Italian Wedding Soup

Level of Difficulty: Medium

Serves: 6

This is a great appetizer or entree.  I think this is a great meal after a workout. It is light meal that hydrates and satisfies my hunger without undoing the effects of the workout. 

I am also a fan of spicy food, so I make with spicy sausage and the full amount of red pepper flakes. If spicy, is not your fancy, you can use sweet sausage and reduce the amount of red pepper flakes.

Italian Wedding Soup

Makes 6 servings where each one has approximately:

166 Calories, 8g Carbs, 8g Fat, 16g Protein

Italian Wedding Soup

1 pound	Spicy or Sweet Italian Chicken Sausage (uncooked)
1/3 cup	Grated Parmesan Cheese
1 T	Olive Oil
1 medium	Carrot
3 cups	Chicken Broth
1 cup	Water
1/4 cup	Anellini Pasta
2 cups	Spinach
1/4 t	Red Pepper Flakes
Salt and Pepper	to taste

1. Remove the sausage from the casing into a medium mixing bowl.




2. Add the grated Parmesan Cheese to the sausage meat. 

Tip: You can buy grated Parmesan Cheese. It is has more flavor and can be cheaper to grate your own. Parmesan is a very hard cheese making it difficult to grate by hand. Therefore use a food processor to grate the cheese if you have one available. 




3. Form the sausage and cheese mixture into nickle sized meat balls. 

Nickle Sized Sausage and Parmesan Meatballs

4. Grate the carrot (using a fine grater) and set aside The carrot is for flavor, it should be grated such that it is not visible when it is cooked into the soup.

Grating Medium Carrot

5. Heat the olive oil in the bottom of a heavy pan and brown the meat balls over medium to high heat.

Browning the Meatballs

6. Add the Chicken Broth, Water, and Carrot to the meat balls and bring to a boil over high heat.




Tip: I cook the meat balls in the same pot I am going to use for the soup. If you decide to cook the meat balls in a separate pan, deglaze the pan with 1/2 cup to a cup of broth.  This makes sure all of the flavorful bits make it into the soup. 

7. Add the pasta and simmer for 5 minutes.

8. Add the Spinach, when the spinach has wilted the soup is ready to serve. 

Adding the Spinach

Wilted Spinach

This is great as a light meal or an appetizer. It will keep in the fridge for several days.  I have not tried to freeze this recipe, it never lasts that long :)

Brand Recommendations:

Here are the Gluten Free Brands I use to make this recipe:

• Schar Anellini
• Pacific Foods Free Range Chicken Broth
• My local supermarket has GF Italian sausage at the butcher counter

Please post your experience with this recipe in the comments... and is it worth the calories?