I love the colors in this Turkey Meatball soup. It follows a familiar formula for broth-based soups – there are always aromatics sauteed in olive oil, and lots of chunky vegetables; protein makes it hearty, and I often toss in a starch like beans, pasta or barley. This time I kept the vegetables in the orange/red family, sunset colors that give this soup a warming glow.
You can make the turkey meatballs as large or as small as you like. When I make meatballs for soup I try to make them small enough to be bite-sized, but it just doesn’t work out that way – I seem to have a default size for meatballs (about the size of golf balls) and my hands don’t know how to make them any other size. Plus the mixture for these meatballs is quite sticky, which makes it hard to make them small. I ended up with 12 meatballs from this recipe, which works out to three per serving. They were bigger than bite sized, but tender enough to break in half with a spoon right in the bowl, and therefore not an issue.
The meatball recipe uses ½ pound of ground turkey. Since ground turkey is typically sold in 1-pound packages, I usually make a double batch of the meatballs. I use half for the soup and freeze the other half to use later on spaghetti. To freeze, arrange the uncooked meatballs in a single layer on a small baking sheet lined with wax paper. Once they’re frozen (in a couple of hours), peel them off the sheet and transfer them to a freezer-safe zip-lock bag.
Turkey Meatball Soup will keep for 5 days in the fridge, and freezes well for up to a couple of months.
Turkey Meatball Soup with White Beans and Rosemary
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup soft, fresh breadcrumbs
- ¼ cup whole milk
- 1 small onion
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1½ teaspoons minced fresh rosemary, divided
- 5 tablespoons minced fresh parsley, divided
- 1 large egg
- 3 tablespoons grated Parmesan
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- ½ pound ground turkey
- ¼ pound sweet Italian sausage
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large orange bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
- 4 cups chicken broth
- One 15-ounce can diced tomatoes, with juice
- One 15-ounce can cannellini or Great Northern beans, drained and rinsed
Directions
- Step 1 Heat the oven to 400 degrees on the Roast setting. Line a baking sheet with foil.
- Step 2 Combine the breadcrumbs and the milk in a large bowl and let them sit for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, peel and chop the onion. Set aside 2/3 of the chopped onion. Finely mince the remaining 1/3 of the onion. Finely mince the garlic.
- Step 3 Add the finely minced onion, ½ of the minced garlic, plus ½ teaspoon of the minced rosemary and 2 tablespoons of the parsley to the breadcrumb mixture, stirring to combine.
- Step 4 Stir the egg in a small bowl using a fork, just to blend. Add the egg to the breadcrumb mixture along with the Parmesan, ½ teaspoon of kosher salt if using Diamond Crystal brank (or ¼ teaspoon of Morton’s), and ¼ teaspoon of pepper.
- Step 5 Put the ground turkey and the sausage on a plate or cutting board and use your hands to mush them together until the sausage is mixed throughout the turkey. Add the turkey mixture to the breadcrumb mixture and use your hands to mush the mixture together until it’s well blended. Gently form meatballs about the size of golf balls and arrange them in a single layer on the baking sheet. You should be able to make about 12 meatballs.
- Step 6 Roast the meatballs for 5 minutes. Transfer them to the top rack and switch on the broiler. Broil for 3 or 4 minutes, until the tops of the meatballs are crusty and brown. The meatballs will not be fully cooked in the center – they’ll continue to cook when you add them to the soup.
- Step 7 While the meatballs are roasting, make the soup. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the reserved chopped onion and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add the chopped bell pepper and cook, stirring, until the onion and pepper are soft, 3 to 5 minutes more. Add the reserved minced garlic and rosemary and cook 1 minute.
- Step 8 Add the chicken broth, the diced tomatoes with their juices, and the drained beans. Raise the heat to medium high and bring the mixture to a simmer, then reduce to medium and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Step 9 Use tongs to carefully lift the meatballs off the baking sheet and add them to the soup. Return the soup to a simmer and simmer for 10 more minutes. Stir in the reserved 3 tablespoons of parsley. Taste and adjust the seasonings.
Quantities for doubling the meatball recipe
Use half of the meatballs for the soup and freeze the other half for another use.
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup soft, fresh breadcrumbs
- ½ cup whole milk
- Half of a medium onion, finely diced (use the other half, chopped, for the soup)
- 2 cloves of garlic (total of 3, with 1 for the soup)
- 1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary (total of 2, with 1 for the soup)
- 4 tablespoons minced fresh parsley (total of 7, with 3 for the soup)
- 2 large eggs
- 1/3 cup grated Parmesan
- 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt, or ½ teaspoon Morton’s
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 pound ground turkey
- ½ pound sweet Italian sausage
Directions
- Step 1 The ingredient quantities here are for the meatballs only, but for ingredients that are divided between the meatballs and the soup, I’ve listed the adjusted total amount in parentheses.
