Italian Wedding Soup

I don't know about you, but to me, fall and winter mean HOMEMADE SOUPS!!


I've only started getting into making my own from scratch in the past couple of years. Let me tell you....so so SO much better than buying it. Most of my homemade soups are done in the slow cooker and I will post them throughout the fall/winter as I start to make them again.


I've never actually tried this one in a slow cooker, because it actually doesn't need to cook for hours. You probably wouldn't want to cook it for hours because the orzo will get soggy...but I'm not a professional, so what do I know.


It's easy...seriously easy...it's delicious....and well...I just love it. It doesn't take very long either...I'd say from start to finish is less than an hour.


I'm not going to type out the recipe, I'm going to link you to it so you can print it out easy. You will want to hang onto it.


Italian Wedding Soup


Here are the changes I make and seem to have success with...

- make and cook the meatballs first. put them in the oven at 350 degrees for about 25ish minutes. if you have a broil pan or know the muffin tin trick it's even better because then they aren't sitting in their fat. if you have lots of time during the day and want to prepare the meatballs way before, you totally can. i've done that and then put them in the fridge until i did the rest.

- i have no idea what "escarole" is...i use spinach..fresh spinach. stack it in a pile and slice it into thin strips. by stacking it, you're making it way easier to cut.

- i don't add carrot because i wanted it to be like East Side Mario's and they don't add carrot to theirs.

- use about 6 cups chicken broth and then 1 can of beef broth....sounds weird, but works. if you want it to be even more brothy (is that even a word? probably not) then add more, if you follow the recipe, quantity wise, it will make a thick soup.

- some comments say to cook the orzo first...you don't need to. cook the meatballs and have a cocktail or so while waiting...or tend to your children...or whatever you want for 25ish minutes. then when they are done, start the soup, following the directions and adding the meatballs. this gives the meatballs to soak up some of the soup flavor.


and that's it.


let me know how it works for you or what changes you make!