That's Greek to me!

Who needs dancing when we have yummy Greek meatball soup with a super Greek salad and grilled pita bread! Our Souper Tueday gathering was a little smaller this week. We were missing Erica and Marybeth and Ryan's family. Some weeks are just like that!

Bruce entertained the troops by relating how we started going together..Since it involved sand, piggyback racing, ambulance, surgery, and subsequent recovery, and a row boat, it was quite a story. The best part was that he hooked me in with a phony limp and the need to put his arm around me. Seems like yesterday not 49 years ago!

I digress. The soup was fairly easy to make except that the recipe (than you, Food Network!) didn't call for any egg in the meatball mixture. Some of the meatballs fell apart so I'd add an egg to the mix next time I made them.

2 cups chicken broth
2 14-oz cans of fire roasted tomatoes with Green chilies. ( Jesse our shopper this week had trouble finding these in our local markets. He was able to get them at a Whole Foods.)
1 lg red onion roughly chopped
1 cup fresh dill
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 cup pimento-stuffer gree olives (I made one batch without these and one batch with)
4 slices of bread
1 egg
1 lb of ground beef
1 14-ox can of butter beans (drained and rinsed)
1 zucchini quartered and cut into small pieces
1 lemon

Prepare onion, olives and spices including the fresh dill by finely copping in a food processor. In the meantime, Bring broth and tomatoes to a boil over med heat. Add half the onion-spice mixture into the tomato mixture.
Crumble the bread in a blender, add to onion-spice mixture and mix in the ground beef. Add an eggs and mix until well blended. Roll into 1 inch meatballs. Drop gently into the soup mixture and simmer for about 10 minutes.
Add the beans and zucchini. Simmer for about 5 minutes or until the zucchini is tender. Squeeze the juice of one lemon into the soup just before serving.
Original recipe from the Food Network Magazine, May 2013.

If you' like to make grilled pita, brush both sides with olive oil. Use a pizza cutter to cut each pita into 6 pieces. Bake in a 400 degree oven- about 5 minutes on each side. These were delicious warm or cooled.

Serve with a tossed Greek salad (thank you, Barbara) and a fabulous sherry laden coconut cake from our resident pastry chef, Arlene!

Enjoy! Next up- Black Bean Soup!