Simple frikadellisupp remains Estonia's comfort food favorite
Year after year, the classic Estonian frikadellisupp, or meatball soup, remains the undisputed champ among food blogger Silja Luide's posted recipes.
According to Luide, the appeal lies in its simplicity — even if that simplicity is a bit deceptive.
"You might think it's a dish with hardly any ingredients and not much to do," she said. "But ever since I posted it on my blog four or five years ago, it's constantly been my most popular recipe."
She said store-bought meatballs, or frikadellid, are perfectly fine to use, despite the home-cooking reputation of the dish.
"I definitely don't think there's anything wrong with that," Luide said, but added that for those able, you can make the meatballs from scratch yourself.
Her mixture includes ground meat, eggs, salt, nutmeg and black pepper. One key detail: don't skimp on seasoning.
"You should add a whole teaspoon of salt," she said, emphasizing that this is a case where you can't really add it later.
Simple, tried and true
The soup base itself starts with gently cooked carrots and onions, which Luide says is all about texture and patience.
"The onion has to give flavor but not show up as hard pieces when you eat it," she explained, adding that this means it needs to be cooked low and slow, to avoid browning.
From there, just broth, potatoes, herbs and the namesake frikadellid round out the dish.
"It's a very straightforward food — simple, tried and true," Luide said.
"If you grate the carrots and skip the onions, it's an even quicker soup to make," she added, noting that it's really only making the meatballs from scratch that takes up much time.
More recipes can be found online searching for keywords including Latvian meatball soup, Russian meatball soup or frikadelki soup.
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Editor: Neit-Eerik Nestor, Aili Vahtla
