I found this Italian Wedding Soup recipe in a magazine, and it reminded me of some of the restaurants in my neighbourhood in New York City, where I grew up. Today was the perfect day to make a big batch – cold and rainy.
As I almost always do, I doctored it a bit, and I share this healthier version with you here. It’s chock full of good protein from the beans and the ground turkey and has plenty of vegetables too. It’s a nice filling soup that’s more like a stoup – hearty and satisfying.
If you have some Italian bread – even better! Pair this Italian wedding soup with a glass of wine too!
Italian Wedding Soup
Print RecipeIngredients
- Turkey Meatballs Ingredients
- 1 pound of ground turkey
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 small handful of chopped parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon of crushed fennel seeds or powdered fennel seed
- 1 egg
- Enough breadcrumbs to get the consistency you want
- Salt and pepper
- Soup Ingredients
- 1 cup of chopped onions
- 1 cup of chopped carrots
- 1 cup of chopped celery
- 1 cup of kale
- 1 cup of chopped cabbage
- 1 crushed garlic clove
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
Meatball Instructions
- While the traditional Italian Wedding Soup recipe calls for frying the meatballs in a pan, I prefer the healthier option.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, combine all of the above ingredients together.
- Then, using the teaspoon scooper, scoop out the mixture, place on foil on a cookie sheet, and bake for 10 to 12 minutes.
- Cook, but not all the way through. Turn off the oven, keep them in the oven until you’re ready to put them in the soup.
Soup Instructions
- It’s the usual mirepoix of equal parts chopped onion, celery, and carrot. Heat olive oil, cook the mirepoix for about 7 minutes until onions are softened.
- Add some salt and pepper, add the can of white beans, a full cup of kale (any variety, or use escarole, or spinach – or all!), a full cup of chopped cabbage. I like to add a lot of chopped parsley too. If you have fennel bulbs in the fridge, all the more delicious. It picks up on the fennel seeds in the meatballs.
- Once all of the soup ingredients in the pot are soft, add the meatballs in and use 6 cups of chicken broth – maybe mix with a bit of water if the meatballs start absorbing a lot of the liquid.
- Simmer for just a few minutes and enjoy this fantastic Italian Wedding Soup recipe.
