Slow Cooker Wedding Soup
With our busy working lives, we often find that we don’t have time in the evening to cook a full meal from start to finish, fortunately, there is a device that can help eliminate that stress and give you delicious, home-cooked food right when you walk into your home.
I speak, of course, of the slow cooker.
Slow cookers just might be one of the most magical devices on this planet, capable of slowly cooking food while you go about your day, then once you finally get home, you will be awarded a wonderful aroma all throughout your house plus a tasty meal to go with it.
And one of the best things you could possibly make in a slow cooker is soup as soups naturally need a long time to slowly cook and develop flavor, so today I’m going to share a recipe for a great Italian wedding soup that the slow cooker has more than a helping hand with making.
Italian wedding soup is a very classic soup that consists of little meatballs, vegetables, and often times small pasta simmered in a broth. The beauty of it is, once the soup is made, it can be stored in the fridge or freezer and reheated the next day.
Nothing to it but to get to it!
Slow Cooker Italian Wedding Soup
Servings: 6
For the Meatballs (Yes, you can save time by using pre-made or even frozen meatballs I won’t tell):
1 pound of 80/20 ground beef
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup of Panko Breadcrumbs
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 cup of fresh parsley, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon of olive oil
For the Soup:
1 large onion, diced
2 medium carrots, finely chopped
2 ribs of celery, finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
8 cups of low-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons of Italian seasoning
3/4 cup of small pasta such as orzo or acini de pepe
4-5 cups of spinach
Salt and pepper, to taste
Freshly grated parmesan, for garnish.
(If you’re using pre-made meatballs, then skip this step)
In a large bowl, mix together all of the ingredients for the meatballs and season with salt and pepper to taste. Form the mixture into 3/4-inch balls.
The meatballs should be slightly smaller than you’d normally make them for, say, spaghetti and meatballs as you want to think about how the meatballs are going to fit onto a spoon.
By the way, why do we waste money buying breadcrumbs when you can just as easily take some stale bread, break it into chunks, and grind it down with a blender?
They have about as long of a shelf life as store-bought breadcrumbs and they’re cheaper because you’re not paying for someone else to grind bread into breadcrumbs.
Heat a frying pan over medium heat with the olive oil, then Cook the meatballs until browned on all sides. If you’re short on time, then you don’t have to brown the meatballs before adding them to the soup, but then you’ll miss out on a ton of flavor.
Add the meatballs to the slow cooker along with the onion, carrots, celery, garlic, chicken broth, and Italian seasoning.
Cook for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low. Some slow cookers will automatically turn off after 8 hours, but not all of them do. Fortunately, this soup will only taste better over time.
Once the broth is flavorful and the meatballs are very tender, add the pasta and cook on low for an additional 30 minutes, or until tender.
Once the pasta is cooked, add the spinach and cook until wilted. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Divide the soup among bowls and top with grated parmesan.
And there you have it! A delicious Italian wedding soup that took minimum effort to make, tastes amazing, and will taste even better the next day.
