The Best Italian Wedding Soup Recipe! This recipe for Italian Wedding Soup is easy to make and loaded with flavor. A delicious, cozy dinner!
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Italian wedding soup is a staple in our family and while we still love our Whole30 Wedding Soup, we thought it was time to share a more traditional recipe with you.
Easily made in the crockpot, instant pot, or on the stove, this soup is packed with 6 cups of veggies and has the most adorable mini meatballs in a warm, delicious chicken broth!
If you love traditional Italian recipes, try our Pasta Fagioli, Chicken Cacciatore, or Ricotta Cavatelli!
We Love This Recipe for Italian Wedding Soup:
There is a lot to love about this yummy soup recipe. It’s one of our favorites for a healthy dinner because:
- Easily customizable – This delicious soup can be made on the stovetop, in the crockpot, or even in your instant pot.
- Cozy & Comforting– Warm orzo pasta and homemade meatballs make this soup the perfect cozy comfort meal!
- All the flavors– This soup is packed with flavorful spices like parsley, rosemary, and basil!
What is Italian Wedding Soup?
Wedding Soup is a classic Italian soup, packed with lots of green vegetables and meat.
Best Italian Wedding Soup Ingredients:
For the meatballs you’ll need:
- onion
- ground turkey
- parsley, basil, pepper
- egg
- breadcrumbs
For the soup you’ll need:
- olive oil
- garlic, onion
- celery, carrots
- rosemary, parsley, basil, pepper, bay leaves
- chicken broth
- fresh spinach
- orzo
You can find substitutions for all of these ingredients below in the green shaded box.
How To Make Italian Wedding Soup on the stovetop:
- Mix together all ingredients for meatballs until combined. On a parchment-lined baking sheet, drop 1/2-inch round meatballs. Bake meatballs at 450° for 10 minutes, until golden brown.
- While meatballs are cooking, in a large pot, heat olive oil. Add onions, celery, garlic, and carrots. Saute for 5 minutes until the onions start to soften.
- Add cooked meatballs, remaining spices, and chicken stock to the pot. Do NOT add the chopped spinach or pasta to the pot! Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes.
- 10 minutes before serving, cook pasta per directions on the package. Once the soup is cooked, stir in chopped spinach and cooked pasta.
Crockpot Recipe for Italian Wedding Soup
- Mix together all ingredients for meatballs until combined. On a parchment-lined baking sheet, drop 1/2-inch round meatballs. Bake meatballs at 450° for 10 minutes, until golden brown.
- While meatballs are cooking, in a pan, heat olive oil. Add onions, celery, garlic, and carrots. Sauté for 5 minutes until the onions start to soften. Once cooked, add to the crockpot base.
- Add cooked meatballs, remaining spices, and chicken stock to the crockpot. Do NOT add the chopped spinach or pasta! Cook the soup on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours.
- Before serving, cook pasta. Once the soup is cooked, stir in chopped spinach and serve over cooked pasta.
How To Make Italian Wedding Soup in the Instant Pot:
- Mix together all ingredients for meatballs until combined. On a parchment-lined baking sheet, drop 1/2-inch round meatballs. Bake meatballs at 450° for 10 minutes, until golden brown.
- While the meatballs are cooking, set your instant pot to sauté for 5 minutes. Add onions, celery, garlic, and carrots. Sauté for 5 minutes until the onions start to soften.
- Add cooked meatballs, remaining spices, and chicken stock to the instant pot. Do NOT add the chopped spinach or pasta to the pot! Set the instant pot to sealing and Pressure cook for 7 minutes. Allow the soup to naturally release for 5 minutes, then quickly release any remaining pressure.
- While the soup is cooking, cook pasta per directions on the package. Once the soup is cooked, stir in chopped spinach and cooked pasta.
Best Italian Wedding Soup Recipe Substitutions
Olive Oil: You can substitute avocado oil, butter, or ghee.
Ground Turkey: You can use ground beef or ground chicken instead of ground turkey in this recipe.
Bread crumbs: Any bread crumbs would work in this recipe, you can also use regular rolled oats as a healthy alternative.
Broth: Any broth or stock (broth and stock are the same) can be used in any soup recipe. Beef Broth, Chicken Broth, or vegetable broth all work interchangeably. I always use low or no-salt broth.
Orzo: White or brown rice would work instead of Orzo in this recipe. Rice also makes a great gluten-free substitute. If you prefer zoodles, try our Paleo Italian Wedding Soup.
