Mini Matzah Ball Soup Shooters

friends, randos, people of the internet: happy almost passover!! i, for one, am UNBELIEVABLY excited about the coming weekend—i’m headed home to connecticut to spend some time with my nephews and niece, play all the board games, drink all the grape juice, and generally have the time of my life. passover, after all, is my favorite holiday. number one fave. even ranks above thanksgiving for me. there’s just something so cozy and beautiful about it…and the food is to-die-for…and my whole family comes together…and…just…it’s perf.

more on that in one of the other 3094984 posts i plan to write about this special holiday. for now, let’s get back to the point of today’s post, which iiiiisssss…the second day of the #matzahchallenge!

yes, it’s been a solid two days since the “first day” of the challenge. i know. confusing. SO SUE ME. i got a little distracted with life and work and things.

but here i am and here you are. so let us commence.

here’s a quick rundown:

my friends at UJA Federation NY enlisted me to take part in their second annual rendition of the #matzahchallenge. naturally, i couldn’t say “yes” fast enough—and ever since, my mind’s been reeling with all sorts of matzah-ified food inventions. (there is, in fact, one coming every day-ish for the next week or so!).

for the uninitiated: UJA is an awesome organization that helps millions of people in need every year, from ensuring that Holocaust survivors are taken care of to working towards alleviating hunger and poverty.

as for how the challenge works: for every matzah photo you or i or anybody posts with the hashtag #matzahchallenge, they’ll immediately make an $18 donation to someone in need.

it’s as simple (and wonderful) as that. i hope you’ll join me in making the holiday even more meaningful this year by posting your own tagged matzah pics.

all of this brings us to TODAY’S POST (how’s that for a longwinded intro?!). which is…drumroll, please…mini matzah ball soup shooters!

i was trying to brainstorm what the heck to do for the challenge after my passover cheese board (because, you know, what else is a girl to do on a sunday afternoon *besides* brainstorm matzah challenge ideas?!). i wanted something that wasn’t quite so straightforward. like, a piece of matzah with toppings on it. AMATEUR HOUR!!!

it was then that i spied these shot glasses in our pantry cabinets and knew immediately what had to be done.

cannot. get over. how cute they are. in those shot glasses.

so, where would you serve something like this?

well, if you’re hosting a seder on a budget, this is the *easiest* way to serve one batch of matzah ball soup to upwards of 30 people. yes, really: you can use the tiny matzah balls in this recipe to feed, like, a group of 40.

you’re basically just concealing your frugal ways by cloaking them in a veil of cuteness.

nobody will really care that they only got a few tiny matzah balls when they’re served in such a cute way.

at least, i wouldn’t.

i can also see this being a big hit at any millennial seder / young people’s seder. it’s just a fun, tongue-in-cheek twist on a classic and assuming you don’t have any die-hard soup fans at your table who literally only came for the soup…you’ll be fine.

another option would be to serve these at a passover party outside of a traditional seder. i do think there’s something to be said for sticking to tradition if you’ve got a crowd expecting the classics (particularly an older crowd). but on the last few nights of passover, why not just have fun and mix it up a bit?

ANOTHER option (i know, so many options!) would be to eschew passover altogether and serve the shooters at a shabbat dinner.

cutest. appetizer. ever.

i’ve included a recipe below, but first…here are a few extra tips / words to the wise.

(which i’ll probably repeat in the recipe because what am i even HERE for if not to nag you until you fling yourself out the window?! nothing, that’s what.)

without further ado, some tips:

if you think you’ve made your matzah balls small enough, you still have a ways to go!

really. you can’t just make them small. you have to make them INSANELY SMALL. like, half the size of the tip of your pinky finger. because the second they hit the boiling soup, they’re going to puff up. particularly if you make “floater” balls, which sometimes contain seltzer or baking powder. what i’d do is, make a few matzah balls to start…maybe…6 of them? then wait 3-4 minutes and see how they cook. if they don’t puff up too much, great (though i would still be wary, because…that just ain’t right). if they DO, and they’re suddenly monstrously huge, you’ll know to make them even teenier for the next batch.

use baby carrots, not regular carrots.

if you know what’s good for you / adorable for everyone else, use baby carrots for this recipe. they’re so much cuter if they’re in those perfect, penny-shaped circles. really goes well with the whole “miniature everything” theme.

“style” each shot glass individually!

that’s right! one at a time! no assembly lines here. why? well, because the shot glass creates a sort of optical illusion in which you THINK you’ve poured the right amount of soup, but really, you’ve poured much too MUCH soup, and once you add the matzah balls and carrots, it’ll overflow all over the place. just save yourself the headache and start with one at a time so you can figure out exactly how much soup is the right amount.

hint: very little. very, very little soup.

okay. RECIPE TIME!

mini matzah ball soup shooters

serves: 25-40 people

what you’ll need:

• one batch of matzah ball soup, but make the matzah balls VERY SMALL as described above (i like this recipe and this recipe, but you can also use store-bought—just always purchase the “soup + ball” mix (linked), not the one without the “soup” mix; i have learned from experience that the other mixes yield a very, very sad taste).
• a bunch of fresh dill, torn as pictured (enough to garnish however many servings of soup you’re aiming for!)
• 10-20 baby carrots, sliced into tiny rounds as pictured
• salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste!
• shot glasses!

what you’ll do:

simply assemble all the ingredients above into individual shot glasses (be careful, the soup is HOT. also, less soup is better than overflowing-onto-someone’s-lap soup!)

as i wrote above, i really recommend assembling each of these individually so as to give yourself a shot (hehhhh) at figuring out exactly what your “soup” to “other stuff” ratio should be. the first one or two glasses will be your testers.

i’d go in this order: 1-1.5 inches of soup, a few carrots, a few tiny matzah balls, a few carrots, tiny matzah ball, carrot, tiny matzah ball, and if you think you need more soup at this point, more soup. (you won’t.)

then, finish it off with a sprig of dill and serve before it gets cold!

have i mentioned BE CAREFUL IT’S REALLY HOT?

be careful! it’s really hot.