Italian Wedding Soup
Like any good Italian dish, some parmesan cheese is the perfect topping to complete this soup.
Ingredients
Turkey Meatballs
- 2 tbsp olive oil for cooking
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
Soup
- 1 large yellow onion chopped
- 1 1/2 cups carrot (about 2-3 large) chopped
- 1 1/2 cups celery (about 3-4 stocks) chopped
- 1 tsp oregeno
- 8 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup uncooked orzo
- 5 oz spinach chopped
- 2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese optional
Instructions
- In a medium bowl mix together the ground turkey, egg, breadcrumbs, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, salt, and black pepper.
- Heat a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat and drizzle with olive oil. Once hot, form golfball-sized rounds with the ground turkey and add into the pot in a single layer. You may need to cook the meatballs in 2 batches.
- Cook the meatballs for 2-4 minutes per side until they get a nice brown color. You do not need to cook the meatballs all the way through. Once done place in a bowl to the side.
- In the same pot, drizzle one more tablespoon of olive oil. Add onion and saute for 3 minutes, or until translucent.
- Add carrots, celery, and Italian seasoning. Cook for roughly 3 minutes.
- Add in the chicken broth. Once simmering, pour the orzo and meatballs back in. Simmer, covered for about 15 minutes. Mix every couple of minutes, making sure the orzo doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot.
- After 15 minutes, mix in the spinach and lemon juice. Stir for a minute or two, until the spinach is wilted.
- Serve and top with parmesan cheese!
Notes
You can substitute the ground turkey for ground chicken if you want.
Feel free to use other small pasta in place of orzo like ditalini.
You can make this vegetarian by holding out the meatballs and using vegetable broth instead of chicken broth.