Italian Wedding Soup with Kale
Italian Wedding Soup with Kale is a lighter twist on a classic soup recipe. It's easy to make and loaded with goodness, and the leftovers are terrific!
The first time I tested this recipe, I'd just had a REALLY bad haircut. Like ... the world's worst. I looked like a cocker spaniel. And I LOVE cocker spaniels! But not on my head.
So anyway, it was a day with a lot of feelings is what I am saying. And I'd like to say that making [and eating] this soup helped a little bit.
Soup is good like that.
Italian Wedding Soup with Kale is just like the classic recipe, but with a little bit of a twist. I use kale in place of the spinach, and ground turkey in place of beef and pork. I sear the meatballs instead of just dropping them in the broth to boil. And! In this version I used Israeli couscous instead of acini di pepe.
More on that in a minute. First let's talk meatballs.
How to Make Meatballs for Italian Wedding Soup
Making meatballs for soup is not that different from making BBQ Turkey Meatballs or Slow Cooker Meatballs. You need the same basic building blocks.
- 1 pound of ground meat (in this case, ground turkey)
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 4 tablespoons breadcrumbs (more on breadcrumbs in a second!)
- 2 tablespoons of seasoning
- ½ teaspoon salt
What kind of breadcrumbs are best for meatballs?
I grew up with a mom that put crushed Ritz crackers in her meatloaf, so I tend to be pretty resourceful in the breadcrumb department. My general answer here is always going to be to just use what you have on hand. If that means you need to crush saltine crackers? COOL. But if we wanna get specific:
- Panko breadcrumbs are made from bread without crust. They are fluffier and lighter than traditional breadcrumbs, and the difference will show in your meatball texture
- Regular breadcrumbs will definitely require you to be heavier-handed with the seasoning because they are, well - PLAIN
- Italian breadcrumbs really vary from brand to brand so taste them before adding and adjust your seasoning accordingly.
- Crushed crackers will also affect the texture depending on how fine the crumb is, so have that in mind.
PRO TIP: Brown the Meatballs
If you read some more traditional Italian Wedding Soup recipes, they call for you to drop the raw meatballs into the boiling broth to cook. THIS RECIPE calls for browning them ahead of adding them to the soup.
YES, it's an extra step. YES it's worth it.
It will also let you make the meatballs ahead if you are a meal prepping kind of person.
Also it's freezing cold. So the only good thing to come out of any of this is soup.
Italian Wedding Soup with Turkey Sausage & Kale
Ingredients
- 1 pound turkey sausage
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 4 tablespoons Italian seasoned bread crumbs
- 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 cup carrots, chopped
- 6 cups low sodium chicken broth
- ½ cup uncooked small pasta; I used ditalini
- 2-3 cups raw kale, chopped and stems removed
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the first 6 ingredients. Pinch the turkey mixture by the rounded teaspoonful and shape into meatballs. Having a clean plate handy to set the raw rolled meatballs on is handy.
- In a large skillet heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Over medium to medium high heat brown the meatballs, working in batches. It takes about 5 minutes per batch to brown the meatballs and cook them through. Remove them from the skillet and set aside.
- In a medium to large stock pot heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the onions and carrots and cook over medium heat until the onions are soft and translucent, 4-5 minutes.
- Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Toss in the pasta and kale. Add the meatballs back in. Reduce the heat back to medium and simmer until the pasta is tender.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 369Total Fat: 20gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 14gCholesterol: 101mgSodium: 693mgCarbohydrates: 20gFiber: 2gSugar: 3gProtein: 28g
So sorry to hear about the bad cut. I went through that recently when I got into a car accident with waist length hair...The stylist kept saying "No really you can manage this even if you are going to be taking sponge baths for 2 months." ( I was in a leg cast) Um No. I went home let my daughter pull it into a pony tail and chopped off 3 feet of hair. When I got out of the cast I went to a new stylist and she listened to me and then gave me my newest fav cut. Hang in there finding a good stylist is a pain but worth it in the end. Btw I came for the recipe it is the only one that looks like what I ate! Can't wait to try it!
I FINALLY found a great stylist. I love her and if we move an hour away I will seriously still drive here because no one else can do it right. Hope you like the soup. Thank you for reading!!!
update - I have just made this with the other half of my turkey mince! Yum! And the meatballs were much more successful than last time too - hurrah!
I am so so thrilled you tried these two recipes and liked them! It makes me super happy to be posting things that people will ACTUALLY cook. Yay!
Show us the haircut, dammit. We'll be the judge. I am betting if you actually looked at it long enough to wash and style it would look great. Different, but great. Change is harder for some than others, I know. LEMME SEE!
