Vegan Italian Wedding Soup
This Vegan Italian Wedding Soup is the perfect MARRIAGE of Meat and Veggies, only we are making the MEAT with PLANTS!
Okay, so full disclosure, I’ve never had this until I polled a bunch of my YouTube friends and asked them what soups they’d like to see me make, and this was one of the more popular requests, and when I looked it up, I was totally intrigued! I mean, I’m a huge fan of Meatballs!
So naturally I had to try this out, and y’all were right, it’s a winner! It’s like the best part of chicken noodle soup, but with meatballs, and orzo, which is an underrated pasta in my opinion. Plus we are adding some spinach, a rare ingredient here at thee Burger Dude, but one that I enjoy quite frequently, so maybe it’ll make more appearances!
The Meatballs
For these meatballs, we are doing a pretty traditional mixture, except we are using plant-based beef and sausage, plant milk instead of eggs, and nutritional yeast instead of parmesan. They are super dang good! You wanna make sure you roll your meatballs small enough so they fit on a tablespoon. I actually just used a tablespoon to scoop them out and that worked perfectly.
And if you don’t wanna use plant-based meat, I have a homemade lentil meatball recipe right HERE.
For leftovers, I do recommend storing the meatballs in a separate container from the soup. They will get soggy otherwise! So if you have leftovers, just fish out the meatballs and store them on their own, and then add them back in when you have some more.
The Veggies & Pasta
I’m using a traditional medley of carrots, celery and shallots (onions work too) and garlic, but you could totally throw whatever you like in there. I also used baby spinach, but use any leafy green you like. Escarole is a common to use too.
I recommend using a smaller pasta shape like orzo, but use whatever you have on hand as well! Spaghetti might be weird and messy though!
Vegan Italian Wedding Soup
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 8 oz. Plant Based Meat
- 8 oz. Plant Based Sausage (or more Meat)
- 1/4 cup Unsweetened Plant Milk
- 4 Cloves Minced Garlic
- 1 Shallot (Diced)
- 1/4 cup Fresh Chopped Parsley
- 2 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
- 1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning
- 1/3 cup Breadcrumbs
- Salt & Pepper
- Red Pepper Flakes
Soup
- 1-2 Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 cup Chopped Carrots
- 1 cup Chopped Celery
- 1 cup Chopped Shallots or Onion
- 3 cups Baby Spinach
- 4-5 cloves Minced Garlic
- 1 Tbsp Italian Seasoning
- 2 Tbsp Nutritional Yeast
- 8 cups Vegan Chicken Broth (or Veggie Broth)
- 1 cup Orzo Pasta (or any Small Pasta)
- Salt & Pepper
Instructions
- To make the meatballs, add everything to a large bowl and using clean hands, mix to combine. Once thoroughly mixed, scoop out 1 Tbsp worth of the mixture, and roll into a ball with your hands. Repeat this until all the mixture is used. You should have about 24 – 30 meatballs.
- To a pan over medium high heat, add the meatballs and brown on at least 2 sides, cooking for about 3 minutes per side. Once the meatballs are browned to your liking, remove from the pan and reserve in a bowl.
- Next add 1-2 Tbsp of olive oil in a dutch oven or large pot over medium heat and then add in the carrots, celery and shallots / onion. Stir to get them all nice and coated and cook down for about 8 minutes or until they begin to soften a bit.
- Add in the Italian seasoning, nutritional yeast and then the minced garlic. Stir around and cook for 1 minute making sure to not burn the garlic!
- Add the vegan chicken broth to the pan and then bring to a boil. Add the pasta and cook according to package instructions.
- 2 minutes before the pasta is done cooking, add in the reserved meatballs. 1 minute before the pasta is done, add in the spinach. Stir to combine and cook until pasta is done.
- Taste and adjust for seasoning and serve immediately! Top with chopped parsley or vegan parmesan and ENJOY!
