A meatball and noodle soup, it is quite probable that the Filipino almondigas is an adaptation of the Mexican meatball soup called albondigas.
In Spanish, albondigas means meatballs. The meatballs is made with ground meat and rice. The broth is reddish because of the addition of tomatoes or tomato sauce.
The meatballs in Filipino almondigas contain no rice. Surprisingly, rice is present in the soup albeit in another form. Misua, fine rice noodles that originated in China, is added to the soup toward the end of cooking. Unlike Mexican albondigas, the broth of Filipino almondigas is clear because tomatoes are not included in the ingredients.
This is an old recipe from my grandmother — with a few personal tweaks.
First, bone broth. My grandmother used plain water as a base for the soup and relied heavily on the spice base and the flavors in the meatballs that find their way into the liquid. I use bone broth for my almondigas for a richer flavor.
Second, I added grated carrot to the meatballs for more flavor, texture and color.
Apart from those two, it’s still my grandmother’s almondigas.
Almondigas
Ingredients
For the meatballs
- 1/2 kilo ground lean pork
- 1/2 piece of carrot grated
- 1 whole onion finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 whole egg lightly beaten
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
To complete the dish
- 3/4 cup cooking oil
- 5 cups bone broth
- 3 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 small onion sliced
- salt and pepper (if broth is unsalted)
- 2 bundles misua
- 3/4 cup finely sliced scallions
Instructions
- Mix together all the ingredients for the meat balls, except the flour. Form into balls about 2 inches in diameter.
- Heat a wok or skillet. Pour in the cooking oil until it starts to smoke. Roll each meat ball in flour and fry in hot oil, rolling the balls around in oil to brown evenly. Once lightly browned, remove from the wok or skillet and drain on paper towels.
- Heat a large saucepan or casserole. Transfer 1 tbsp. of cooking oil from the skillet or wok.
- Saute the garlic and onion until the onion is soft.
- Pour in the broth. Bring to a boil.
- Add the meat balls. Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Adjust seasonings, as needed. Turn off the heat.
- Add the misua and cover for another 5 minutes.
- Transfer to a soup tureen and top with sliced scallions. Serve hot.
If you cooked this dish (or made this drink) and you want to share your masterpiece, please use your own photos and write the cooking steps in your own words.
Hello and welcome! I'm a retired lawyer and columnist, wife for 28 years, mom of two, and a passionate cook. What is this blog about? Recipes for dishes 
Bangus Fritters
thanks for sharing your recipes. they are very straight forward. I’ll try some of them.. :smile:
you’re welcome, zaifie. hope you enjoy them. :smile:
Your “almondigas” may have come from the Spanish “Albondigas” literally meaning “meatballs”… Of course, since they’re so close in pronunciation, someone probably wasn’t reading it and was listening in a far away manner.
In some countries, albondigas while known as meatballs can also be used as profanity… to describe a rather male part…
RhB, maybe it’s a kind of “lost in pronunciation” instead of “lost in translation”… :grin:
I’ve been visiting your site for two years now, and frequent it especially when I’m away for school and have no mother to cook Filipino food for me.
I just want to say that I think almondigas in Spain is actually meatballs simmered in tomatoes, garlic, onion, and herb mixture…more like an appetizer than anything else. I know, I know…traditional foods get bastardized in the colonies, but still…it’s pretty good as an appetizer.
by the way.. how do i make the 5 cups beef broth?
Recipe for home made broth :)
I love your recipe! One of the best Almondigas recipes I’ve ever tried. The recipe reminds me of rainy sunday afternoons. A must try!!!!!!
thank you, yvette. “rainy sunday afternoons” sounds so nostalgic and romantic. :)
Yah this one is realy a part of our food lives…
Si Mother ko super luto ng Almondigas pag wala ng ma-isip na ulam at tamad ng magluto.. Har Har Har!! I can still remember how it was easy for her to prepare this for us…
Ikaw talaga Mam Sassy, cant help but reminsicin the good old days when I had so much fun with my Mom.. Don’t get me wrong, my mom still alive and healthy, iyon nga lang malayo ako sa kanya at nasa Manila siya…
God Bless You Mam Sassy!!!
LOL and this dish always reminds me of my lola. :)
hi ms. connie!…tanong ko lang po kung kelan ia-add yung tomato paste..ty po!
Same time as the broth, Isabel.
hi miss connie, can i also add patola. thanks
hi.. pwede po.. pwede po bang walang tomatoe paste?
Try mo.
My husband and I tried this recipe and it was delicious. Only difference from our moms’ recipe is the addition of the tomato paste which was new to us. But overall, we loved it. Our son loved it too! :)
I’m not a fan of patola but that’s no reason why it can’t be added to almondigas.
Almondigas is actually not Spanish, but Portuguese.
It’s raining here in my place, am craving for a hot super yummy soup to keep me warm. Thanks for this recipe. Il try it now.
so this is what is called almondigas. i’ve always wondered what it was. we prepare this at home usually with patola…or instead of meatballs, we make fishballs using fish called bidbid…
When i was visiting my wife’s home town of Guinobatan in Bicol I tried a variation of this theme.
Stuff the meatball filling into a small chilli quatered lengthwise. Dip in batter and them deep fry gently until golden. Pick up by the stem and eat (with San Mig Light). Truly AWESOME.
To my own personal shame and disgrace I ate 30 of these in one night ;-)
Sounds like a local version of chili relleno. :)
Hello. I made this for dinner tonight and it’s really yummy. I’ve tried several recipes of almondigas already and this is best among them. But next time, I’ll forgo the tomato paste because I really don’t like the orange look on my soup and I’ll use green onions instead of leeks. Thanks for the recipe!
P.S. I deglaze the skillet I used for browning the meatballs with some of the broth in this recipe to get the yummy bits left and added it as well in the soup.
Nice tweak with the deglazing. :) All those brown bits stuck at the bottom of the pan are so flavorful!