Greens, Orzo and Meatball Soup

The final dish
As seen on
Smitten Kitchen
Total Time
40 minutes
Rating
4.5 out of 5 stars
(250)

Ingredients

4 servings
  • Meatballs
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1/4 cup plain dried breadcrumbs
  • 12 ounces ground turkey
  • 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 2 garlic cloves, minced
  • 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • Assembly
  • 8 cups (or more) low-salt chicken broth
  • 1 cup chopped peeled carrots
  • 3/4 cup (about 4.75 ounces or 135 grams) orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
  • 4 cups coarsely chopped escarole (about 1/2 medium head), swiss chard, kale or baby spinach (about 3 ounces of leaves)
Kid-FriendlyBeginnerItalianDinner
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Preparation

Chef’s notes

Originally written for escarole as the greens, while it works here, more often than not we use baby spinach, kale or Swiss chard greens instead; I’ve updated the title to note this.
If using a more tender green (baby spinach or chard), a few leaves could be well-chopped to replace the 2 tablespoons parsley in the meatballs, should you not already have parsley around.
We always serve it with extra parmesan on top.
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