I decided to try and make something similar to Italian Wedding soup using ground turkey and turkey sausage. I threw a few things together, including a jalapeno pepper, and it made both the soup and the burgers amazingly tasty with a kick! I named the soup Honeymoon soup because it’s much spicier than Italian Wedding, and honeymoon’s are supposed to be spicy, right? 

I didn’t initially plan on making burgers, but I had so much extra meat that I got four out of it!

Here is how to prepare the meat:

Ingredients:

One package lean ground turkey

One package sweet or spicy turkey sausage

1/2 an onion – chopped

1 jalapeno pepper – chopped finely, seeds included

2-3 cloves garlic – minced

1 large handful fresh basil – chopped

1 large handful fresh parsley – chopped

2 tea poultry seasoning

Salt and pepper

Remove turkey sausage from the casing, and blend together turkey and turkey sausage with clean hands. Combine all ingredients in bowl and use hands to incorporate thoroughly.

Once you have the meat mixture ready, heat a couple of teaspoons of EVOO in a skillet on medium. Make 3/4 to 1 inch meatballs and sear, turning a couple of times until cooked through.

As they finish in the skillet, put them in a crockpot turned on high.

Once meatballs are all in the crockpot, add two boxes of chicken broth, a few diced carrots, a can of rinsed great northern beans (or whatever bean you prefer) and a few large handfuls of roughly chopped spinach. Cook for 4-6 hours. I think I added garlic salt and pepper to it before I left it to cook.

You should have enough meat left to cook four turkey burgers. I scored the meat with my hands, made four patties, and seared them with a little bit of EVOO in the same pan I used to cook the meatballs until cooked through (at least 165 degrees).

I put a piece of low fat cheddar cheese and barbeque sauce on the burgers, and they were out of this world!

The meatballs ended up flavoring the soup very nicely, as well as adding a nice kick from the jalapeno. You could add a small pasta (shells, orzo, etc.) if you want to the soup after it cooks. I would cook the pasta and store it separately until you want to eat it so the pasta doesn’t get too soggy and overcooked.

I hope you guys like these recipes! Let me know if you make either one and how it turns out!

What did you have for dinner tonight?

Have you ever tried Italian Wedding soup?

Have a great rest of your week! Hamstring update coming soon.

Happy Trails!

Stacey