Italian Wedding Soup {Gluten-free, Dairy-free}
This Italian Wedding Soup is a comforting and nourishing meal made gluten and dairy-free! It’s made in one pot with homemade meatballs, vegetables, grain-free orzo, and herbs.
What is Italian Wedding Soup?
Italian wedding soup didn’t actually get its name from being served at weddings! Rather, it roughly translates to being a “marriage” of the meat from the meatballs and vegetables and greens in the spinach, carrots, and onions.
This soup is traditionally made with standard meatballs with flour and egg as a binder, spinach, carrots, onions, a small pasta, and is often finished with cheese! This version is made with a gluten-free meatball, grain-free orzo, and is totally dairy-free.
The Ingredients for Italian Wedding Soup
- Ground pork & ground beef. The meatballs are made with a blend of pork and beef for an extra hearty flavor.
- Almond flour & egg yolk. This is used as a binder in the meatballs. If you don’t do eggs or almonds, you can actually skip these, but it does change the texture just a bit.
- Chicken broth.
- Carrots, onions, garlic & herbs.
- Cassava orzo. You can also use any other orzo of your choice, but the cassava orzo keeps this recipe grain and gluten-free.
- Spinach. The hallmark of an Italian wedding soup!
How to make Italian Wedding Soup
- Form the meatballs. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef and pork, egg yolk, almond flour, parsley, garlic, oregano, onion powder, and salt and pepper. Stir to thoroughly combine. Form the meat mixture into small meatballs.
- Cook the meatballs. Working in batches, add half the meatballs and cook until browned on all sides. Repeat with the second half of the meatballs and set aside.
- Cook the vegetables. Add the onion and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes, or until the onion is translucent. Add the carrot and celery and cook for another 4-5 minutes or until the vegetables are slightly fork-tender.
- Combine the soup. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Add the orzo and meatballs and reduce to a simmer and cover. Stir occasionally for 10 minutes or until the orzo is soft. Stir the spinach in and allow to wilt. Serve warm!
Can you make this recipe without the orzo?
You definitely want some sort of pasta for this recipe, so you can use another pasta of your choice. I have a recipe in my cookbook that uses cauliflower rice instead, but you would want to use less broth.
Can you make this recipe without the pork?
You can also make this recipe with just ground beef.
How do you make this recipe AIP?
- Omit the black pepper
- Omit the almond flour and egg from the meatballs. This will still work, but they’ll be more delicate.
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Italian Wedding Soup {Gluten-free, Dairy-free}
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
This Italian Wedding Soup is a comforting and nourishing meal made gluten and dairy-free! It’s made in one pot with homemade meatballs, vegetables, grain-free orzo, and herbs.
Ingredients
For the meatballs
- 1/2 pound ground beef
- 1/2 pound ground pork
- 1 egg yolk, whisked (see notes for AIP)
- 3 tbsp almond flour (see notes for AIP)
- 2 tsp chopped parsley
- 1/2 tsp oregano
- 1 garlic clove, finely minced
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
For the soup
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup carrots, diced
- 1/2 cup chopped celery
- 3/4 cup cassava orzo, dry (or another GF orzo)
- 6 cups chicken broth
- Salt & pepper to taste
- 3 cups fresh spinach, chopped
Instructions
- To make the meatballs: In a large bowl, combine the ground beef and pork, egg yolk, almond flour, parsley, garlic, oregano, onion powder, and salt and pepper. Stir to thoroughly combine. Form the meat mixture into small (3/4”-1”) meatballs.
- Heat the oil over medium heat in a large pot. Working in batches, add half the meatballs and cook until browned on all sides. Repeat with the second half of the meatballs and set aside.
- Add the onion and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes, or until the onion is translucent. Add the carrot and celery and cook for another 4-5 minutes or until the vegetables are slightly fork-tender.
- Add the broth and bring to a boil. Add the orzo and meatballs and reduce to a simmer and cover. Stir occasionally for 10 minutes or until the orzo is soft.
- Stir the spinach in and allow it to wilt. Serve warm topped ith parsley.
Notes
To make this recipe AIP, omit the pepper, egg yolk, and almond flour. The meatballs will still work, but will be more delicate to work with!
All nutrition facts are estimated and will vary.
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 30
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 417
- Fat: 20.6g
- Carbohydrates: 24.3g
- Fiber: 29.7g
Recipe by Michelle, Unbound Wellness. Photos by Ashleigh Scott
AIP
Low Carb
Paleo
Whole30
Love, love, love your recipes!! I just want to give you a heads up. Beware of cassava flour. It is very high in carbs; which converts to sugar. It is dangerous for those of us taking care not to spike our sugar levels. It appears to be the latest and greatest flour for gluten sensitivities, but not safe for all of us. I battle both of these issues. (Gluten sensitivities & hereditary sugar level issues) Thanks again for your wonderful recipes.
I can’t wait to try this!! I’m wondering if I could replace almond flour with cassava flour, and also about the ‘pork panko’. It’s in the instructions, but not the ingredients list?? Do you recommend a specific pork panko brand?? Thank you:)
That’s a typo… corrected! You can use either pork panko or almond flour for the meatballs! I would recommend using pork panko if you want to avoid the almond flour.
Soooooo yum! I haven’t even added the spinach yet but what I’ve tasted so far is delicious!! Yet another incredible recipe! Thank you. ♥️
★★★★★
Very good! I didn’t have cassava orzo so I used cassava spaghetti broken up into to tiny pieces! Viet worked well! Yum
YAY! So glad it worked well!!
Looks delicious! One question: Do you say the quantity of pork panko? Or am I just not seeing it?
That’s a typo… corrected! You can use either pork panko or almond flour!
Is it fresh or dried herbs for the meatballs?
Thanx!
So delicious! I didn’t have the cassava orzo so I just used cauliflower rice. It was great and that makes for less carbs! I was also lazy and didn’t want to make meatballs, so I left out the egg & almond flour and just fried the ground meat with all the seasonings in a skillet. The meat was so yummy before I even made the soup. I doubled the recipe and just enjoyed my first bowl for breakfast this morning. Thank you!
★★★★★
This is an awesome recipe! I used 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. I drop the raw meatballs into the boiling broth, and it works every time! Thank you!
★★★★★
So glad you are enjoying, thank you!!
I’m looking forward to trying this! I have two questions – the instructions say combine the ground beef and pork, egg yolk, almond flour, parsley, garlic, oregano, onion powder, and salt and pepper. There’s no onion powder listed in the ingredients – how much do you recommend? Also, would love for you to recommend at least a starting amount for the salt and pepper. The ingredient list says, “to taste,” but since you’re mixing them with raw meat, you can’t taste it until after it’s been cooked – at which point it’s hard to add more. Thanks!