Ohhh mah gahhh
Susan, I wish you were right! But it's really a bad haircut. My layers before were really long but they were there. It gave me texture, whether I wore it straight or curly. Now there aren't any layers. Not short or long. It's all just one length. I've messed with it a bit and I can get the bang to work if I pull it straight, but the rest is just a mop. What makes me sooooo mad is that I was so freaking specific and she was not interested in what I asked for at all. Like she argued with me about it. And now I gotta pay for one haircut twice!
Oh, so, it's like Jennifer Grey in Dirty Dancing - an A-frame! Bitchy as it sounds, you should have called he on it on the spot and asked for another stylist to fix it up as best as possible. Whoever owns that shop does NOT want their clients leaving mad. Hate it for ya girl, but it will grow back!
Wamp wamp. She owns the shop. Only one other girl works there, but she's new with not much client base. Also she wasn't there. Jennifer Grey's hair in Dirty Dancing was much cooler than mine right now.
OK, So. You are not going back there, this we know. And you could be a real beotch and find a website where you can write a review. If that seems too rude, chalk it up to me being a bit raw-nerved today and not in a mood to take BS. People should be warned about this woman! (I'd put a LOL on that but I'm not feeling it)
Where is the "Like" button on here...
Right? And by the way, this is me trying to rack up some word count on my novel. Must. Keep. Going.
Argh you poor thing! A bad haircut is a Big Deal. x
Right? Suuuch a big deal. And I've been a big baby about it.
Aww Heather 🙁 Boys will be boys I guess!!! I don't think you really appreciate everything a mother does for you until you're much older but I think on some level they appreciate you!!! I know Chad does and I do!!! Even though I don't get to eat all your delicious treats (and this soup looks fre*king AWESOME!!) I think it's so sweet of you to put so much love into the food you serve your family. It says a lot about who you are and you are an awesome mother, girlfriend and friend!!!! And I'm so sorry your hairdresser is a complete LOSER cause I would have given her hell!!! You need a new hairdresser!!! But even still I bet your hair looks awesome....picture time??? I wanna see it!!! Chin up girl!!! Rock it no matter what!!
No photos! I've had it tied up in a knot since I got it cut. Which pretty much defeats the purpose of getting it cut at all. Hairdresser is for sure fired, but the problem is that I have to drive like 50 miles to any place decent. And then I have to pay AGAIN!! So by the time all is said and done I could have made an appointment with some kinda hair guru cause this ef up will cost me. Seriously the worst haircut I've ever had, but what reeeeally pissed me off was that she did not do one single thing I asked for. And after I get this fixed I totally could have donated.
I know my guys appreciated me. Thanks so much for saying such nice things! It's just funny being the only girl because when I'm having a day they have no idea what to do with me.
You can totally get hair clips in at Sally's...so it will add length to your hair. You can also buy bangs..I know this because I have some lol Work like a charm and they don't like bad, you can't even tell!!! All I gotta say is people suck!!! lol
Ugh, I can only sympathise - I HATE going to the hairdressers, and I like my hairdressers well enough! I won't even get my haircut in spain, because I only hear horror stories - I wait til I go home at holidays just to have an inch or two taken off the bottom. I'm too scared to ever ask for anything different, so I keep my 12 year old hair cut - take the ends off, tidy it up, that's fine thanks a lot. I dread the day i want something more adventurous in case this happens to me. And you have convinced me that a bit longer with this hair is absolutely fine, in case they mess it up! I feel so sorry for you - can you go somewhere else and get someone decent to sort it out for you? I hope you get it sorted soon - sure you're still gorrrrrrgeous though 😉 And I am definitely making this soup sometime this autumn/winter - it looks perfect for after school! In fact, perfect for after school AND spanish AND a walk to the metro in the rain - this soup is happening on a Tuesday.
I'm so sorry about your haircut. I bet it's not half as bad as you think it is!
Ummmm... it is that bad. Find a picture of me from 1992. It looks like that except not as good. I'm investing in hair accessories. Maybe I should get a weave.
you poor thing! what a crazy day, have to agree the cold weather doesn't help when the mood is low either. This soup looks so delicious! heart warming comfort food.
This soup was such a relief. And now I need to shop for hats.
Oh my god someone needs help with scissors my friend - I hope you are double helpings of this soup 🙂
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
I know, right?
It cannot be that bad! You need to fire her. This soup looks oh so good! Yummy!
It IS that bad, she IS fired, and I don't know how I'll fix it!! No one here can be trusted with scissors.
The soup, though... ohhh yeah. It's good.