipina Catholic (“I’m not religious, I go with the flow”), her husband’s side of the family is Jewish, and they are presenting both sets of traditions as their children Joshua and Julia (first grade), and Emma (second grade) mature. 

“We celebrate both—Christmas, Hanukkah, Passover—it’s a good way for the kids to learn,” Remy said. “It’s good for them to be exposed to many different ideas. Then they can decide for themselves when they grow up.

“Chicken matzah ball soup is a great Jewish tradition. It also makes you feel better if you have a cold or are sick, so I make it whether it is a holiday or not!”

CHICKEN MATZAH BALL SOUP

Source: Remy Carroll

“Parsnips and parsley are the key ingredients that give it that great aroma,” she says.

Serves 10-12.

Cooking time: 1.5-2 hours

1 whole chicken, rinsed

2 whole onions, peeled

4 whole parsnips

1 pound carrots

1 bunch celery

1 bunch Italian parsley

3 teaspoons salt (or to taste)

1 teaspoon ground pepper (or to taste)

1 package Manischewitz Matzah Ball Mix

2 eggs

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

In a large stockpot or soup pot, pour about 20 cups of water and bring to a boil. Add the whole chicken and 2 whole onions and let it simmer over medium heat.

Wash parsnips, carrots, celery and parsley (bundle parsley back up after washing). Cut carrots and celery ribs into bite-size pieces about 1/4 to 1/2-inch thick. Add whole parsnips and cut carrots and celery into the pot and let it simmer on medium heat for about 1 hour or so. Add 3 teaspoons of salt and 1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper, to taste.

Remove whole chicken from the soup, place it in a bowl or on a cutting board and let it cool. Once cool enough to handle, remove chicken meat from bones and shred or cut it into bite-size pieces, then add the chicken back into the soup.

While the soup is simmering, prepare the matzah balls according to the package instructions.

(Preparing matzah balls is very easy and my kids are expert in making them since they have fun doing it. One packet of the matzah balls mix makes at least 12 matzah balls the size of a walnut, so I use two packets since my kids love them in their soup.)

In a small bowl, blend 2 eggs and 2 tablespoons vegetable oil. Add contents of one matzah ball mix packet and stir with fork until evenly mixed. (For two packets, double amount of everything – 4 eggs, 4 tablespoons of vegetable oil.) Chill matzah ball mixture in refrigerator for about 15 minutes. Remove chilled mixture from refrigerator. Wet hands with water and form batter into walnut-size balls. 

Drop matzah balls into the simmering soup and add in the washed bundle of parsley. Let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes, then remove and discard parsley bundle.

Serve hot, making sure to get chicken, vegetables and matzah balls into every serving. Add cooked egg noodles to each bowl to make it heartier if you like.

Adding egg noodles: I also like to add wide egg noodles to the soup, which makes it hearty. To do this, prepare the noodles separately by boiling a pot of water and then adding egg noodles. Cook for 8-10 minutes. Drain noodles and put in a separate bowl. Add noodles to each soup bowl as desired.

Matzah Ball advice: I find that if you chill the matzah ball mixture for more than 15 minutes, the matzah ball consistency when cooked is very hard, not fluffy. I made the mistake once of preparing it the night before I cooked it for the school. I figured I was being smart to cut the time of preparing it for the next day, since I had to make hundreds of little balls. But it didn't quite come out the way I wanted it to be! 

Shortcut: If you don't have hours to do the soup, you can use canned organic chicken broth instead of water. Add salt and pepper to taste, and don’t forget to add in the fresh parsley.

WHAT IS ON THE CARROLL’S PASSOVER MENU?    

• Matzah Ball Chicken Soup
• Brisket
• Roasted carrots and potatoes with whole baby onions
• Noodle Kugel