In my opinion, this Italian Wedding Soup is the ultimate comfort food. Meatballs, pasta, and a warm broth, there is nothing better! Make this soup on any snowy or cold night this winter and you won't regret it!
Did you know that Italian Wedding Soup actually has nothing to do with Weddings? Mind blown, right!! It's calling Italian Wedding Soup because of the wedding of the different flavors in the soup. The meaty broth, the vegetables, and the soup are the perfect wedding!
How do we make this soup?
Traditionally, this soup is made with pork meatballs or a combination of a few different meats. I chose to use turkey for this soup. I chose 85/15 turkey meat to you still get a little bit of fat, but nothing too much. That keeps the meatballs nice and moist while they cook.
There are a lot of greens in this soup, but to up the nutrition even more, I added zucchini to the meatballs. You can actually do this with any meatballs. I find that zucchini has basically no flavor, so I can shred it and hide it in everything, from meatballs to lasagna filling. You can shred the zucchini with a box grater or if you would prefer you can toss it into a food processer and pulse it a few times. You just want the zucchini super small, that way it melds with the turkey and becomes unrecognizable.
The easiest way to make perfectly even meatball? Ice cream scoop! Use a small ice cream scoop, scoop the meat into your hand, and roll the meat into a little ball. I lined them up on a baking sheet like little meatball soldiers and baked them for 30 minutes. I didn't want to cook them fully in the broth, I thought that might make it too fatty and the meatballs wouldn't stay together. Baking them in the oven cooks them all evenly and at the same time, and then you can throw them in the soup when they are done.
Use whatever type of small pasta you would like. I chose whole wheat elbows, but you could use acini de pepe, ditalini, or orzo, as examples.
Check out my vegan Roasted Cherry Tomato Soup recipe here or my New England Clam Chowder recipe here!
Italian Wedding Soup
Ingredients
- 64 ounces Organic Low Fat chicken broth Usually 2 boxes
- 2 Carrots Peeled and chopped
- 1 bag Greens Spinach, kale, or chard would work
- 2 cups Small Pasta Such as ditalini, elbows, or acini de pepe
Meatballs
- 1 lb Ground Turkey 85/15 blend
- 2 Eggs
- 1 teaspoon Ground garlic
- 1 teaspoon Oregano
- 1 cup Italian bread crumb
- 1 Zucchini shredded
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375°
- In a large bowl, combine the meatball ingredients and mix everything together until it is well combined. Once everything is well combined, use an ice cream scoop to scoop the meat out into your hand and roll it into a ball. Place it on a cookie sheet and continue until all the meatballs are made. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
- While the meatballs are baking, peel and dice the carrots. Empty the chicken broth into a large pot and then add the carrots. Turn the heat on medium and let that cook while the meatballs cook.
- When the meatballs are done, add them to the pot of broth and let that cook and come to a slow boil. When it starts to boil, add pasta and let that cook for another 10 minutes. Season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve immediately.
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