Matzo ball soup gets extra flavor from one simple step

I am passionate about making sure that everyone who visits my house has plenty to eat and doesn’t feel left out just because they have an allergy or a dietary restriction. Which means I have learned that my favorite food of all time, classic matzo ball soup, can be made successfully without chicken.

Today I am so pleased to share my vegetarian version of the soup, full of what I hope are the best matzo balls you’ve ever had. This soup can be made during Passover, which starts April 22, or anytime you want a pot of soulful soup.

I cannot make matzo ball soup without thinking of my Aunt Renee, one of my mother’s sisters, who taught me everything I know about how to fill a table with food. How to feel abundance. My mother’s parents fled Eastern Europe during the pogroms, and my mother and her sisters all found different ways of channeling that eternal anxiety. For Aunt Renee, it was cooking more food than she needed at all times. No matter what happened, if you were near her, you would not be hungry.

Aunt Renee made the best chicken soup, and she made it so often that her apartment always smelled like it. I’m sure there was chicken fat in her curtains. She died when I was in college. I wrote an obituary for her in the New York Times that said, “I’ll take care of the soup.”

I have a feeling she’d still enjoy this chicken-less version, though. Especially because my matzo ball recipe is based on hers. But there’s one small change: Instead of just mixing the matzo meal with eggs, a little seltzer and oil, I take an extra step. First, I toast the matzo meal in oil. These toasted crumbs take on a nutty, rich flavor, just like the difference between a plain piece of white bread and a piece of buttered toast. Then, I mix everything together. I season the mix with salt and a little bit of chopped parsley, more for color than anything else.

A few things to keep in mind if you’ve never made matzo balls:

• The mixture needs to sit in the fridge for at least 45 minutes before you form and cook them. (The mixture can be refrigerated in a container for up to a few days.) Chilling is essential, because it allows the matzo meal to absorb the liquid from the eggs and seltzer and get firm and easy to roll. If you try to form matzo balls immediately after making the mix, it won’t work. So don’t do that! Wait. It’s worth it.

• Before you roll the matzo balls, wet your hands with cold water. Then the mixture won’t stick to your hands.

• Cook the matzo balls in a separate pot of water — not directly in the soup. This ensures that they don’t cloud the broth, which should be, as Aunt Renee would always tell me, “as clear as crystal.”

My final note about this recipe is that the last step is crucial. Adding not only fresh herbs (parsley and dill) to the soup, but also raw, minced garlic, is the difference between OK vegetable soup and extraordinary vegetable soup. For what it’s worth, this is something I also do with chicken soup. That hit of garlic right at the end makes a huge impact.

Matzo Ball Soup With Vegetables, Chickpeas and Herbs

This recipe delivers all the satisfaction of chicken soup with matzo balls, minus the chicken. The trick to the matzo balls below is toasting the matzo meal first to give it more flavor. If you are celebrating Passover, note that kitniyot (which include legumes, beans and some grains, such as rice) are now allowed for the holiday by some communities, though this isn’t universally accepted, so be sure to check with your guests.

Make ahead: The matzo ball mixture needs to be assembled, covered and refrigerated for at least 45 minutes and up to 4 days in advance.

Storage: Refrigerate the soup and matzo balls separately for up to 4 days.

For the matzo balls

1/4 cup olive oil

1 cup matzo meal

1 teaspoon fine salt

4 large eggs

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley (optional)

1/4 cup seltzer

For the soup

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 large yellow onion (12 ounces), finely chopped

2 large carrots (4 ounces total), peeled and diced

2 celery stalks, diced

1 large zucchini (10 ounces), ends trimmed, diced

Fine salt

Freshly ground black pepper

10 cups no-salt-added vegetable broth or vegetarian no-chicken broth (see Substitutions)

1 (10-ounce) package frozen spinach, no need to defrost

2 (15-ounce) cans no-salt-added chickpeas, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/2 cup finely chopped fresh dill

2 garlic cloves, minced or finely grated

Make the matzo ball mixture: In a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the matzo meal and cook, stirring, until it smells nutty and is golden brown, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl, sprinkle with the salt and let cool completely.

Add the eggs, parsley, if using, and seltzer to the cooled matzo mixture and whisk together until thoroughly combined. The mixture will look loose, and you might be tempted to add more matzo meal, but please don’t — or else you’ll end up with dense, tough matzo balls instead of airy ones. Cover the bowl and refrigerate until the matzo meal absorbs the liquid and the mixture firms up, at least 45 minutes and up to 4 days.

Cook the matzo balls: When you’re ready to eat, bring a large pot of water to a boil and season it generously with salt.

Wet your hands and fill a small bowl of water, then scoop the matzo meal mixture into 16 uniform balls (each should weigh about 1 ounce), placing them onto a large plate or sheet pan as you work and re-wetting your hands in the bowl as necessary to prevent sticking. Gently slide the matzo balls into the boiling water and reduce the heat so the water is at a gentle simmer. The balls will sink at first, then float to the top. Cover the pot and cook until the matzo balls are cooked through and start to sink back to the bottom of the pot (that’s how you know they’re done), about 30 minutes.

Make the soup: While the matzo balls cook, in a large, heavy pot (such as a Dutch oven) over medium-high heat, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the onion, carrots, celery and zucchini, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables just begin to soften, about 8 minutes. Add the broth, increase the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil. Immediately decrease the heat to low, and stir in the spinach and chickpeas. Cook until the vegetables are tender and the spinach is thoroughly heated through, about 10 minutes. Taste, and season with additional salt, if needed. Just before serving, stir in the parsley, dill and garlic.

To serve, divide the matzo balls evenly among eight soup bowls and ladle the hot soup on top.

Substitutions: No broth? Use a Better Than Bouillon product, such as its No Chicken Base, dissolved in 10 cups of boiling water, following the ratio on the package instructions. If you can’t have kitniyot (which include legumes and beans), just skip the chickpeas. To make it gluten-free, use gluten-free matzo meal (or gluten-free matzo ball mix and follow the package instructions).

Serves 8 (makes 14 cups soup and 16 matzo balls)

Nutrition per serving (2 matzo balls and 1 3/4 cups soup): 347 calories, 44g carbohydrates, 93mg cholesterol, 14g fat, 7g fiber, 12g protein, 2g saturated fat, 509mg sodium, 5g sugar

— From cookbook author Julia Turshen.