Recipe Contest Entry: Italian Wedding Soup

Italian Wedding Soup

236 calories w/o the Grissini Breadstick

256 calories w/ Grissini Breadstick

Main Dish Entry from Jennifer D.

Ingredients in order of use:

• 1 T Minced Garlic (i used the minced in a jar)
• 100 g Extra Lean Beef (season with 1T Canadian Steak Seasoning and 1 t Onion Powder, pinch of salt)
• 1 T Homemade or Rachel Ray's All Natural Beef Stock
• Couple shakes of Worcestershire
• 1 T Dehydrated Onion Flakes
• 1 T Fresh Rosemary finely chopped (obviously you can use dried rosemary, lessen the amount if you're not a fan or omit altogether)
• 1 1/2 cups Homemade or Rachel Ray's All Natural Chicken Stock...you can always mix Veg and Chicken stock half and half for a milder stew....also add less or more stock depending on how you like it)
• Couple shakes of Ms. Dash (no need to be exact on any of these!)
• Couple shakes of Italian seasoning (find one w/ no sugar!)
• 1 t Sambal Oelek (if you like it spicy, if not, just omit...Hot Sriacha sauce would work too...both can be found in the Asian aisle at your Supercenter)
• 1 T Red wine (i love it for flavor and i figure 1T is ok since the alcohol will burn off...omit if you want)
• 2 cups fresh spinach leaves

Preparation instructions:

Preheat pot over medium-high heat and add garlic

Work the Canadian Steak Seasoning, onion powder and salt into your beef. Roll into small sized meatballs

Add meatballs to pan and begin browning

To prevent scorching, I added a tbsp of beef broth and a couple shakes of Worcestershire, continue browning the meatballs

Add the onion flakes and rosemary followed by your broth....i figure all beef broth would be overpowering so the chicken or veg broths seem to work better.

Bring to a low boil.

Add Ms Dash, Italian Seasoning, Sambal Oelek and red wine

Reduce heat to a simmer and let cook until meatballs are cooked through and spices have melded together.

Add spinach.

Simmer for a couple minutes more before serving.

I've become a huge fan of soups as they are not only tasty, but so filling! I've found that they make great bases and are easy to experiment with in terms of various spices...Enjoy!!! ; )