Summer Minestrone with Turkey Meatballs
by Chungah
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The best summer soup! Chockfull of fresh garden vegetables with homemade turkey meatballs (freezer-friendly!). Light, hearty, and so so cozy.
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why you’ll love summer minestrone
- Use up summer produce. This soup is the perfect way to repurpose all the fresh summer produce and garden vegetables into the most comforting seasonal soup with a refreshing, vibrant lemon kick in every single bite.
- Picky-eater and kid-friendly. There are all the sneaked-in leafy greens and nutrition for both grown-ups and picky eaters!
- Flexible recipe. The recipe includes homemade turkey meatballs (that can be made ahead of time or frozen!) with so much flexibility, using ground beef or chicken instead, or even swapping with store-bought meatballs for a quick shortcut.
- Hug-in-a-bowl. Not to mention, this is by far the coziest soup on a warm summer night (or any night, really), particularly when you’re feeling under the weather or fighting off a cold.
- Make-ahead and freezer-friendly. Of course both the soup and meatballs freeze like a dream for all your summertime needs (more on that below).
What is summer minestrone soup?
Summer minestrone is a variation of traditional minestrone soup highlighting summer produce with more of a lighter, vibrant broth. It can be served for both lunch or dinner alongside some crusty bread for sopping.
What vegetables can I use in summer minestrone?
- Aromatics: garlic, onion, carrots, and celery
- Squash: zucchini or yellow squash
- Sweet corn: corn on the cob
- Greens: spinach, kale, or swiss chard
- Herbs: basil, cilantro, or thyme
How to make summer minestrone
- Make the meatballs. Combine the ground turkey, Panko, Parmesan, garlic, basil, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper just until the ingredients are combined, working carefully not to overwork the mixture. Gently roll the mixture to form 3/4-to-1-inch meatballs.
- Cook the meatballs. Working in batches, cook the meatballs in a Dutch oven over medium heat until all sides are browned and seared; set aside. The meatballs do not have to be completely cooked here as they will finish cooking in the soup.
- Sauté the aromatics. Cook the garlic, onion, carrots, and celery, stirring in the thyme until fragrant. Add a splash of white wine here (optional) until reduced by half, about 1-2 minutes.
- Simmer. Add the chicken stock and bay leaves, and bring to a boil. Stir in the uncooked pasta and browned meatballs, letting it simmer until the pasta is al dente and the meatballs are cooked through.
- Add greens. Stir in zucchini and spinach (or any other leafy greens).
- Add the finishing touches. Add the freshly squeezed lemon juice and parsley, seasoning one last time with salt and pepper.
- Serve. Serve warm with a dollop of pesto and a sprinkle of Parmesan!
Make-ahead, storing and freezing meatballs
Make-ahead
The uncooked meatballs can be made 1 day in advance and placed on a baking sheet (covered) in the fridge.
Storing
Leftover cooked meatballs (on their own or in the soup) can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Freezing uncooked meatballs
Place the assembled uncooked meatballs on a baking sheet lined with wax paper or parchment paper, freezing for 1 hour until solid. Transfer the meatballs to an airtight, resealable freezer bag, freezing up to 1 month. Thaw overnight.
what to serve with Summer Minestrone with Turkey Meatballs
Tools For This Recipe
Dutch oven
Summer Minestrone with Turkey Meatballs: Frequently Asked Questions
Not at all! Ground pork, ground beef or ground chicken 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.
Place the uncooked meatballs on a baking sheet lined with wax paper or parchment paper, freezing for 1 hour until solid. Transfer the meatballs to an airtight, resealable freezer bag. Label, date and freeze up to 1 month.
You can use either chicken broth or chicken stock but always season, to taste, as store-bought broth is often saltier than store-bought stock. Broth is made from meat and vegetables while stock is often lower sodium and thicker than broth, and is made from bones and vegetables.
The ditalini pasta is cooked directly in the soup, absorbing all the flavorful broth. But if you are planning for leftovers or freezing, the pasta should be cooked and stored separately.
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 ditalini pasta when serving.
Summer Minestrone with Turkey Meatballs
Video
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.
Equipment
Notes
- Use your favorite meat. Ground pork, beef, chicken or turkey will all work very well here for the meatballs.
- Don’t overwork the meatballs. Using your hands (or a wooden spoon, but preferably hands), combine the meatballs just until combined. Overmixing will yield tough turkey meatballs!
