Lemon Parmesan Chicken Meatball Soup

For the Mid-Century Modern Romantic Recipes, I really want to include both food I’m making and loving in my own kitchen as well as recipes inspired by books and movies we discuss on the site. My recipe for Lemon Parmesan Chicken Meatball Soup came out of the glorious food descriptions that Lynda Cohen Loigman serves in her new novel, THE LOVE ELIXER OF AUGUSTA STERN. In the book, 80 year old Augusta Stern has just retired from her career as a pharmacist and moved to a retirement community in Boca Raton. There, she is dismayed when she runs into another resident, a man she was in love with as a teenager when they were both working at her father’s pharmacy. The book tells their story both as teenagers in the 1920s and in the present day 1980s.

One of the things we learn in the past is that at a young age, Augusta’s mother died of diabetes before insulin was invented. Augusta’s father, a pharmacist had all the medicines in the world, but not the one that could save his beloved wife. His stern sister-in-law, Esther, agrees to move in and help with Augusta and her sister Bess in their apartment above the pharmacy. Esther was a homeopath, and sometimes made soup for customers that weren’t being helped with the modern medicine of the time, much to Augusta’s father’s frustration. But can special soup really help with menopause, infertility, or even as a love potion?

The soup that Esther makes is described in such amazing, fragrant language throughout the book. Hers has these little Russian meat filled dumplings in it that sound so mouthwatering–there are characters, like Augusta’s friend Irving, who gobble down three bowls when they first have it.

My lemon parmesan chicken meatball soup may make no medical claims (other than your standard perfect-for-a-cold type remedy), but it’s just as warming and welcoming that I think Irving would be happy to eat three bowls of it as well. The parmesan and lemon both give the meatballs themselves a lightness–they’re soft and pillowy and distinctly lemony. Making them the heart of this soup is just a no-brainer. My favorite part is the lemon and parmesan in the broth itself. I used the juice of 2 lemons–feel free to use less or more depending how lemony you want the soup to be. But it’s that parmesan rind that’s really the secret weapon here making the soup have that salty cheesy parmesan bite to the broth. Save a little extra chicken broth for adding to your leftovers…if there are any.

I’m not sure if this soup will usher in a new romance to your life, but I can guarantee you’ll be sure to fall in love with this recipe.

Heart full.