This vegan Italian wedding soup is delicious, comforting, and full of flavor! Made with hearty cannellini bean "meatballs," tender orzo, fennel and spinach, it's packed with vibrant flavors and perfect for cozying up with on a chilly day.
We loved Italian soups in my house when I was growing up, with favorites like pasta e fagioli and minestrone. My mom made Italian wedding soup a bunch of times too, but not until after I stopped eating meat, so I never got it to try it. That was kid of a bummer, because I always thought it sounded pretty cool...except for the whole meat part.
So, I decided I needed some vegan Italian wedding soup in my life. With a little advice from mom I took to the kitchen to get working on a recipe!
The main distinction in my recipe over traditional Italian wedding soup is that the "meatballs" are made out of cannellini beans, and because of this, you've got to be a little careful about how you serve it.
The bean balls get baked up, and you'll want to keep them out of the soup until you're ready to serve it. Otherwise they might get super soggy and I'm thinking they could even fall apart. Aside from meatballs, this soup includes fresh spinach, fresh fennel, carrots, and little bits of orzo pasta. It's super cozy and perfect for enjoying on a cold day!
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Ingredients You'll Need
- Cannellini beans. These are the base for our meatballs, and I chose them because they're a prominent ingredient in Italian cuisine. But other types of beans will work just fine too! Chickpeas, kidney beans, and lentils are all good choices if you need a substitute.
- Onion.
- Garlic.
- Fresh basil.
- Panko breadcrumbs. Need to keep the soup gluten free? Use certified gluten-free oat flour instead of breadcrumbs.
- Low sodium soy sauce. Regular soy sauce woks too — just cut the amount in half and add some water.
- Smoked paprika.
- Red pepper flakes. Leave these out if you're not a fan of spicy meatballs.
- Olive oil. Other high heat oils like avocado oil or vegetable oil will work in a pinch.
- Carrots.
- Fennel. Even if you've never cooked with fennel before, don't skip this. It's so good and so worth it! And if after making this soup you discover that you're in love with fennel, be sure to check out my fennel soup recipe.
- White wine. You can leave this out if you prefer to cook without alcohol.
- Dried herbs. We're using thyme and oregano.
- Vegetable broth. While any vegetable broth will do, I like to use a vegan "chicken" broth for this recipe, since traditional Italian wedding soup is made with chicken broth. I used Edward & Sons Not Chick'n bouillon cubes for the batch shown in the photos.
- Orzo pasta. Other small pasta shapes like acini, ditalini, or shells would also work. Use gluten-free pasta if needed.
- Fresh spinach.
- Salt & pepper.
- Vegan Parmesan cheese. You can use store-bought or homemade vegan Parm to top your soup.
How It's Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
To make the beanballs, place the cannellini beans into a food processor bowl with chopped onion, garlic, fresh basil, panko breadcrumbs, low sodium soy sauce, smoked paprika and red pepper flakes. Pulse the food processor until everything is well mixed and finely chopped, but not mushy.
Roll the bean mixture into balls and arrange them on a baking sheet that's been lined with parchment paper. Give them a light spritz or brush with some olive oil, then pop the baking sheet into the oven. Let the balls bake until they're dried out a bit and browned on the bottoms.
Tip: If you want to save time, feel free to use store-bought vegan meatballs or vegan sausage instead of making your own.
Heat some olive oil in a large pot while the balls bake. Add diced onion, sliced carrots, and diced fennel. Cook everything for about ten minutes, until the veggies begin to soften, then add minced garlic.
Add your dried thyme, oregano, and wine. Bring the wine up to a simmer and let it cook for a few minutes, until the liquid is reduced by about half.
Add your vegetable broth and bring it to a boil. Lower the heat and let it simmer for about ten minutes.
Now stir in the orzo. Let the soup continue to simmer until the orzo is al dente, which means it's almost done but still a tad firm.
Now stir in the spinach, adding it in batches if the volume is too much to cram in there all at once. Continue simmering the soup until the spinach wilts.
Take the pot off of heat and season your soup with salt and pepper to taste.
To serve your vegan Italian wedding soup, place a few meatballs in each bowl, then ladle the soup over them. Top each bowl with some vegan Parmesan cheese and dig in!
Leftovers & Storage
Store the soup and beanballs separately. Otherwise the balls will probably fall apart! Place the soup and balls in separate airtight containers and store them in the fridge for up to four days, or in the freezer for up to three months.
More Vegan Italian Soups
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📖 Recipe
Vegan Italian Wedding Soup
Ingredients
For the Cannellini Bean Meatballs
- 1 (15.5 ounce/439 gram) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 small onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, optional, plus more to taste
- 2 teaspoons olive oil, or as needed
For the Soup:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 medium carrots, sliced
- 1 medium fennel bulb, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 8 cups vegetable broth
- ¾ cup dried orzo pasta
- 6 ounces fresh spinach leaves, roughly chopped if they are large (about 6 cups)
- Salt and pepper, to taste
For Serving
Instructions
Make the Meatballs:
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place all ingredients except for the olive oil into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse the machine until all ingredients are well chopped and mixed, stopping to scrape down the inside of the bowl as needed.
- Roll the mixture into 1-inch balls, using about 2 teaspoons of mixture per ball (Note 1). You will get about 30 to 35 of them. Arrange the balls the prepared baking sheet. Lightly spray or brush them with olive oil.
- Bake the meatballs for about 20 minutes, until they're browned on the bottoms.
Make the Soup:
- Coat the bottom of a large pot with olive oil and place it over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion, carrots and fennel. Sweat the vegetables until they begin to soften a bit, about 10 minutes.