- Prep the meatballs ahead of time. The meatballs can be assembled up to 1 day in advance or stored in the freezer for long term storage. For a quicker shortcut, substitute frozen mini meatballs (I personally love Trader Joe’s party size mini meatballs – a huge guilty pleasure of mine!).
- Add a splash of wine. Add a splash of white wine when sautéing the aromatics to create a quick restaurant-quality soup! It is a great way to deglaze the pan from the meatballs and to add bright, rich flavors. Opt for pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc (never using cooking wine), letting it reduce by half (about 1-2 minutes).
- Use good-quality stock. The better quality your stock, the better your soup. Many brands love to pack in the salt so always opt for unsalted or a lower-sodium variety. Homemade stock is even better.
- Add in leafy greens. This is a great recipe to sneak in leafy greens for those picky eaters. Spinach, kale, collard greens, swiss chard, or arugula are all great options.
- Freeze as needed. This soup freezes beautifully but if you plan to freeze, cook the veggies slightly firm so they can hold up during freezing and reheating.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
Would totally make this again – I did also have some issues with the meatballs sticking when browning, but I just put any meatball pieces back in the soup and it came out fine and tasty. We also skipped the spinach. I feel like summer soup is a little hard to come by! Enjoyed this one!
I agree Jennifer, I also had problem with the meatballs sticking in the first batch. I turned the heat lower for the second batch and worked much better.
This soup is quick and easy to make and so delicious!
We enjoyed this soup, but I felt it lacked flavor, and had too much lemon, after cooking it. I added garlic powder, a pinch of red pepper, white pepper and smoked paprika at the end of it cooking, and let the flavors meld for awhile. It also took me much longer to prep and cook, but we have a glass top stove, which, in my experience, takes longer to cook, than a gas stove. Great recipe, and I will definitely make it again, when most ingredients come into season.
I do love your recipes, I only wish they included nutritional info.
I was excited to find a minestrone recipe without tomatoes, as they bother my stomach. My zucchini aren’t ready yet, but my yellow summer squash are, so I used that instead. I think it would’ve been better if I put them in with the pasta and meatballs since the skin is a little tough. It’s still delicious though!
Delicious soup! I added 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning and I used frozen turkey meatballs. Frozen meatballs had a weird consistency, so next time I’ll make homemade or buy premade (but not frozen) ones. I loved the lemony flavor!
This is perhaps the best soup I have ever made, though I adapted slightly for dietary reasons and for what I had on hand.
I doubled the recipe and used two leeks and one onion.
Subbed spinach for chopped kale.
Used orzo pasta.
And I had a chimichurri sauce on hand so I mixed in with the breadcrumbs for the meatballs.
This soup was so flavorful!!
My favorite soup recipe this past summer! I omitted the lemon and pepper flakes and loved it! This last time I used frozen chopped spinach and it was still great. The meatballs are flavorful and soften overnight. I did add extra chicken broth as well.
Just made this for dinner, absolutely delicious!!! Followed the recipe but cheated with frozen meatballs, just to save on time but will definitely make the Turkey one’s next time. Thnx for the recipe ❣️❣️
Very good. Worth the effort. Toddler son loved it as well. I used one zucchini because that’s all I had but it was plenty for us.
OMG, this was AMAZING !!!!!! The fresh lemon juice sent it over the top !
When making the meatballs how do you season raw turkey “to taste”? You can’t taste it until it’s cooked.
I would combine all the meatball ingredients except the ground turkey and taste that keeping in mind you’ll want a bit salty so there’s enough salt and pepper to season a pound I of meat.
You could also brown a very small amount of the meatball mixture, taste that and adjust for the remainder of the mixture. Seasoning, especially salt and pepper, is a very personal taste sort of thing.
I would love to make this recipe but because I keep kosher, I can’t put the Parmesan cheese in the turkey meatballs. Do you suggest some substitution that isn’t dairy? Or just leave it out?
I left the parm out too but added nutritional yeast. I eyeballed it but used about two tablespoons. It turned out great!
Tried this tonight with some very minor substitutions and the entire family enjoyed it very much! This includes 3 teenagers! Very tasty summer soup and will definitely be included in our rotation from now on. Thank you very much.
Made this for dinner tonight! Very delicious! I did not change anything and would make again! I pre measured everything the morning before and put into containers based on steps. Will make again and have extra for the freezer!
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.