Italian Wedding Soup from Paleo Cooking with your Instant Pot
Italian Wedding Soup is so comforting and versatile because you can thicken it to make it hearty or leave out the thickener to make it a lighter-brothy soup. Regardless of the weather, it’s always a big hit in my family!
Assemble the meatballs by combining meatball ingredients, except for the cooking fat, in a bowl and mix well by hand. Form meatballs between 1 and 2 inches in diameter and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Press the Sauté button on the Instant Pot and drizzle the cooking fat into the inner pot. Place the assembled meatballs into the bowl and brown them on all sides until they are firmly intact, or about 5 minutes. They do not need to be cooked entirely through as they will continue cooking in the broth.
Continue using the sauté feature to cook your diced onion until it is slightly translucent and begins to brown. If you need to add a bit of additional cooking fat, you can do that now.
Secure the lid of your Instant Pot, close the pressure valve and press the Soup button (high pressure, 30 minutes). Allow the cooking cycle to complete, and then you can quick-release your steam valve. Once it is safe to open, you can remove the lid and toss in your chopped spinach. Stir well until spinach wilts.
Add in your stock, meatballs, carrots and seasonings, reserving the spinach for later. If you are using grain-free couscous, you can add that now as well.
At this time, if you want to thicken your soup and did not use the grain-free couscous (which naturally thickens it), you can make a slurry with tapioca, arrowroot or cassava flour. To do this, remove ¼ cup of the broth and whisk in the starch until it has dissolved. Now add the slurry back into the soup pot, stirring until it thickens, usually a couple of minutes.
Notes
You can use any type of ground meat that you want for the meatballs. If you are tracking your calories or macros, this recipe calculates totals based on using ground turkey, so any other meat will change the calorie counts.