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Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup is a comforting, flavorful soup with meatballs, spinach (or other greens), pasta, and a clear broth. The flavor of this pressure cooker Italian wedding soup is so good, you might be surprised! A family favorite soup recipe.
Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup
There’s nothing like a delicious bowl of soup. Especially when it has wonderful flavor, and is somehow light and hearty at the same time! That’s what Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup is.
Why is it called Italian Wedding Soup?
The term “wedding soup” comes from the Italian phrase “minestra maritata” or “married soup”, which means that the meat and greens cooked together make a good marriage of flavors.
Can I use frozen pre-cooked meatballs?
Yes you can, though try to find small, or mini meatballs if you can. That way they can be eaten one bite. You can use larger meatballs, you’ll just need to cut them in half as you eat the soup.
When making them, the amount of meat mixture that yields a good size meatball for this soup is 1 ounce. You can use a Tablespoon to measure the meat if you don’t happen to have a 1 oz scoop.
My favorite meatballs are made from half ground turkey and half turkey sausage. If you don’t have turkey sausage you can easily make a tasty substitute.
Ground Turkey Sausage Substitute
Divide your pound of ground turkey in half. To one half add and mix in:
1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp marjoram, 1/4 tsp ginger powder, 1/4 tsp dried sage, 1/4 tsp dried thyme leaves, 3 tsp brown sugar, 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes, 1/2 tsp garlic powder.
Then mix the “sausage” half and the regular ground turkey half together. Continue on to make the recipe.
Can I make Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup with beef or pork?
Yes! You can use half beef + half sausage to make the meatballs, or use all sausage if you like. The sausage adds an important flavor to the soup.
For the broth you can use beef broth with beef/pork meatballs, and use chicken broth with turkey or chicken meatballs.
Do I need to brown the meatballs first?
Nope. I don’t bother. The flavor is excellent and the meatballs come out very tender without browning. Plus it’s easier and faster not to!
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Pin This Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup Recipe
Instant Pot Italian Wedding Soup
Ingredients
Meatballs
- ½ lb Ground Turkey or Chicken (85% lean)
- ½ lb Ground Turkey or Chicken Sausage (85% lean)
- 1 Egg
- 1 slice White Bread, torn into pieces
- ¼ cup Milk
- 3 tsp Italian Seasoning
- ½ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Pepper
- ½ cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
- ½ tsp Garlic Powder
Soup
- 2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 1 med Onion, chopped
- 3 Carrots, chopped
- 2 ribs Celery, chopped
- 3 cloves Garlic, finely minced
- 9 cups Low Sodium Chicken Broth
- 1 tsp Dill, dried
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt (or 3/4 tsp table salt)
- ¼ tsp Pepper
- 1 sm Bay Leaf
- ¾ cup Acini di Pepe (or stars, "pastina")
To Finish
- 10 oz Fresh Baby Spinach
Instructions
Make the Meatballs*
- Mix the ground meat and sausage together well. Place in a mixing bowl, pushing it to one side.
- Add the egg to the side of the bowl without the meat and beat it.
- Add the torn bread and the milk, making sure the bread soaks up the liquid.
- Add the Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, parmesan, and garlic powder. Mix everything together well.
- Form meat mixture into small, 1-inch meatballs. A 1-oz scoop works very well for this! Set meatballs aside, on a plate or baking sheet.
The Soup
- Turn on the Sauté setting. When hot, add the oil and the onion, carrots, and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes, until softened.
- Add the garlic and stir.
- Add the chicken broth, dill, salt, pepper, and bay leaf. Stir.
- Carefully add the meatballs, then the acini di pepe.
- Close the lid and set the steam release knob to the Sealing position.
- Press the Pressure Cook/Manual button or dial, then the +/- button or dial to select 3 minutes. High Pressure. The pot will take several minutes to come to pressure.
- When the cook cycle has finished, turn off the pot and let it sit undisturbed for 15 minutes (15 minute natural release). Then turn the steam release knob to the Venting position to release the remaining steam/pressure.
- When the pin in the lid drops back down, open the lid.
Finish
- Add the spinach in handfuls and carefully stir the soup. Let the soup sit for a couple of minutes so the spinach can wilt.
- Serve with some nice crusty bread!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Sandy I want to use frozen precooked meatballs. Do they need to be defrosted first?
Frozen will work just fine!
This quickly became a family favorite! I made it as directed the first time, but then made a couple changes. I didn’t like the texture of the meatballs just cooked in the IP, so I make a double batch of them, bake and use half and freeze the rest for next time. I also used a block of frozen spinach in place of the fresh. I add it in with the other ingredients and it cooks just fine. If I think about it, I let it defrost in the fridge for a bit. Having the frozen meatballs on hand makes it so much easier! Thanks for such a delish recipe !!!
I would like to make this meal but my question is can I set my pressure cooker on soup? Will it still pressurize like its suppose to?
You can, but using the Pressure Cook button is a way to manually input the time when a recipe calls for a specific amount of time. The Soup setting is just like Pressure Cook, but with a preset time.
Thank you for the info,new to the cooking thing
Can you use frozen Spinach?
Yes. Maybe thaw it a bit in the microwave first to get some of the excess water out.
Amazing! I followed the recipe exactly and it was perfect!
We made this last night for dinner, and it was fantastic! I made the meatballs using turkey Italian sausage instead of regular ground turkey. They were a little wet and hard to form, but I just parbaked them in the oven before putting them in the Instant Pot with the other ingredients…and it worked! 5/5 stars
We made this last night for dinner, and it was fantastic! I made the meatballs using turkey Italian sausage instead of regular ground turkey. They were a little wet and hard to form, but I just parbaked them in the oven before putting them in the Instant Pot with the other ingredients…and it worked! 5/5 stars
This soup looks so good! I am getting hungry just reading the recipe