My step-daughter, Kelly, was here for her 2-week summer visit recently, and I thought that would be a good time to test out a cookbook by Jerry Seinfeld’s wife, Jessica, called Deceptively Delicious.
The reviews for this book on Amazon aren’t great, but I must have just hit the jackpot with the recipes I chose. They were all good! Admittedly, I cheated a little on this first recipe and bought frozen meatballs instead of making my own, but instead of putting sweet potato puree in the meatballs, I just threw it in the soup itself. Still got the vegetables eaten!
It wasn’t until I started actively cooking this that it occurred to me I didn’t know exactly what the author meant by “puree,” and it wasn’t until I started making this post that I bothered to check through the book and see if puree was clarified. It was, and it looks to be super complicated and a lot of effort, so I’m going to just give you the steps to do what I did. (Spoiler alert: I put them in the blender.)
If you really want to include puree in your recipe, here is a great resource for making all sorts of veggie purees.
I do think, though, that anyone who has to hide all the vegetables they want their kids eat should probably have a conversation with my mother. We had to taste everything. Period. Full stop. It didn’t stunt our growth, or our development, or our personalities, and I don’t think I’m any worse for the wear. Just have your kid try it.
This is not a parenting blog, though, so let’s get on with the soup!
In the following video, I interviewed Kelly to see if she noticed anything off about her soup. 9-year-olds are pretty entertaining. . . (It’s about 3 minutes long.)
Meatball Soup
- 3 oz. bowtie pasta
- 1 Tbsp. olive oil, plus more to cook onion and garlic with
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 28-oz. can whole peeled tomatoes (with juice)
- 1/4 cup carrots, put through the blender (to equal 1/4 cup, not 1/4 cup put in the blender)
- 1 1/2 tsp. salt
- 3 cups beef broth (chicken is OK, too)
- 1/4 cup sweet potato, put through the blender (same method of measuring)
- Two bags frozen meatballs
- Parmesan cheese, if wanted
