Italian Wedding Soup for my Wedding Anniversary!


This is going to be very hurried post. Apologies. On other days I would write paeans about Ina Garten and her love for her husband and how she inspired to make this soup for my husband. Well, that's for other days. Here is a why the soup was on our lunch menu on a super busy Tuesday noon:


 a. My sixth wedding anniversary is on the Black Friday, the 23rd of November and we have a tradition of gifting each other good food. I cook for him a nice pre-anniversary dinner or lunch and he takes me out on the D-Day.

 b. Ina made this for her husband on their 40th anniversary and I thought I might as well make it for my 6th one.

c. The recipe is incrediblely simple and can be put together in a jiffy. We are heading for a 11 hrs road trip with a 3 year old on Wednesday for our Thanksgiving and Anniversary celebration. 

d. The soup is undoubtedly delicious, loaded with veggies, light and so good for you, even if you are a diabetic.

Here is how I made this.

Recipe Snapshot: Italian Wedding Soup
Original Recipe: Ina Garten's Italian Wedding Soup

Serves: 4 serving
(1 serving = 1 cup)

What I used:
For meatballs:
Ground Chicken - 1 pound or 500 gms (approx)

Chicken Sausage - ½ a pound or 250 gms (approx), removed from its casing

Whole wheat slices - 2 soaked in 6 tbsp of milk

Garlic - 4 fat or 6-7 small sized cloves, finely minced

Onion - 2 tbsp grated onion (around ¼ of a larger onion)

Dried Parsley - 2 tsp (use double quantity if using fresh parsley)

Reduced fat Parmesan cheese - ½ cup

Egg - 1 jumbo sized one, lightly beaten

Salt
Pepper

For the soup:
Onion - 1 medium sized, chopped

Carrots - 1 cup, diced

Celery - 1 cup, diced

Chicken Broth - 5 cups

Dry White wine - ½ cup (I used Sauvignon Blanc)

Dry Pasta (any small variety) - ½ cup (I used elbow pasta)

Dried Oregano - ½ tsp

Baby Spinach - 1 (10 ounce bag), pre-washed

Olive Oil - 1 tbsp

Salt

Pepper



What I did:
For meatballs:

1. Preheat the oven at 350F.

2. Soak the bread slices in the milk, till it soaks it up. Then shred the bread using your fingers.

3. Dump all the ingredients in a big bowl and mix until incorporated, including the shredded bread slices and lightly beaten egg. Take care not to over mix the meat or else it will result in tough meatballs.


4. Line a sheet pan with aluminium foil and place a greased wire rack on top of it. Then using a spoon or a small ice-cream scoop, drop the meat balls into the wire rack and bake for 30 mins, till the juices run clear.


5. With this meat mix, I got around 30 meat balls. Keep the aside for later.


For the soup:

1. Heat the olive oil in a soup pot and add the chopped onions, carrots and celery and the dried oregano and saute till they are soft. (3-5 mins approx)

2. Add the white wine and chicken broth and let it come to a boil.

3. Add the dried pasta to the simmering broth and let it cook till tender. (6 to 8 mins approx)

4. Add the spinach and let it wilt down. (1 min approx)

5. Check for seasoning and adjust accordingly.


6. Place 6 or 7 meatballs in a soup bowl and cover with piping hot soup. Served with grated Parmesan cheese on top.


Diabetic Platter:
This Italian Wedding Soup is a wholesome and nutritious soup. It has loads of veggies and lean protein in the form of chicken. The whole wheat pasta boosts up the fiber and complex carbohydrate quotient. I had used ground chicken  breast and a low fat Italian chicken sausage. Since lean meat results in dry meat balls, I used milk soaked bread slices to keep them tender, moist and juicy. This is a great lunch or dinner option.



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Comments

  1. this definitely looks delicious and light. love such meals for winter nights. wish ta akhon korbo na. real date er jonyoi tule rakhlam.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Sayantani... Sotti winter night gulor jonne perfect!

      Delete
  2. Ami tomar ei post ta Fb te dekhe agei ashte che chilam kintu miss hoye gelo...that's a filling soup bowl which looks straight out of some Food magazine :-)

    ReplyDelete

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