For June 2021 in the Twelve Months of Soup, I selected Italian Wedding Soup and paired it with a Chicken Avocado wrap. I’ve never made this soup, but now I wonder why because the recipe was so easy and except for rolling the meatballs it was quick. I don’t have an Italian bone in my body, so I couldn’t rely on a family recipe. My Italian American friends are lovely, but there are some recipes they do not share. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to enjoy many delicious bowls of homemade Italian Wedding soup, so I knew the recipe I selected had to be special.
After much searching, I found this recipe by Ina Garten, https://barefootcontessa.com/recipes/italian-wedding-soup.
I selected it because you can’t go wrong with an Ina Garten recipe and I wanted to make chicken meatballs. I made a couple of small changes to the recipe. I typically don’t eat meat, but since I was making this for the carnivores in my house and my carnivore readers, I made an exception. Garten uses ground chicken and chicken sausage for the meatballs in this recipe. I went with organic chicken sausage with Italian seasonings from Whole Foods. I only used the 14-ounce package instead of ¾ pound of ground chicken and ½ pound of chicken sausage. I added extra garlic, celery salt and Italian seasoning. I also used breadcrumbs with Italian seasoning. For the broth I used ½ low sodium chicken broth and ½ homemade vegetable broth. The only other variation I made was to use only Parmesan cheese (I used a combination of regular grated Parmesan and vegan Parmesan).
The soup was beautiful with bright green spinach and orange carrots and flavorful. The meatballs were flavorful, and the broth was light with just the perfect amount of seasoning.
The soup paired well with a chicken wrap. I found a recipe for a healthy chicken avocado wrap. Here is the link, https://veronikaskitchen.com/healthy-chicken-avocado-wraps/.
The only variation I made in the recipe was how I grilled the chicken for the wraps. My son James is a master griller who makes incredible grilled chicken. He marinates the chicken in olive oil, vinegar, and Nashville Chicken seasoning. It’s spicy, juicy, and delicious. I used my mom charms and convinced him to grill the chicken for me. It was delicious. The wraps are simple to make and so good! They keep well in the refrigerator and are easy to reheat. The recipe is supposed to make four wraps, but I ended up with six generous wraps.
I will make these recipes again and I’m excited to try both recipes with a plant-based chicken alternative. I have high hopes they will be just as delicious.
Next month I will be making Minestrone Soup with a hoagie.
The Twelve Months of Soup
January – Chicken Noodle Soup and Mandarin Orange Salad
February – Seafood Bisque and Strawberry Spinach Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette Dressing
March – Potato and Leek Soup and Beet Salad
April – Vegetarian Vegetable Soup with a Vegetable Panini
May – Black Bean Soup and Mexican Kale Salad
June – Italian Wedding Soup with a Chicken Wrap
July – Minestrone Soup with a Hoagie
August – Broccoli Cheddar Soup with Quinoa Salad
September – Tomato Basil Soup with a Grilled Cheese Sandwich
October – Slow Cooker Black Bean Chili and Pomegranate and Wild Rice Salad
November – Butternut Squash Soup with a turkey sandwich
December – Split Pea Soup with a Ham Sandwich