This week in the A-Z Cooking With Kids series, we’re sharing one of my kids’ favorite recipes. My three older kids (and now the baby is loving it too!) LOVE Wedding Soup. It’s one of their most requested meals. We’re making our way through the alphabet with our cooking with kids series and this week is I is for Italian. So, of course we had to share our wedding soup recipe.
Making Wedding Soup isn’t as difficult as you might think. There are a lot of steps, but with four small kids running around, I usually do the parts in steps. on the chicken on the stove top and making the meatballs when you have the time makes it easier. I will usually make the meat part of the soup a day ahead of time or whenever I have extra time.
Wedding Soup Recipe
Wedding Soup is a hearty soup with a chicken based broth, and full of protein with meatballs and chicken, and filling with pasta. I love that my kids get extra veggies when they chow down on this soup’s spinach and carrots. It is a sure winner in our house!
How to make meatballs:
Start by making the meatballs. Wedding Soup calls for small bite-sized meatballs. They are the perfect size for toddlers and make this soup fun for kids. To make meatballs, grab a few ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 egg
2 teaspoons dried parsley
1/4 cup finely chopped onions
3/4 cup bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Mix all of the ingredients together by hand. Roll into bite-sized meatballs.
Cook on the stove top until browned.
Put the meatballs aside.
Next, saute 1-2 chicken breasts. I used chicken tenderloins because that is what we had on hand. The nice thing about Wedding Soup is that it is very versatile. You can adjust the measurements of the ingredients and it will still taste great!
Shred the chicken and put aside.
Next, pour 8 cups of chicken stock or chicken broth into a large soup pot. Add 6 cups of water and 4 chicken bouillon cubes. You can also use granulated chicken bouillon. This just adds chicken flavor to the soup. (Bouillon is essentially dried compressed chicken stock.)
Chop 3-4 large carrots. I sliced ours lengthwise first to make chopping easier for my kids.
Next comes the veggies!
Add the chopped carrots and 6 cups of fresh spinach to the soup pot. Frozen spinach also works in this recipe. Toss in the chicken and meatballs.
Allow the soup to boil and then turn down the heat. Simmer the soup for 1 hour or until the carrots are softened. Add 1 cup of uncooked acini di pepe pasta and turn up the heat. Allow the soup to boil and cook for 15 minutes. There is no need to drain the pasta.
Enjoy! My kids love looking for the meatballs in their soup bowls.
Look at that meatball!
Stop by and see what the other bloggers in the Cooking with Kids A-Z series made for I is for Italian:
Want to cook healthy foods for your family? Grab Yum! Deliciously Healthy Meals for Kids, a cookbook for busy families that want healthy meal ideas.
to create the kit. I cut a piece of dry erase 
to fit the top section of the pencil box. One one side of the 
. Simply lay the contact paper over one side and fold it over the other side. Trim the edges and your whiteboard is done!
and a bit of paper felt for erasing. You will want to get a dry erase marker with a fine tip or 
that we could and use it for all of our kitchen experiments. (i.e. I would not use it for cooking actual food!) 
. They are still drying, but we have big plans for these cuties! Be sure to stop back soon to see how we’re using them in all kinds of counting and ordering games. 
(LOVE this brand!) poured onto a plate or into bowls. Grab a handful of 
and start stamping! 
(this is the one we have and I love it because it’s not too difficult that my kids can’t build runs themselves, but it does include a lot of different pieces.) We pulled it out one hot day and placed it in our
. If you’ve never played with water beads before, these are a sensory must! The small beads are perfect for sensory play and go right down the shoots of the water table. We poured, scooped, and dumped water and water beads down the shoots and ramps and watched the beads pile up at the bottom of the marble run.
(or any toasted rice cereal would work)
and pasta. You can use any shape or type of pasta. Add the dried pasta and a few drops of food coloring to a plastic baggie. Add a squirt of
and shake the bag. Allow the pasta to dry overnight until the dye is dry. You are ready to play. We drew a board quickly and have been playing a lot of tic tack toe. Have fun with your tic tac toe manipulatives!