Sipping (or slurping) hot soups and stews can keep you and your family warm and feeling well if you’re sick. Not only does soup warm you up, but it’s also a quick way to get dinner on the table.
Whether you prefer a broth-based soup or a bowl of hearty stew, Henry Ford Health tells us that these delicious creations offer these five benefits:
- They’re good for you
- They’re inexpensive and easy to prepare
- They freeze well
- They keep you hydrated
- They give your immune system a boost
Most soups are hydrating, filling and packed with nutrients from vegetables, slow-simmered proteins and mineral-rich broth. Looking at the diets of 10,500 Americans, Iowa State University researchers found that people who ate soup had higher diet‐quality scores than people who didn’t. Soup‐eaters had higher intakes of fiber, vitamin A, magnesium, iron and potassium. And overall, they got more servings of vegetables.
Remember that homemade soup is generally a better choice than canned soup because canned soup often contains the chemical BPA and is high in sodium. Once you make a homemade soup, you’ll never go back to canned. Remember that your soup will easily freeze, so over-prepare and store leftovers in single-size containers for enjoying later.
Check out our simple Homemade Bone Broth recipe if you need a base to get started.
Start your homemade soup cooking skills by preparing a traditional Italian Wedding Soup that blends savory and garden tastes. Don’t let the number of ingredients scare you, as many of them are spices.
Italian Wedding Soup
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 8 oz lean ground beef, turkey or chicken
- 8 oz lean ground pork
- ½ cup ground Nut-Thinks crackers
- ¼ cup fresh parsley chopped
- 1 ½ tsp fresh oregano minced
- ½ cup parmesan cheese finely shredded
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp salt or to taste
- ½ tsp black pepper or to taste
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
Soup
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 ¼ cups carrot diced
- 1 ¼ cups yellow onion diced
- ¾ cup celery diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 5 14.5 oz cans chicken broth low sodium or homemade
- salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
- 6 oz fresh spinach chopped
- parmesan cheese optional for serving, finely shredded
Instructions
Meatballs
- Add the ground meat and pork into a large mixing bowl. Add ground crackers, parsley, oregano, parmesan, egg, salt and pepper. Gently toss the mixture together until everything is coated and evenly combined.
- Shape mixture into small meatballs, about ¾-1" and place them on a plate.
- Heat olive oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.
- Once the oil is heated, add ½ of the meatballs and cook, stirring occisionally, until mostly browned and cooked through, about 4-5 minutes.
- Transfer the cooked meatballs to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain. Repeat with remaining meatballs.
Soup
- While the meatballs are cooking, heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add in carrots, onion and celery and cook until vegetables soften, about 6-8 minutes. Add garlic and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. Pour in chicken broth and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil.
- Add the cooked meatballs and simmer 10-15 minutes. In the last minute of cooking, add spinach and stir until spinach wilts.
- Serve warm, topped with parmesan if desired.
Notes
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