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Mini Turkey Meatball Vegetable Soup is healthy and delicious, and my whole family loves it! Perfect cold weather soup.
Turkey Meatball Vegetable Soup
It’s made with mini turkey meatballs, tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, spinach and my secret ingredient for the best tasting soup – a parmesan cheese rind. I always keep the rinds in my freezer just for making soup, so don’t throw them out!
It also makes great leftovers and can be frozen if you want to make this ahead for the month. Enjoy!
Mini Turkey Meatball Vegetable Soup
Mini Turkey Meatball Vegetable Soup is kid-friendly and perfect to warm up to on a chilly autumn night.
Yield: 7 servings
Serving Size: 1 1/2 cups
Ingredients
For the Meatballs:
- 20 oz 1.3 lb ground turkey breast 93% lean
- 1/4 cup seasoned whole wheat breadcrumbs*
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup onion, minced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1/4 tsp salt
For the Soup:
- 32 oz container reduced sodium chicken broth
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 cup diced carrots
- 1/2 cup diced celery
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 14.5 oz cans petite diced tomatoes
- Parmesan cheese rind, optional
- 1 fresh rosemary sprig
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt and fresh black pepper
- 8 oz zucchini, diced
- 2 cups chopped fresh spinach
- extra parmesan cheese for garnish, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- In a large bowl, combine ground turkey, breadcrumbs, egg, parsley, onion, garlic, salt and cheese. Using your (clean) hands, gently mix all the ingredients well until everything is combined.
- Form small meatballs, about 1 tbsp each, you'll get about 42. Bake in the oven about 12 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium-high heat.
- Add the carrots, celery, onion, garlic and saute until tender and fragrant, about 15 minutes.
- Add the broth, tomatoes, parmesan cheese rind, salt and pepper.
- Add the rosemary,bay leaves, basil and parsley, cover and cook on low 40 minutes.
- Remove the bay leaves, rosemary sprig, parmesan rind and drop the meatballs in along with the zucchini and spinach, cover and simmer until the zucchini is tender and meatballs are cooked through, about 8 to 10 minutes, season to taste with salt and black pepper if needed.
- Serve with extra grated cheese on the side if desired.
Last Step:
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Nutrition
Serving: 1 1/2 cups, Calories: 229 kcal, Carbohydrates: 14 g, Protein: 21 g, Fat: 9 g, Cholesterol: 87 mg, Sodium: 747 mg, Fiber: 3 g, Sugar: 4 g
Categories:
*If you want to make this gluten free, use gluten-free bread crumbs and be sure to check the labels on the chicken broth.
Love this soup I have made it several times
Made this for a group of 10 people. Everyone LOVED it. Shared the recipe with my friend (a retired home economics teacher) and her comment was, “it has great flavor. I’ll add this recipe to our normal rotation.”
My family loves this recipe! We alter it depending on whatever veggies we have at home and the meatballs make this a filling dinner on its own. It’s a keeper!
Fabulous soup! I normally add extra veggies as well as more chicken broth. Freezes well
What kind of extra vegetables are you using
I made this soup and it is absolutely delicious, i doubled all the ingredients except the meatballs,I also tripled the vegetables at I as I had so many on hand to use up, i also only used one can of tomatoes as I wanted a lighter broth and it was delicious, also the parmesan rind is a key component in this recipe, Gina thanks again for all these delicious recipes you create for us.
This soup is SUCH a staple for me. I can’t remember if I’ve already commented here, I love it so much. I don’t usually find meatballs worth the time-intensity, but in this case they are. Tried this with just browning/breakup up ground turkey one time and it was not the same. I love to buy the 48oz ground turkey, make as many meatballs as I can, double the soup, and then save the last 3rd of meatballs to make another time. This soup also freezes well.
Super yummy! Didn’t have breadcrumbs so I made a guess on almond flour and it worked out great. So yummy and fresh. We Alfonz didn’t have Parmesan but we did have Manchego and even used the rind…. I was skeptical but it definitely enhances the flavor. Ooze 19 month old loves it too!
Very, very tasty!
Great!
Super delicious! I made it almost exactly like the recipe called for. The only difference was I only used one can of diced tomatoes because that was all I had. The Parmesan rind is key! My husband even loved it and said he would not share the leftovers with his dad. LOL
Excellent! Will definitely make again. Followed recipe almost exactly.
Oh this was a good! I used pre made beef meatballs, too much snow and wind to go to the store…..but it was just delish, with all of the fresh veggies….I’ll make this again and try your chick meatballs!
Could I put the soup in the instant pot instead of simmering on the stove. If so, how long would you think it should cook for?
Great soup with lots of flavor. I did add some heat to the soup which my family loved.
Delicious!! I had to make a minor adjustment and used ground chicken instead of ground Turkey (supermarket was out of ground Turkey) and it was still amazing! 10/10 reccomend!
Gina, is this a total of 1.3lbs of turkey ot 20oz + 1.3lbs??? 20 oz would be 1.4lbs
20 oz is 1 lb. 4 oz, which is 1.25 lbs (rounded up to 1.3 lbs).
Made this tonight. Love it ! So happy to finally find a healthy soup with lots of veggies and lots of protein. Will definitely be making again!
this soup was perfect – living in Canada actually Northern Ontario where is was -45 this morning with the wind chill, so a perfect soup for this type of day.
Ooohh that is cold!!!!! Glad this helped warm you up!
Fabulous! This is so good!
This was absolutely delicious! I can’t wait until tonight so I can eat the leftovers!
Fantastic soup! Hands down my new favorite. I made it on Friday and am repeating it already.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Best soup ever!!!
I made this tonight for dinner. It was delicious!!
I’ve been looking for more ways to incorporate protein in my lunches. This is a very nice soup. I’m glad I tossed in about 1/2 lb of cheese tortellini – it’s hearty, healthy and so satisfying!
How come on some recipes you don’t show the saturated fat? I’m on a low fat diet and need to watch my bad fat totals.
This is one of the most delicious soups I’ve tasted! thank you for this recipe. We love it!!!
Absolutely delicious soup.Made exactly as recipe states except swapped a small amount of cabbage instead of the zucchini.Husband ate 2 bowls.Wilp definitely make again.