Cannellini bean meatballs, tender spinach, fennel, and orzo pasta go into this cozy vegan Italian wedding soup.
I promise to cut it out with the meatballs after this one. I have no more meatball recipes in the queue, and in fact, I've been hanging on to this one for a while. Like, somewhere around a year.
When I first made this soup last year, I held back on posting it, because I'd been posting too many meatball recipes, as well as too many soup recipes (surprise, surprise). When I finally felt like I was in the clear as far as soup and meatballs were concerned, it was probably about the middle of summer, and who wants to eat meatball soup when it's ninety degrees out? Well, maybe I do, but that's beside the point.
So I held out longer, and eventually decided I didn't like the photos and wanted to tweak the recipe (originally I used kale for a twist, but spinach works better). And I ended up back in the middle of comfort food season (a.k.a. soup and meatballs season), and you can guess what that meant for my recipes.
This, this, this, this, this, and...okay I'll stop. But yeah, I made this for the second time back in January, which is why the photos are so dark. But, when you think about it, with fennel and spinach and the broth being kind of light, it's a pretty springy soup. So maybe it's a good thing that I hoarded it for a while.
I've never had traditional Italian wedding soup, but I always thought it was a cool idea, you know, except for the meat part. My mom made it a bunch of times when I was growing up, but always after I stopped eating meat, so I never got it to try it. But I did get her to talk me through the recipe so I could make a vegan version.
The main distinction in my recipe 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 you've got some fresh spinach, fresh fennel, carrots, and little bits of orzo pasta. It's super cozy and perfect for those chilly and rainy spring days.
Tips for Making Delicious Vegan Italian Wedding Soup
- Feel free to substitute your favorite greens for the spinach. I've also used kale. Chard would work nicely too! You'll probably need to increase the cook time a bit, as most greens take a bit longer to cook than spinach.
- If you have leftovers, be sure to store the meatballs and soup separately, as the meatballs will probably get soggy and fall apart if they sit in the soup too long.
- Save time the day of serving by blending up the meatball mixture a day or two in advance. Store the mixture in the fridge, then roll and bake them when you're ready to serve.
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Vegan Italian Wedding Soup
Ingredients
For the Cannellini Bean Meatballs
- 1 (14 ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- ½ cup chopped fresh basil leaves
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- About 1 tablespoon olive oil
For the Soup:
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 medium carrots, diced
- 1 medium fennel bulb, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 8 cups vegetable broth
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- ¾ cup dried orzo pasta
- 6 cups chopped fresh spinach
Instructions
Make the Meatballs:
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Preheat the oven to 400° and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
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Place all ingredients except for the olive oil into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until all ingredients are well chopped and mixed, stopping to scrape down the inside of the bowl as needed.
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Roll into ½ inch balls (you should get about 35) and arrange on the prepared baking sheet. Lightly spray or brush with olive oil.
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Bake for about 30 minutes, turning once about halfway through, until the meatballs are nicely browned.
Make the Soup:
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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. Sauté until the veggies begin to soften a bit, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté until very fragrant, about 1 minute more. Stir in the wine and bring it to a simmer. Cook until reduced by about half, about 4 minutes. Add in the broth and thyme and raise heat to high. Bring to a boil, lower heat and allow to simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Stir in the orzo and spinach. Continue to simmer until the orzo is fully cooked and the spinach is tender, about 8 minutes.
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Ladle the soup into bowls, then add a few meatballs to each bowl. serve.
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!
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. :)
Wow This Is great recipe.I love Your Way of making Recipe.I am going to make this recipe for my family now.
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!
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!!
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!
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.
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!!
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!
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.
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. :)
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. :)
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!!
I made thw mistake of adding the veggie balls to the soup. they fell apart.
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.
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!
I love your recipe of soup. I will try it at home.