Italian Wedding Soup

This recipe was such a fun find during my months on the soy-free dairy-free diet. It was something I could eat and serve to my family for dinner. If you have a gluten-free guest or family member, you can cook their special pasta in another dish, while still enjoying the gluten pasta if you wish to do so. It has served a purpose in many a complicated diet moment.
More recently, a stomach bug has been passed around our house, so I thought this would be filling and delicate on a sensitive tummy. Illness or not, this soup is easy and low cal too.
One helpful hint that I learned this past year is not to add the pasta to a soup until you are serving it in the bowl. In the past, I would enjoy a soup and put the leftovers into 1 dish and returned the next day, only to discover that the soup was generally good, but that the pasta was mushy. The solution: cook the pasta it in a separate pan, drain and set aside until ready to serve AND store it in a different container than the soup/broth. Mix the 2 just before reheating in the microwave. Viola, almost as good as the night before and NOOO mushiness!

Italian Wedding Soup

2-3 TBSP olive oil
1 cup minced yellow onion
5 large carrots peeled and thinly sliced
2-3 stalks of celery thinly sliced (optional)
2 (32 oz each) cartons of chicken broth, maybe more
1 (6-10 oz) bag of baby spinach washed
pinch of salt
pinch of garlic powder

1 recipe of meatballs steamed

1/3-1/2 lb of Ditalini pasta cooked al dente according to the box. Drain and return to pan.



For meatballs: Preheat oven 400 degrees. Take a jelly roll pan or other baking sheet with high side and fill with 1/4 inch or less of water. Pull 20-30 meatballs from the freezer and place in a single layer on the watered baking sheet. Cover with foil and tuck side over the pan. Cook/steam meatballs for 30 minutes or until cooked al the way through.

For Soup: Heat a large non-stick dutch oven over medium heat. Add onions and celery. Cook 7-8 minutes or until translucent. Add carrots, broth, salt and garlic powder. Cook 12 minutes. Taste carrots to see if they have cooked to desired tenderness. Add steamed meatballs and bag of spinach. Stir 1 minute and take it to the table and serve. Add the desired amount of pasta to each person's bowl.