Italian Wedding Soup
I was in the mood for soup with turkey meatballs. This recipe is based on Italian Wedding Soup with Turkey Meatballs and Orzo by Lyuba, which I liked for its speed and lack of foreign roots like carrots and celery. I altered the recipe significantly to make it non-dairy, spice up the meatballs a bit, and cut the stock down to a quantity that fits both my budget and my heavy soup pot. As a consequence, I only got about four servings out of it.
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 lb ground turkey
- ¼ c. onion, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 T parsley, minced
- ½ c. panko
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ tsp pepper
- 1 tsp sage
- dash thyme
- 2 tsp nutritional yeast (optional)
- 1 egg, beaten
- olive oil
Soup
- 2 T. olive oil
- ½ c. onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 4 c. chicken stock
- 1 c. water
- 6–8 c./1 bunch chopped greens: escarole, collards, kale, chard, or a mix thereof
- 2/3–¾ c. orzo
- ¼ tsp salt (or however much the stock still needs)
- ¼ tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 egg, beaten
Directions
- Mix meatball ingredients except oil.
- Roll meatballs as small as you can tolerate, possibly with the help of a tablespoon.
- Brown meatballs in oil in a heavy pot.
- Remove meatballs if you need the space, and brown onions and garlic in the same pot.
- Return meatballs to pan if they left. Add stock and water. Bring to a boil.
- Add spices, orzo, and greens. Cook for the recommended orzo cooking time (about 10 minutes).
- Stir in the egg slowly to get that egg-drop look. Cook 2 more minutes.
Variants
You could make the meatballs out of another ground meat, though in that case you might (or might not) want to adjust the meatball spices. E.g., for 1 lb. ground beef, replace the 1 tsp sage with 1 tsp basil and dash some marjoram, oregano, and/or the thyme. (Italian seasoning is not an Italian thing, but you can use 1 tsp of that instead if you have it.) See More Meatballs for more details.
Any small pasta can be used in place of the orzo; adjust the cooking time for that step accordingly and use about a quarter of a pound.
Sometimes I cook the pasta outside of the soup to keep it from sucking up too much broth.
One variant is official: Spinach Wedding Soup