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This comforting and light soup is filled in with delicious grain free turkey meatballs, butternut squash noodles, carrots, and spinach. So simple and tasty! Plus it’s Paleo, dairy free, and Whole30 compliant.
I’ve been wanting to do a meatball soup for a while now. It’s really just a natural extension of my love for meatballs and my love for soup. Why not throw them together? This feels right to me. So let’s do this.
The most time consuming part of this recipe is rolling the meatballs and really how hard is that? Not really. Once rolled we give these beauties a quick sauté to get them nice and browned.
Then we let them simmer in chicken stock and seasonings with a few quick cooking veggies. Voila! Dinner is served!
How to Spiralize Butternut Squash
You can find already spiralized butternut squash in the produce section of many of your nicer grocery stores. The brand I buy most often is CeCe’s Veggie Co. and it comes in a 10.7 oz package. Want to save a little cash or just can’t find spiralized butternut squash in your grocery store? Not to worry! It’s relatively easy to spiralize it yourself at home.
The tricky part is really just prepping the squash. The bulbous part at the bottom of the butternut squash contains seeds so often people will slice into it and wonder how the heck do I make noodles when there are all these seeds? Well we don’t use that part, friend. Read below and I’ll quickly explain.
- Slice off the bottom part of the butternut squash. This is the part that’s more bulbous and contains all the seeds. Discard or set that part aside to use in another recipe. What you’re left with won’t contain seeds.
- Cut off the top of the squash so both the top and bottom of your squash is now flat.
- Use a vegetable peeler or sharp knife to remove the skin.
- Now slice this peeled squash in half. This makes it much easier to work with.
- Use your preferred spiralizer on the thickest or most coarse setting to create your noodles according to spiralizer instructions. (If your noodles are too thin they’ll fall apart quickly in the soup and won’t hold up well to the heat.)
Turkey Meatball & Butternut Squash Soup
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 1 lb lean ground turkey, lean beef also works great
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp garlic, minced
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 2 tbsp olive oil, extra virgin
Veggies
- 2 tsp garlic, minced
- 64 oz chicken stock
- 1 1/2 cups carrots, chopped
- 1/4 cup fresh oregano, chopped
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 3/4 tsp onion powder
- 3/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 10 oz butternut squash noodles
- 5 oz fresh baby spinach
Optional: sliced green onion and fresh herbs for garnish
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine your ground turkey, parsley, egg, minced garlic, salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and chili powder. Roll into meatballs about 1 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter.
- Add your olive oil (or other cooking fat) to a soup pot over medium high heat. Brown your meatballs on all sides. This takes roughly 2 to 3 minutes per side. Continue rotating your meatballs so that all sides are getting some love.Â
- When meatballs are almost ready, add the 2 teaspoons minced garlic to pot. Saute until garlic is golden in color, about 1 minute.
- Reduce heat to medium. Add the chicken stock, carrots, fresh oregano, salt, pepper, onion powder, ground ginger, garlic powder, and dried thyme. Simmer for 5 minutes until carrots begin to soften.
- Add butternut squash noodles and simmer for another 6 to 9 minutes or until noodles are tender. Pay attention to those noodles because if overcooked these noodles basically disintegrate (and while still delicious, we don't want that).
- Taste and add more salt or pepper if desired. Stir in baby spinach just before serving. It wilts immediately in the hot soup. Ladle finished soup into bowls and garnish with green onion and chopped fresh herbs (optional).
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I love using ground turkey, and I’m all about butternut squash! It’s almost soup season, so I’ll definitely have to try out this healthy recipe! Thanks for sharing!
Alyssa Hixenbaugh –Â https://coffeefitkitchen.com/
This was great and quick to make! Loved that it was all done in one pot! I added onions and used kale instead of spinach, so yummy!