Gumball Soup Recipe

Have you ever heard of gumball soup? Yeah, I hadn’t either until my friend Meredith was chatting about making it the other day on Facebook! Turns out she got the idea on Pinterest and after perusing a few recipes for inspiration, I decided to give it a try!

The cool thing about this soup is that it’s a fun way to sneak more veggies into your kids’ diet – the soup base is comprised of carrots, celery, and onion. This soup is also a wonderful (and subtle!) remedy for that spouse suffering with bad breath. Not only does this soup have gumballs, it’s seasoned with parsley and fennel seeds.

I purchased my gumballs in bulk at WinCo for about $2.50/lb. It’s a great way to go if you don’t have gumballs on hand and just need enough for this special recipe. Of course, we enjoyed the leftover gumballs for dessert!

Here’s what you need:

• 1 cup gumballs (organic, gluten-free preferred)
• 1 carrot
• 1 celery
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 tsp fennel
• 1 bunch parsley
• 4 cups chicken broth (homemade chicken broth preferred)
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Start by soaking your gumballs. This will remove the colorful coating, which is mostly sugar based and not something you want in your soup. I also have found that not soaking your gumballs ahead of time leads to a really unfortunate brown soup which no one will find appetizing.

Start by sauteing your onion, carrots, and celery in a large pot in a bit of olive oil. Season liberally with salt and pepper.

After a couple minutes, go ahead and add your fennel seeds and parsley. Don’t omit these ingredients! Remember, they are essential to combine with the gumballs for freshening breath!

After several minutes of cooking, puree the soup in a blender. Having this soup pureed will mean that there are no “chunks” to compete with the delicate texture of the gumballs in the soup!

I definitely could detect the smell of fennel seed in my soup base! *Drools*

At this point, your gumballs should be done soaking and ready for souping. It took mine about 10 minutes total to get to the natural white state. Note: you might find it helpful to change out the water a few times and then do a good thorough final rinse.

Ladle your soup into bowls and then add the gumballs. Now this soup was just delicious – my daughter asked for seconds! The only downside to this soup is that it’s not so great served as leftovers as the gum will all melt together and make an impenetrable mass at the bottom of your soup bowl. It’s also not a suitable recipe for freezer cooking (unless you freeze it without the gumballs and just add them fresh).

And there you have it! A fun soup that the whole family will enjoy!

PS – If you happen to have leftover gumballs, try these fun ideas!

• Gumball Salad
• Gumball Wraps
• Gumball Gumbo
• Gumball Muffins

PSS – Make sure to read this important disclaimer about today’s recipe before attempting!