Chicken Meatball Italian Wedding Soup
A warm bowl of Italian comfort, this Chicken Meatball Italian Wedding Soup recipe is made with chicken meatballs, sweet potatoes, and kale.
Italian Wedding Soup is a hearty, classic soup made on the stovetop! Made with the most perfectly tender, juicy, chicken meatballs, the flavor is hearty and comforting. Not to mention, this recipe is great for hosting! Another great soup to serve for company is this Slow Cooker Chicken Enchilada Soup!
Happy Nationall Meatball Day!
Chicken Meatball Italian Wedding Soup
This healthy version is made with little chicken meatballs, and comes together quickly for the perfect weeknight meal! It’s also delish served in any casual setting with a side salad and hot crunchy bread!
Ingredients for chicken meatballs
First comes the easy chicken meatballs. You can replace the ground chicken for ground turkey. The dried spices really make these little meatballs!
All you need are these ingredients:
- Ground chicken
- Oregano + dried marjoram + dried thyme + dried basil + dried rosemary + paprika
- Fresh rosemary + parsley
- Black pepper
- Fennel seeds
- Salt
- Garlic powder
- Egg
- Olive oil
What is Italian Wedding Soup made of?
Wedding Soup consists of green vegetables (usually endive and escarole or cabbage, lettuce, kale, and/or spinach) and meat (usually meatballs and/or sausage). We made our soup with chicken meatballs containing Italian parsley and Parmesan cheese,) in a clear, chicken-based broth.
Ingredients needed to make the soup:
- Chicken meatballs
- Garlic
- Sweet potatoes
- Kosher salt
- White onion
- Red pepper flakes
- Dry white whine
- Cannellini (white kidney) beans
- Fresh spinach
- Chicken broth
- Parmesan cheese
- Fresh herbs
How to make Italian Wedding Soup with Chicken Meatballs
First you make the meatballs.
This can be done ahead of time, and after baking, you can even freeze them so they are ready to make the soup.
Next, you add the ingredients together with a chicken broth and white wine, to make a hearty soup.
Delicious broth with veggies and meatballs and Parmesan cheese? You can’t go wrong.
- Over medium-low heat add olive oil and heat until shimmery. Add onions, sweet potato, chili flakes, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until ingredients are tender and aromatics are translucent.
- When aromatics are cooked down, add the white wine, and scrape the brown bits at the bottom of the skillet. Add in the chicken stock and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Salt and pepper to taste, and make sure sweet potatoes are tender.
- Add the beans and meatballs to the broth and simmer some more. Finally, add the spinach and stir until leaves are wilted. Serve with fresh herbs and freshly shaven cheese.
- What makes this Italian soup healthy?
Low-cal chicken meatballs with lots of veggies. Add sweet potatoes, white kidney beans, handfuls of spinach, and garnish with fresh herbs!
How to serve meatball soup
This soup is popular served as an appetizer in small bowls.
It’s also a great well-balanced meal that can be served as a main dish with salad and bread.
Easy to make ahead of time.
Add toppings like various kinds of Parmesan cheese and fresh herbs for toppings.
Delicious served as leftovers. Keep in the fridge covered for 2-4 days!
Empathy: A gift to give
Sometimes my hubby and I reminisce about the people we’ve had into our home for meals over the past 31 years of marriage. So many are divorced now, it’s very sad. Terribly sad, in fact.
We’ve come to believe that the greatest gift we can give people around our dinner table is empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand the thoughts feelings or emotions of someone else. One example of empathy is feeling the same amount of excitment as a friend, when they share good news with you!
When you listen to people’s stories, it reminds you of your own, and you automatically feel love and concern toward the person sitting across from you. Or you can relate, you’ve been through that stage in life, you remember it well. And that causes a greater empathy, and it makes you feel for the other person. Maybe even offer advice (if asked).
Why we love to host
This is why we love to host. Drawing people into the conversation, and setting our agenda aside, is very important. Otherwise we’d never make room for others.
Empathy, compassion, and loving others are what cause us to act. Make the invite, get a date on the calendar, and bring people together in our home, around the table, to enjoy hours together getting to know each other. It’s love in action!
Empathy, together with gratitude (which is right before us this time of year, isn’t it?), is the foundation of a fulfilling life.
So with empathy, make that invite and serve a comforting bowl of Healthy Chicken Meatball Italian Wedding Soup around your table!
Be sure to check out these other chicken soup recipes!
Chicken Bacon Sweet Potato Soup
Slow Cooker White Bean Basil Chicken Soup
Elbow Macaroni Chicken Noodle Soup
This recipe has been updated with new text from October 2019, but the recipe is unchanged.
Get the Recipe:
Chicken Meatball Italian Wedding Soup
Ingredients
For the Meatballs
- 2 lb ground chicken
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp dried marjoram
- 2 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried rosemary, or 1 tsp fresh
- 2 tsp dried parsley
- 1 ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp paprika
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 egg, beaten
- 6 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, divided
For the Soup
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 medium sweet potatoes, cut into 3/4’’ cubes
- Kosher salt to taste
- 1 large white onion, coarsely chopped
- ½ tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- ½ cup dry white wine
- 1 15-oz can cannellini (white kidney) beans
- 3 handfuls spinach
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup water
- Parmesan to garnish
- Fresh herbs
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the meat and spices listed for the meatballs. Mix gently, just until combined, then portion out into 1 1/2’’ to 2 ‘’ thick meatballs onto wax paper.
- In a large pot, coat the bottom with a thin layer of olive oil, and heat over medium-high. When oil is hot, add the meatballs and brown each side—4-5 minutes per side. When meatballs are cooked and browned (the meat will not be as glossy as red meats that render more fat, but that's okay!), turn off heat and remove from the pan. Repeat for any remaining meatballs. If the pan is black and crusty on the bottom, deglaze with water, and rinse before cooking onions and garlic.
- Over medium-low heat in the same pan, add 4 Tbsp more olive oil and heat until shimmery. Add onions, sweet potato, chili flakes, garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until ingredients are tender and aromatics are translucent—10-12 minutes.
- When aromatics are cooked down, add the white wine, and scrape the brown bits at the bottom of the skillet. Add in the chicken stock and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste, and make sure sweet potatoes are tender.
- Add the beans and meatballs to the broth and simmer for another 15 minutes. Finally, add the spinach and stir until leaves are wilted. Serve with fresh herbs and freshly shaven cheese. Enjoy!
Notes
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
made this for our church Christmas soup supper before Christmas Eve services. Was a Big hit for a light supper along with the cookie exchange.
this looks amazing and I want to try this for our home group potluck next week! My thought~~ i like making my own broth by using my instant pot to cook the bones of an organic rotissiere chicken. Do you think i could grind the cooked chicken from that for my meatballs? might be a weird consistency?