- Add the garlic to the pot and sauté it with the vegetables until it becomes very fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add the wine, thyme, and oregano. Raise the heat and bring the wine to a simmer. Lower the heat and let the wine simmer until it has reduced by about half, which should take about 4 minutes.
- Stir in the broth, then raise heat to high. Bring the broth to a boil, then lower the heat and allow it to simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes.
- Stir in the orzo. Continue to simmer the soup until the orzo is al dente, about 10 minutes.
- Stir in the spinach and let the soup continue simmering until the spinach has wilted and the pasta is tender, about 2 minutes.
- Remove the pot from heat and season the soup with salt and pepper to taste.
- Ladle the soup into bowls, then add a few meatballs to each bowl. Serve with a sprinkle of vegan Parmesan cheese.
Notes
- You can add a splash of water to the mixture if it seems too dry and you have trouble getting the meatballs to hold together.
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I love your recipe of soup. I will try it at home.
Love this soup. I also never had traditional italian wedding soup growing up but then one day it just popped into my head a I did a google search and found your recipe. Question: how to get the meatballs to roll nicely/stick together? The first time I made this soup they rolled and stuck nicely ever since not so much and I don't know what is different. I've been using cannelini beans I cook myself vs store bought and homemade breadcrumbs vs panko. Would either of these be a contributing factor?
Glad you like it! It could actually be either of those things. I find canned cannellini beans to be a bit softer than when I cook them from scratch, and I'm thinking softer might be better for binding the meatballs. Same thing for the breadcrumbs - you'll see some variation depending on their size and moisture content, which could vary from batch to batch if you make them yourself. I hope that helps!
Decided to try this soup...didn't have raw spinach, so used frozen spinach. Recommend that you don't do this....it just came out kind of "too green".....still a good tasting soup. I also used frozen meatless meatballs which was fine.
I made thw mistake of adding the veggie balls to the soup. they fell apart.
Sigh...fennel...it grows wild all over the Bay Area, but I can't bring myself to use any of it (as much as I've been tempted) because of all of the motorists and their exhaust, air traffic, not to mention...ahem...dogs. Yeah, that. Such a shame...but I imagine it would likely be much smaller and more bitter even if it WAS "clean". So, I foresee a trip to Trader Joe's or Berkeley Bowl in my very near future, because this Springtime weather has been either warm & muggy or chilly, rainy, and windy. This - along with some crostini - sounds like just the thing to drive away the blahs!
Thanks, Alissa! Will definitely try - and SOON! (Never thought of using cannellini! Huh!) I may sub out the veggie stock with a "Better Than Bouillon" No-Chicken Base for a more "traditional" flavor - if I do, I'll let you know how it went!
(Also bookmarking your other meatball recipes!)
Oh, that's such a bummer! I can totally see why you wouldn't want to use it though. I think a no-chicken type stock would work great with this recipe. I hope you enjoy it!!
Do you think chickpeas would work instead of cannelllini beans? I get painful esophageal spasms when eating most beans except for chickpeas and small red beans (so frustrating as a vegan) oh and I can eat any lentils. It seriously feels like I’m dying when that happens.
Oh, that does sound frustrating - I'm so sorry to hear it! You can absolutely use chickpeas!
Can anyone advise how long the soup keeps for in the fridge ? (Bean balls are kept separate ) thanks !
It should be good for 3 or 4 days. :)
Hi. I was wondering is there a way to tweak the receipe so there isn't a high amount of sodium ? I was looking at the nutrition and I noticed that the sodium is really high.
I think your best bet would be to use a low sodium vegetable broth and reduce the amount of soy sauce a bit. :)
A group of friends get together once a month for a vegan potluck meal with a theme. Our last potluck had an Italian theme. We made your recipe for the soup course. These little beanballs had wonderful flavor. We compared different textures and found we preferred the texture of the beanballs when we processed them to a fairly smooth texture before baking. This entire recipe is super healthy and we love it for that reason. The fennel is wonderful here. We made our own vegetable broth so perhaps this explains why we found that the soup was so much better the SECOND DAY. Thank you for helping us on our continuing road to health.
The absolute best fake meatballs I've had in my life! I want to make them again to use in other recipes. Thanks for sharing!
Yay!! I'm so glad you enjoyed them! And you really could use these for all kinds of meatball recipes! Thanks Sarah!
Weird question, it I’m making this for a picky eater and I’m wondering how the white wine will go over ... am I able to substitute with something else or just leave out?
You could just sub some additional broth if you'd like. Enjoy!!
Do you have a recommendation for the white wine?
I'm afraid I don't! I ususally just look for the ones with tags at the liquor store showing good reviews and then look them up on Barnivore to see if they're vegan.
My grocer only carries fennel seed... is that an okay substitution?
It will give you some of the flavor, but since one is a seed and the other a veggie your soup will be a bit more brothy. Maybe add some celery as well!
I bet if you put a little bit of vital wheat gluten in the meatballs it would help keep them from falling apart. :) just a thought! The recipe looks amazing!
Sounds like a good idea to me. Thanks Morgan!!
I have been making Italian Weeding soup the meat way for 40 years, but stopped cooking meat at home two years ago. I was excited to see this meatless recipe. Can't wait to try it, especially the new meatball recipe.
I hope you enjoy it!
Wow This Is great recipe.I love Your Way of making Recipe.I am going to make this recipe for my family now.
I made this for dinner tonight. O M G!!! So delicious. Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe :) :) !!!!
Yay! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for letting me know. :)
I am a total soup whore ? I eat a bowl almost everyday and it never gets boring.... so many combinations of noms!! Those bean balls look amazing!!
Thank you!
Have you ever tried making the meatballs vital wheat gluten flour instead of the bread crumbs? They may hold together better, especially if you put the gluten mixture in aluminum foil and steam them instead of baking them.
I haven't, but thank you for the suggestion!