Good for You, LCHF, Main courses, Shabbos, Soup

RECIPE: Meat Soup: The Yemenite Version of Jewish Penicillin

| by Eliyahu Mintz
Yemenite Meat Soup

No Friday night meal is complete without chicken soup. That is, if one is Ashkenazi. And of course, chicken soup is folk medicine, too, having had its healing powers verified by the medical establishment. But not all the Jews went to Eastern Europe, and the Jews who ended up in Yemen, have their own healing broth. They call it marak basar, or “meat soup” and it’s loaded with healing goodness, every bit as much as the Ashkenazi chicken “elixir.”

Earlier, I linked to Michael Solomonov’s recipe for Yemenite meat soup. But since that time, I’ve developed my own low carb high fat version and it’s much, much better (if I say so myself). If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you have been making and enjoying bone broth and hopefully, putting some away in the freezer. Take some of that bone broth out of the freezer and use it to make this soup. Now.

It’s really good. Your family won’t know that they’re getting a bowlful of minerals and other good stuff.

But you will.

Meat Soup

Yield: 10 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds (or more) boneless short ribs, cubed
  • 3 tablespoons hawaij spice for soup
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 onions, thinly sliced
  • 4 cloves garlic, halved lengthwise
  • 1 marrow bone
  • 4 tomatoes
  • 1 bunch cilantro
  • 2½ quarts bone broth
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 4 turnips, peeled and cut into chunks
  • 3 tablespoons almond flour (or more)
  • chopped (for garnish)

Instructions

  1. Dredge meat with hawaij. Arrange meat in single layer in nonstick large Dutch oven. Brown meat on all sides over medium heat. Remove meat to a plate, and reserve.
  2. Add olive oil to Dutch oven. Add onions and garlic and sauté 5-6 minutes, scraping pan with spatula to loosen caramelized meat juices from bottom of pan.
  3. Return meat to pot. Add marrow bone.
  4. Slash tomatoes in three places, keeping them whole. Add to pot.
  5. Add bone broth to almost cover vegetables and meat. Bring soup to a boil over high heat.
  6. Lower heat to medium and simmer for 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
  7. Reduce heat to low. Simmer soup for 2 ½ hours, covered.
  8. Add chopped turnips and almond flour to soup. Simmer for 30-45 minutes or until meat is tender and soup slightly thickens. If soup is not thick enough, you can add almond flour by the tablespoon until it reaches the texture you like.
  9. Remove tomatoes and cilantro, serve soup with marrow bone on the side, for one lucky diner.

Note: delicious served with hilbeh, a traditional Yemenite fenugreek sauce.