Best Italian Wedding Soup Recipe
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The Best Italian Wedding Soup Recipe! This recipe for Italian Wedding Soup is easy to make and loaded with flavor. A delicious, cozy dinner!
Italian wedding soup is a classic Italian soup, packed with lots of green vegetables and meat, and a staple in our family. While we still love our Whole30 Wedding Soup, we thought it was time to share a more traditional recipe with you that is so cozy and delicious.
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!
liz’s top tips for best italian wedding soup
- I like to cook the pasta for half the recommended cook time on the package. The pasta will continue to cook in the soup and absorb liquid as it cools! Or you can store the orzo separately and then add it to your bowl when serving.
- Don’t worry about the shape of the meatballs. It can be tough to make so many tiny balls, so don’t worry if they’re not perfect. Once they bake and cook in the soup, you won’t even notice because they’ll be so tender.
Ingredients:
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 or other small pasta 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. If you really love orzo, try our Italian Wedding Orzo.
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.
If you love tomato broth, you have to try our Italian Meatball Soup! It’s similar to this recipe with a more rich tomato broth and made with ditalini pasta!
How To Make best 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 large pot, heat olive oil. Add onions, celery, garlic, and carrots. Saute for 5 minutes until the onions start to soften.
- Add meatballs, remaining spices, and chicken stock 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.
How To Serve
This soup is a complete meal in itself. If you’re looking for other things to pair it with try:
- Fresh crusty bread
- A refreshing salad, we love it with our Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad or Apple Cranberry Walnut Salad
- With a side of Parmesan Asparagus
Storage
Fridge: These leftovers will last in the refrigerator for up to 4 days in an airtight container
Freezer: You can freeze this recipe for up to 3 months. We like these containers for freezing!
Reheating: You can reheat this recipe in the microwave or on the stove.
Other healthy soup recipes:
Looking for other easy soups? Check out these delicious Healthy Recipes for Dinner. Click here to grab our free healthy 30 minute dinners cookbook.
Best Italian Wedding Soup
Ingredients
Meatballs:
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1 egg
- ½ cup onion minced
- ¼ cup breadcrumbs
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Soup:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cups diced carrots
- 1 cup minced celery
- ½ cup minced onion
- ½ tablespoon minced garlic
- 6 cups low sodium chicken broth 1.5 quarts
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ teaspoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon dried rosemary
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 cups chopped spinach reserved
- 1 cup dry orzo pasta
Instructions
Stovetop Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F and prepare a parchment lined baking sheet.
- In a bowl mix together all of the ingredients for the meatballs until combined.
- On a parchment lined baking sheet, drop ½ 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 the meatballs for 10 minutes or until golden brown.
- While the meatballs are cooking, start the soup. In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the carrots, celery, onions and garlic. Sauté for 5 minutes or until the onions start to soften.
- Add the chicken broth, cooked meatballs and dried spices to the pot. Do NOT add the chopped spinach or pasta to the pot! Bring the soup 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 the soup is cooked, stir in chopped spinach + cooked pasta.
Crockpot Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F and prepare a parchment lined baking sheet.
- In a bowl mix together all of the ingredients for the meatballs until combined.
- On a parchment lined baking sheet, drop ½ 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 the meatballs for 10 minutes or until golden brown.
- While the meatballs are cooking start the soup. In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the carrots, celery, onions and garlic. Sauté for 5 minutes or until the onions start to soften.
- 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 degrees F and prepare a parchment lined baking sheet.
- In a bowl mix together all of the ingredients for the meatballs until combined.
- On a parchment lined baking sheet, drop ½ 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 the meatballs for 10 minutes or until golden brown.
- While the meatballs are cooking start the soup. Set the instant pot to sauté for 5 minutes. Heat the olive oil for one minute. Add the carrots, celery, onions and garlic. Sauté for 5 minutes or until the 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.
Such a hearty delight for my family tonight. Fun to make! Served with homemade sourdough bread and garlic knots. Thank you for creating!!
Absolutely delicious. Very flavorful!
I’ve made this several times and it is very good. Do you think adding frozen spinach would work instead of fresh spinach?
Is there a secret ingredient or technique that sets this Italian Wedding Soup recipe apart from others? What makes it the best in your opinion?
I’ve tried a lot of other italian wedding soups, and I think this one has much more flavor. The broth and meatballs are delicious! Everyone’s opinion is subjective 🙂
I love your soup recipes. They never disappoint! The ingredients measurements and instructions are spot on. All good for you ingredients. I always refer to your recipes when I make soups for my 88 yo mom in addition to myself. Thank you for this. The Italian meatball soup was excelllent!
We loved this! We did add a little salt and I would add a little more spice or salt to the meatballs next time, but overall fantastic!
If I’m planning on freezing this, should I leave out the spinach and orzo?
I personally would. The pasta gets a little soggy if you freeze it. It will be fine, but if you can freeze without it it would be better!
I really enjoyed making this recipe. It’s very wholesome and just the kind of soup you want on a cold, rainy day!
Following the recipe was easy and I found the quantities to be perfect! It was delicious!
This will be a staple from now on!
This was delicious! Topped it off with some parmesan before serving. So easy and I love how fresh and healthy it is. Thank you!
LOVED this soup! Thought would be difficult, but just the opposite..
Delicious, easy and will make again! Thank you again..
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