Serves: 4-6

Heart warming, this soup is rich and suitable for cold winters. It can be made with balls of kafta or simple meatballs. For the kafta-balls, you need ½ quantity of the kafta mixture (see recipe illustrated in Main Course section).

Ingredients

For meatballs (as a quick alternative to making kafta)

• 275 g / 10 oz minced lamb / beef 
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

For soup

• 1 kg / 2lb 4oz ripe tomatoes or similar amount of tinned Italian chopped tomatoes
• 1 medium onion thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1.6 litres / 2¾  pints of beef stock
• 20 g / ¾oz vermicelli broken into small pieces approximately 3 cm / 1¼ inch in length
• 25 g / 1oz fresh parsley finely chopped

Seasoning: salt, freshly milled black pepper and allspice

Method

1. Season the minced meat with salt and freshly milled black pepper and ¼ tsp allspice, mix with onions and blitz the mixture. Shape the mixture or kafta into small balls, the size of marbles. Heat up the oil in a large frying pan and sauté the balls until lightly browned. Drain excess fat on a kitchen paper. Keep on the side.
2. In a heat proof bowl pour boiling water over tomatoes and leave for 1 minute, then discard the water and let them cool down a bit before peeling off the skin. Chop them. Alternatively, use tinned chopped tomatoes.
3. Heat up the oil in the saucepan soup and sauté the onion until soft, add chopped tomatoes and give it a good stir.
4. Add beef stock to the tomatoes and onions mixture, season, give it a good stir and check the consistency of the soup. If it is too thick, thin down with water. Bring to the boil then let it simmer for about 30 minutes after which you add the kafta-balls or meatballs followed by vermicelli. Cook for another 10 minutes or until the vermicelli is cooked. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
5. Serve bubbling hot with generous amount of freshly chopped parsley sprinkled on top.