Healthy, Easy Recipes

 Back to Recipes

Sam’s Italian Meatball and Vegetable Soup

A quick and delicious version of Italian wedding soup

40 mins
14 ingredients
$2.60 / person
Favourite Add to favourites Remove from favourites
Sam’s Italian Meatball and Vegetable Soup

Alternative Gear

Ingredients

Serves = 6

  • 500g pork mince
  • ½ a cup of breadcrumbs
  • ¼ cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
  • 1 ½ tsp oregano (dried)
  • ½ cup shredded parmesan
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tbsn olive oil
  • 2 carrots
  • 1 brown onion
  • 1 stick of celery
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 4 tsp chicken stock powder (salt reduced) in 4 cups of water
  • 1 cup of risoni pasta
  • 4 cups of spinach

It’s this easy

  • In a large bowl combine the mince, breadcrumbs, egg, parsley, oregano and parmesan
  • Once combined, take the mixture and shape into small meatballs (about the size of a cherry tomato)
  • Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat
  • Brown the meatballs in the pot (about 4 minutes each side). If your pot is small, you can cook the meatballs in batches. Set aside browned meatballs on a plate
  • Dice the carrot, celery and onion into approx. 1cm pieces and peel and bruise (press under side of kitchen knife) the garlic
  • In the same pot, sauté the carrots, onion, garlic and celery for 5 minutes
  • Add the meatballs, risoni pasta, pepper to taste and stock to the pot. If you want to stretch out the recipe, also add 2 cups of water at this time
  • Turn the stove to high and bring the pot to boil
  • Once boiling, reduce heat again to medium and allow to cook for 10 minutes or until pasta is soft and the meatballs are completely cooked through
  • Add the spinach and stir through
  • Cook for another 1-2 minutes
  • Eat now and/or store for later in the fridge

Tweaks

  • Sprinkle soup with shredded parmesan when serving or add a squeeze of lemon juice.
  • Can also swap the spinach for kale

Notes

Nutrition information (per serve)

  • Energy (1556kJ)
  • Protein (26.5g)
  • Total Fat (16.6g)
  • Saturated Fat (6.1g)
  • Carbohydrate (26.5g); Starch (21.1g), Sugars (5.4g), Added sugars (0g), Free Sugars (0g)
  • Dietary Fibre (4.8g)
  • Sodium (346mg)
  • Calcium (193mg)
  • Iron (2.8mg)

Allergies

Contains: Gluten, Dairy, Wheat, Eggs, FODMAPs.
Your Personal Healthy Eating Quiz

What you eat or don’t eat affects how you look, feel and perform. Take our short quiz to find out what foods you could introduce to help you be your best.

Read More Show Less

What is healthy eating?

Eating healthy is making sure you enjoy a wide variety of foods from each of the five major food groups daily, in the amounts recommended. The five major food groups as recommended by the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating are:

  1. vegetables and legumes/bean
  2. fruit
  3. lean meats and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds, legumes/beans
  4. grain (cereal) foods, mostly wholegrain and/or high cereal fibre varieties
  5. milk, yoghurt, cheese and/or alternatives, mostly reduced fat.

Foods are grouped together because they provide similar amounts of key nutrients and eating a variety of foods from the list above helps to promote good health and reduce the risk of disease.

How do I improve my diet?

If you want to improve your diet you have come to the right place. By completing the Healthy Eating Quiz you’ll receive instant personalised feedback and a report on your diet quality to highlight any areas where you can improve your overall eating habits. Your score is based on the frequency and variety of the foods consumed from the five major food groups mentioned above. No Money No Time can help you improve your score by providing tips, goals and suggestions. On top of this we will provide quick, cheap and healthy recipes as well as credible answers to diet hacks, myths and FAQ’s.

Is my diet healthy?

Dietary habits are different between people. Some people choose to follow a particular diet (i.e., Keto diet or vegan diet) while some have to make changes due to certain food restrictions or health conditions. If you want to know if what you usually eat is healthy, then do the Healthy Eating Quiz today to give you the answers in less than 10 minutes.

Why is healthy eating important?

Your HEQ score and personalised feedback report is based on the frequency and variety of healthy core foods you usually eat. This is important because no single food contains all the nutrients we need to stay healthy. Some foods are higher in nutrients than others and people who have a lot of variety in the foods they eat are more likely to be healthy and to stay healthy. In other words, if you can eat a large variety of vegetables as opposed to only 2-3 types of vegetables, the benefits are much greater. This type of diet also helps you to feel better, think better and perform better during your usual daily activities.

Take the Healthy Eating Quiz