Have you ever had a creamy Italian Wedding Soup before? It had been a minute since I remember this one and honestly, I'm upset it hasn't been on the blog until today. This meatball loaded soup is light, bright and delicious and perfect for those winter months.
The chicken meatballs are great on their own, but add them to a parmesan broth and it's game over. This soup is going to skyrocket to the top of your fav soups along with Potato Leek Soup and Chicken Tortilla Soup. Serve it alone, serve it with crusty bread, or serve it with garlic bread.... you can't go wrong!
Italian Wedding Soup
File this under my new fav recipe: Italian Wedding Soup with the best chicken meatballs and Parmesan broth! Omg
Ingredients
For the Meatballs
- ½ pound ground chicken
- ¼ cup grated parmesan
- ¼ cup Italian breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon dried parsley
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
For the Soup
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 4 cloves garlic, finely minced
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 8 cups chicken or vegetable stock (low sodium preferred)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
- ½ bunch curly kale, stems discarded and greens torn into bite size pieces, about 4 cups
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoons grated parmesan, plus extra parmesan for serving
- 1 cup cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 lemon, juiced
Instructions
For the Meatballs
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the chicken, parmesan, breadcrumbs, eggs, salt, pepper, oregano, parsley and crushed red pepper. Carefully combine everything with your hands until the ingredients are evenly mixed.
- Form the mixture into small meatballs about 1 inch, about 1 ½ teaspoon. Place on a baking sheet.
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat and working in batches if needed sear the meatballs on all sides until golden, about 5 min. Remove to a paper towel lined plate to drain.
To Make the Soup
- In a 5-6 quart dutch oven or pot heat the olive oil over medium high heat and sauté the onions, garlic and red pepper flakes for 3-5 mins until soft. Add broth, salt and pepper and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium low, add kale to the pot and cook until the kale is wilted about 3 minutes.
- Add the meatballs to the pot along with the beans and simmer 8 mins.
- In a small bowl whisk the egg and grated parmesan, slowly pour the egg mixture into the soup while stirring.
- Add lemon juice and adjust seasoning with more salt, pepper, or crushed red pepper.
- Serve with additional parmesan and a squeeze of lemon juice.
Notes
I love to freeze soup in individual portions for quick lunches.
Nutrition Information
Calories: 287kcal | Carbohydrates: 19g | Protein: 20g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 8g | Trans Fat: 0.03g | Cholesterol: 92mg | Sodium: 906mg | Potassium: 782mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 2444IU | Vitamin C: 32mg | Calcium: 177mg | Iron: 3mg
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Photo by Matt Armendariz / Food Styling + Recipe by Adam Pearson
Just made this soup and it is AMAZING!! I read through the comments in advance, and I'm so glad I did! I tempered the eggs before adding them in, and they didn't scramble - worked out great making the soup super creamy and delicious! I also subbed spinach in for the kale as I have hypothyroidism, so I try not to have too many cruciferous vegetables. I doubled the meatball recipe and set some aside just to have with other meals - they're SO GOOD!! This definitely took me longer than 35mins to make, but it was well worth it. I'll be making this a staple for the colder winter months!
I cannot urge you enough to make this soup immediately!! It’s delicious! My family of 5 (3 which are 10 and under) loved it and all ate multiple bowls.
This was GREAT! Loved by old and young. I made mini meatballs and added carrots to cater to a toddler. I doubled the recipe and am so glad I did! I didn't use all of the broth called for; I think it was closer to 12 cups because that is all that would fit in my dutch oven, but I worked well with that amount.
Thank you!
This soup is light, refreshing, and seriously delicious. I almost ate the meatballs on their own before adding them to the soup. It's nice that it doesn't include cream, since I don't always have it on hand.
Can I use turkey meat??? I love this recipe it was soo good but I have extra turkey meat lol
absolutely
Making this tonight! Looks wonderful.
I doubled the meatball recipe and froze half to have on hand when I wanted to make the soup again. Very tasty.
This was AMAZING and the perfect recipe for a chilly, quarantined day. Only thing I'd change is tempering the egg/parm with some stock so it doesn't scramble once you add to the soup (this was probably my fault, but how I plan to avoid the mistake in the future). That said, my slightly scrambled parm eggs tasted just fine going down! Thank you 🙂
Any recommendation to replace the kale? I'm afraid we're not kale lovers in our home. Spinach maybe? Thanks.
spinach or chard!
This soup is amazing, even more so the next day. I used 1lb ground chicken and doubled the beans and a few other ingredients by preference. Amazing! Having my gallbladder removed in a few weeks and I plan to live off this soup!
This soup was amazing - I swear the leftovers were even better. I think the meatballs are my favorite. I doubled the meatball recipe and froze half of them and am looking forward to using them in another meal. The only substitutions I made was ground turkey and spinach instead of kale. I think I need to temper my egg next time, it looked a bit like a scrambled egg in my soup. I didn't care, though, because it tastes AMAZING! Thanks for the great recipe!
Delicious! Def took me much longer than 35 minutes - but I doubled the recipe and chose to make my own breadcrumbs. Since I had my broiler on to toast the bread to make the breadcrumbs, I decided to broil the meatballs too. I broiled the meatballs for about a total of 5 minutes. (And they are delicious on their own, btw). The good thing about doubling was that it used the entire bag of kale I got from Trader Joe's (even after removing the stems, I still had plenty) as well as using the entire can of beans.
My husband and I really enjoyed this soup. I feel like it took longer than 35 min total, but glad I have leftovers for tomorrow night!
If I was going to skip pan searing them and finish cooking them in the liquid, at what temp and for how long would I bake them?
haven't tested them that way!!
It looks like this is missing eggs from ingredient list for meatballs? I see it in bottom but not on top list.
hmmmm there's an egg in the meatball ingredient list and in the soup ingredient list!
Good grief, I see it now. My apologies!