Mie Bakso Indonesian Meatball Soup With Noodles

• This bakso Indonesian meatball soup recipe has been adapted and is quicker to make than the traditional method where you do not have to make the beef stock from scratch.
• The bakso (Indonesian meatballs) are easy to make, and you can have them ready to cook in under 15 minutes.
• Bakso soup is light and healthy and a great soup any time of the year.
• The recipe is so simple to make you can even make this after work. 

Spring onions or green onions – trim the root section and use the white and most of the green part of the onion.

Garlic – use fresh garlic if you can get it but, if you can not, bottled garlic paste will also work.

Garlic powder – is used in conjunction with fresh garlic to enhance the garlic flavor.

Coriander roots are often used in Asian cooking and are full of flavor. Make sure to give them a good wash to remove the sand and dirt before using.

Salt is used in both the soup and beef meatballs to enhance the flavors.

Baking powder will give the meatballs a light and airy texture. Make sure to use only a level teaspoon because any more than that can affect the taste of the meatballs.

Tapioca flour also helps to give the meatballs a light texture as well as bind the mixture together. If you can’t get tapioca flour use, cornflour instead.

Egg white gives added moisture to the meatballs and also acts as a binding agent.

Beef stock powder flavors the meatball and will also give flavor to the soup ad the meatballs cook.

Nutmeg – freshly grated or powdered is a common ingredient found in Indonesian food.

Ground beef (minced beef) – use either regular or lean fat reduced beef mince.

Vegetable oil or peanut oil can be used.

Asian shallot is a sweet red onion used in Asian cooking. If you can not get shallots, use red onion instead or use brown onion. 

Liquid – You have a choice to use either water with beef stock powder or homemade or store-bought stocks like beef or chicken stock.

Sugar is added to the soup to balance out the flavors.

Optional Garnishes

• Noodles
• Bok choy
• Hard boiled eggs  
• Asian fried onions
• Spring onion
• Fresh chilli

• Small blender (see notes 1 and 2 below)
• Large mixing bowl
• Measuring jug
• Measuring spoons
• Kitchen scales
• Cutting board
• Sharp knife
• Large deep saucepan with lid
• Wooden spoon

Note 1: You will need a small blender or food processor to grind some ingredients into a fine paste.

Note 2: If you don’t have a grinder, you could use a large pestle and mortar and pound the ingredients into a paste or finely mince them with a knife.

How To Make Bakso Meatballs

Step 1  – Place the meatball ingredients except for the ground beef and tapioca flour in the food processor

Step 2 - Process until it becomes a smooth paste.

Step 3 – Transfer the paste from the blender into a large mixing bowl with the ground beef, and tapioca flour.

Step 4 - Mix until well combined.

Step 5 - Shaping The Meatballs

Traditionally the meatballs are made by taking a fistful of the prepared mixture and squeezing it up and between the thumb and forefinger, creating an oval-shaped ball.

However, this can be tricky to master and messy with the mixture oozing out between your fingers.

So, the next best option is to roll the mixture into balls between the palms of your hands, just as you would any other meatball.

We usually make about 40 meatballs for this soup, and each beef ball is about 20 grams (0.7 ounces).

• Tip: Wet your hands when shaping the meatballs to stop the mixture from sticking to your hands as you roll it into balls. 

Making the soup and cooking the meatballs

As mentioned earlier this, is a quick and easy recipe to make, and here is where we make some shortcuts.

The traditional way is to cook the meatballs in boiling water and then transfer them to a bone broth soup. It takes hours to make a bone broth from scratch - and this needs to be several days ahead of time.

What we are going to do is to make a simple soup and cook the bakso in that.

So, here’s how to make my quick Indonesian bakso soup recipe.

Step 6 – Heat some oil in a large deep saucepan, add the onions and fry until golden and add the garlic and cook for a minute more.

Step 7 – Add the liquid to the pot along with the sugar and fresh ginger. Bring to the boil, turn down the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Step 8 – Turn up the heat and carefully add the meatballs to the soup.

Step 9 – The raw meatballs will sink to the bottom of the pot, and when cooked, will float to the top. When they have floated to the top, allow them to cook for a few more minutes.

Step 10 – Before removing the meatballs from the soup, check that they cooked through by splitting one in half.

Step 11 – Taste the soup for seasoning and adjust if necessary. You can either leave the meatballs in the soup and serve straight away or remove the meatballs and allow them to cool. To reheat, put the meatballs back into the hot soup to warm through.

Eat the meatballs with just the broth, or serve with noodles of your choice and garnished with:

• hard-boiled eggs
• steamed bok choy
• finely sliced spring onions
• slices of fresh chili
• dried onion flakes and garlic flakes

If you are serving with egg noodles, the egg noodles can be heated by placing them into hot water for just a minute or two or until soft and warmed through, then drain and serve.

If using rice vermicelli (also known as bee hoon or bihun), place the noodles into a heat-proof bowl. Next, pour over some boiling water and allow it to stand in the water until softened.

It can take anywhere between 5 - 10 minutes or more, depending on the brand you are using. Drain well before serving.

You might also like to know:

• These beef bakso balls will darken as they cool to room temperature.
• If left in the hot soup for too long, they will swell and puff up due to the egg-white and baking powder and shrink again when cooled.
• Bakso is soft and tender to the bite.
• These cooked beef balls can also be sliced and added to stir-fries.

What is bakso made off?

Bakso is an Indonesian term for meatballs and can also refer to meatball soup. You can use meats like:

• Beef = Bakso Sapi
• Chicken = Baskso Ayam
• Pork = Bakso Babi
• Fish = Bakso Ikan
• Prawns = Bakso Udan
• Vegetables = Bakso Sayuran (or Sayur)

All of which are ground into a mince and combined with various seasons and flavorings, then shaped into balls.