Wedding Soup Recipe with Zest

This Wedding Soup recipe is a delicious combination of meatballs, orzo, chicken broth and vegetables. A hearty, comforting meal-in-a-bowl, kicked up with lemon zest. 

Wedding soup did not actually originate at weddings, but it is, in fact, popular at Italian-American weddings. Whoever invented it, great job.  

There are tons of recipes for wedding soup out there, all pretty similar.  This one – a combination of many – has one unique feature – lemon zest. I find the zest totally brightens up the soup while still maintaining that yummy comfort food taste and feel.

You can, of course, adjust several of the ingredients to your taste and dietary preferences.  

The meatballs in the recipe are light and flavorful. I like to use dark meat ground chicken to make them extra juicy and tasty. Another good meatball option is our all-purpose Italian meatballs.  Or, if you have your own favorite meatball recipe, go ahead and use that instead.

Serve this easy Italian wedding soup with some hot crusty bread. Or as a starter before our 30-minute eggplant parmesan or creamy polenta with tomato herb salad. 

Shortcuts

• Buy frozen meatballs. Or, use homemade meatballs that you have stashed in the freezer. If you’re making meatballs for something else such as spaghetti and meat sauce, make some extra and freeze them (flash freeze on a baking sheet, then pile them into a sealed freezer bag, ready to use as needed)
• Cook the meatballs in the soup. To save a couple of steps, you can drop the meatballs and pasta directly into the boiling broth without cooking them separately ahead of time.  Just cook them in the broth on medium-high for about 8-10 minutes.  I prefer baking the meatballs first to let the fat release onto the pan instead of the soup. And, cooking the pasta separately will reduce the starchiness in the soup.  If I’m in a rush, though, I just drop both in and the soup is still delicious – and a bit more meat-flavored.  Either way, the soup can be made in about 30 minutes as you can do a few steps simultaneously.

Tailor To Your Taste

Here are a number of variations you can try. 

• Meatballs: Use any recipe or the one below. Meatballs can be chicken, pork or beef – or any combination.
• Options for cooking the meatballs: fry them, bake them, or drop them directly in the soup to cook. All options are covered in the recipe. 
• Spinach: try kale or escarole instead. Or, if you don’t have fresh spinach on hand, you can use frozen spinach, thawed and drained to yield about 1 cup.
• Pasta: Use any tiny pasta. I love orzo and acini de pepe.
• Other add-ins: Try adding chopped basil leaves; a cup of canned tomatoes, drained and chopped; chopped green onion;  Parmesan cheese; and/or finely diced celery.

Make Ahead 

• I love this soup left over because the flavors blend even better over time. It can keep in the fridge for 4-5 days. If the noodles absorb too much broth, add additional broth when reheating.

Other hearty soup recipes you might like

All of these can either be served as starters or as meals in a bowl. 

• Beef barley soup recipe
• Shrimp chowder Thai-style
• Sausage and bean soup
• Vegetable bean and barley soup
• Red lentil vegetable soup
• French onion soup recipe (instant pot)

Or try this meatball marinara sub recipe if you have any leftover meatballs.

How to make this wedding soup recipe

Gather other soup ingredients: broth (not pictured), orzo, lemon, garlic, oil, shaved carrots, chopped onions and spinach.