Summer Minestrone with Turkey Meatballs
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A hearty, freezer-friendly soup chockfull of fresh garden vegetables. A classic summertime dinner!
I know. Soup in the summertime? Have I gone mad? Well, maybe but I find that there’s something even more cozy about soup this time of year.
You know, as you drip sweat in the 98 degree summer heat and humidity. But don’t worry. We’re using up all of our favorite garden vegetables/staples here with homemade turkey meatballs. It’s pure summer comfort in a bowl with the tender simmering veggies and the refreshing lemon kick in every single bite.
And this soup is very freezer-friendly for your summer needs all year long. But I recommend cooking your veggies slightly firm so they can hold up during freezing and reheating.
Tools For This Recipe
Dutch oven
Summer Minestrone with Turkey Meatballs: Frequently Asked Questions
Not at all! Ground pork or ground beef can be used instead of ground turkey.
Panko is a Japanese-style breadcrumb and can be found in the Asian section of your local grocery store.
Yes! You can freeze the leftovers without the pasta (or else they will get mushy) in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and reheat on the stovetop, adding freshly cooked pasta when serving.
Summer Minestrone with Turkey Meatballs
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 sweet onion, diced
- 2 carrots, peeled and diced
- 1 rib celery, diced
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 8 cups chicken stock
- 2 bay leaves
- ¾ cup ditalini pasta
- 2 medium zucchini, halved and sliced
- 3 cups baby spinach
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
For the turkey meatballs
- 1 pound ground turkey breast
- ⅓ cup Panko
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine ground turkey, Panko, Parmesan, garlic, basil, and red pepper flakes, if using; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Using a wooden spoon or clean hands, stir until well combined. Roll the mixture into 3/4-to-1-inch meatballs, forming about 30-32 meatballs.
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add meatballs, in batches, and cook until all sides are browned, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate; set aside.
- Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the stockpot. Add garlic, onion, carrots and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-4 minutes. Stir in thyme until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Whisk in chicken stock and bay leaves; bring to a boil. Stir in pasta and meatballs; reduce heat and simmer until pasta is tender and meatballs are cooked through, about 10-12 minutes.
- Stir in zucchini and spinach until the spinach has wilted, about 2 minutes.
- Stir in lemon juice and parsley; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
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Great soup. Left out the lemon and added a little more broth. Can you provide the nutritional information for this soup? Would make it again for sure!
This turned out perfect!! So delicious!!
Super delicious! A little time consuming since we doubled the recipe. Next time I’ll put in only 2tbsp of lemon juice. It was a little too lemony for us. Definitely making this again!!
AN ABSOLUTELY AMAZING RECIPE FROM BEGINNING TO END!! I LOVE ALL KINDS OF SOUPS, 365 DAYS A YEAR, IF I COULD!! AS LONG AS SOUP IS HOMEMADE, I LOVE IT!!
This was delicious! I made the meatballs a day ahead of time, so less work to do the night of.
I’m allergic to spinach, what would be good to substitute?
Thanks.
Kale or any greens.
This was delicious! Meatballs were the best tasting turkey meatballs I’ve had.
Just made this soup and it is delicious. I did add two chucks of parmesan cheese to it with the pasta. I will definitely make again. Thank you so much for the recipe!
Question—can I sub kale for the spinach?
Yes, I always sub kale for spinach in any soup reciepe, as I cannot have spinach as it is high potassium. And it is a excellent exchange
Of course you can
Followed the recipe exactly and it was amazing!! We will be making this all summer long!
Love this recipe! It’s great for warm summer days! I double the recipe and assemble it for the freezer:
1. Cook meatballs through in a skillet and set aside.
2. Make main soup base to the beginning of step 4 (stop after adding stock and bay leaves).
3. Divide chopped spinach, sliced zucchini, chopped parsley, and meatballs among freezer zipper bags.
4. Label bags with date, title, and instructions to add cooked ditalini and lemon juice when reheating soup.
5. Divide mostly cooled soup base among freezer bags. Lay flat to freeze!
Thanks for a damn delicious recipe!
I made this for my family last night and everyone loved it! I was anticipating a large amount of leftovers, as there are only 3 people in my family, but we ate all of it. I can’t wait to make this again. It is definitely a new family favorite. Thank you!
Love this recipe, however, I used a non stick pot and while frying the meatballs they stuck to the bottom but they were salvageable. I would definitely increase the pasta to at least 1 cup dry. I used chicken broth instead of stock because that’s what I had on hand. I added Parmesan when serving the soup. I will definitely make this again.
Yum! I just added about a teaspoon of red wine vinegar to balance the acidity a bit and it gave it that extra tang it needed. Also used premade Italian Turkey meatballs and quartered them. Yummy all around!
Might have been 1/2 tsp red wine vinegar actually. I just eyeballed a small dash.
Great idea to use premade meatballs!
An absolutely delicious summer soup recipe!
Oh my gosh this was sooooo good, I never made a minestrone before and this is like perfect and new favorite, my husband ate like 3 bowls. It’s flavorful and the meatballs have a bit of a kick with the red pepper flakes. This going to be a staple dish in our house! Please try it!!
It’s February now but soup always works in winter, so with zucchini I needed to use and a craving for something nourishing I made this soup. We liked it and I can see eating it in the summer…I probably just wouldn’t make it in the hottest weather. I didn’t enjoy making the meatballs first, but it’s not like I didn’t know I was going to have to do that, it just takes a little more time. Next time I make it, I think I’ll make meatballs the day before or possibly even make them and freeze them to use whenever! Thanks for another nice recipe 🙂
I love all your recipes and this is no exception. My husband and anyone I feed it too go crazy for this soup. I can never get my ratios to look as pretty as yours but I am going to keep trying. This is a reliable recipe FULL of veggies. Love it.
This soup was awesome!
I’ve made this before and it was great but the ingredients seem to be messed up on here for me – rotisserie chicken, Half and half No zucchini etc
So sorry about that! We had a temporary system glitch but it should be fixed now. 🙂