Italian-ish Meatball Soup
Real talk: when it comes to soup… I tend not to follow a recipe. I have general guidelines and use whatever I have in the pantry or in the fridge/freezer. Generally, my odds and ends go into a soup. This is a guideline recipe that my mom gave me and I made it my own when I moved out.
I taste and season the soup as I go. You’ll notice there are no salt measurements on the soup: there are a lot of variables to consider; if your stock has salt in it, how salty the meatballs are, if you use the parmesan rind, and some people like food saltier than others. So use salt to your heart’s content.
A note about parmesan cheese rind. It is the hard edge of the chunks of parmesan sold at the grocery store. I keep them in the freezer in a ziptop bag and add them to soups, pasta sauces and stews. You can definitely omit this but I really recommend trying it! The rind adds a wonderful salty-cheesy flavour. Take the rind out when the soup is ready. I usually just chuck it in the compost bin afterwards.
Also, you don’t have to add the pearl couscous. It works well with little soup pasta too. It is also great without the grains/pasta. You do you.
Italian-ish Meatball Soup
Ingredients:
1 large white onion, diced
4 large carrots, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
4 stalks of celery diced
6-8 cups of chicken stock (homemade or store-bought)
1 1/4 cups Israeli or pearl couscous
1 bay leaf, optional
1 chunk of Parmesan cheese rind (mine tend to be about 2 inches big)
1 can of white beans, or legumes of your choice
1 large box or bag of baby spinach, whole or cut into smaller pieces
Meatballs (either homemade or a box of frozen), thawed
Olive oil
Salt & pepper
Directions:
1- Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion and cook with a pinch of salt until soft and translucent. Add the garlic and cook for one minute or until you start to smell the garlic.
2- Add the carrots, celery and cook for a few minutes to soften slightly. Add chicken stock and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Toss in the parmesan cheese rind and the bay leaf, if using it. Continue to cook until the veggies give slight slight resistance when you poke them with the point of a knife (or fork).
3- Add meatballs, white beans and pearl couscous and continue to simmer for about 10-15 minutes until the couscous is tender. The pearl couscous will suck up quite a bit of the soup, you can top the soup up with more stock or water if you want it more broth-y. Taste for seasoning and add salt and ground black pepper.
4- When the soup is just about done, add the spinach and stir until wilted. Serve with extra Parmesan cheese! Enjoy!