Other vegetables: You can add cauliflower rice to this soup if you’d like. Feel free to add more carrots, celery, spinach, or onion.
Whole30 Friendly: Try our Whole30 Wedding Soup Recipe.
How To Serve Italian Soup with Turkey Meatballs
This soup is a complete meal in itself. If you’re looking for other things to pair it with try:
- Fresh bread
- A refreshing salad, we love it with our Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad or Apple Cranberry Walnut Salad
- With a side of Healthy Lemon Parmesan Roasted Asparagus
Italian Wedding Soup Recipe Storage
Storing: This will last in the refrigerator for up to 4 days in an airtight container
Freezing: You can freeze this recipe for up to 3 months. We like these containers for freezing – code CLEANEATINGCOUPLE works to save $$ on our favorite silicone molds!
Reheating: You can reheat this recipe in the microwave or on the stove.
Traditional Italian Wedding Soup FAQs
The egg in this soup is mixed into the meatball mixture.
Traditional wedding soup meatballs are made of beef, pork sausage, breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, eggs, and seasoning.
Other healthy soup recipes:
Looking for other easy soups? Check out these delicious recipes.
Click here to grab our free healthy 30 minute dinners cookbook.
Best Italian Wedding Soup
Ingredients
Meatballs:
- ½ cup onion minced
- 1 lb ground turkey
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup breadcrumbs
Soup:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- ½ tablespoon garlic minced
- ½ cup onion minced
- 1 cup celery minced
- 2 cups carrots cut in small circles
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- 6 cups chicken broth 1.5 quarts
- 2 cups chopped spinach reserved
- 1 cup orzo pasta dry
Instructions
Stovetop Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 F.
- In a bowl mix together all ingredients for meatballs until combined.
- On a parchment lined baking sheet, drop 1/2 inch round meatballs. They can be fairly close together as they do not spread. You can make the meatballs slightly bigger, but I prefer them smaller!
- Bake meatballs for 10 minutes, until golden brown.
- While meatballs are cooking, in a large pot, heat olive oil. Add onions, celery, garlic + carrots. Sauté for 5 minutes until onions start to soften.
- Add cooked meatballs, remaining spices, and chicken stock to the pot. Do NOT add the chopped spinach + or pasta to the pot! Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes.
- 10 minutes before serving, cook pasta per directions on the package in a separate pot.
- Note: It’s best to cook pasta separately to avoid over cooked pasta. You can cook the pasta in the soup, but will need an extra cup of broth.
- Once soup is cooked, stir in chopped spinach + cooked pasta.
Crockpot Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 F.
- In a bowl mix together all ingredients for meatballs until combined.
- On a parchment lined baking sheet, drop 1/2 inch round meatballs. They can be fairly close together as they do not spread. You can make the meatballs slightly bigger, but I prefer them smaller!
- Bake meatballs for 10 minutes, until golden brown.
- While meatballs are cooking, in a large pot, heat olive oil. Add onions, celery, garlic + carrots. Sauté for 5 minutes until onions start to soften. Once cooked, add to the crockpot base.
- Add cooked meatballs, remaining spices, and chicken stock to the crockpot. Do NOT add the chopped spinach + or pasta to the pot! Cook the soup on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours.
- Before serving, cook pasta. Once soup is cooked, stir in chopped spinach + serve over cooked pasta.
Instant Pot Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 F.
- In a bowl mix together all ingredients for meatballs until combined.
- On a parchment lined baking sheet, drop 1/2 inch round meatballs. They can be fairly close together as they do not spread. You can make the meatballs slightly bigger, but I prefer them smaller!
- Bake meatballs for 10 minutes, until golden brown.
- While the meatballs are cooking, set your instant pot to sauté for 5 minutes. Add onions, celery, garlic + carrots. Sauté for 5 minutes until onions start to soften.
- Add cooked meatballs, remaining spices, and chicken stock to the instant pot. Do NOT add the chopped spinach + pasta to the pot! Set the instant pot to sealing and Pressure cook for 7 minutes. Allow the soup to natural release for 5 minutes, then quick release any remaining pressure.
- While the soup is cooking, cook pasta per directions on the package in the stove.
- Once soup is cooked, stir in chopped spinach + cooked pasta.
Linda says
Delicious! I used the instant pot and it was a very easy and pretty quick meal. Flavors were spot on. I used ground chicken and just added a small amount of salt and it was perfect! Thank you
Kathy H says
LOVED this soup! Thought would be difficult, but just the opposite..
Delicious, easy and will make again! Thank you again..