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Good Monday to you! I have a little giveaway business to take care of and then…oh, then. The. Soup. I will tell you about this tasty soup of wonder.
But first and foremost…the winners of the Unbroken book giveaway are Jamie email address jlhspalding @yahoo.com and Nancy email address merrillrn@gmail.com. Thanks to all those who entered and left such great book recommendations within your entry comments. I so enjoyed reading all of your suggestions. I loved that so many of you have high praise for The Hiding Place, These Is My Words, Left To Tell, The Help, and A Thousand Splendid Suns. These fine books are among my very favorites as well.
Ok. Now.
Brace your self for soup, my friends.
I’ve loved this hearty, fabulous tasting Meatball Minestrone Soup since the first day it touched my taste buds. A dear friend delivered a big steaming pot full to me shortly after I delivered my twin boys and I have loved it ever since. Why it has taken me so long to tell you about it…I do not know!
I can be kind of slow, you know.
This beauty of a soup only takes about 15 minutes to prepare.
I have a hunch that you like that sort of thing.
It has the wonderful flavor of a true Italian Minestrone Soup with the added bonus of hearty meatballs.
Pretty sure you are going to like that kind of thing. Every person living under this roof of mine has deemed it the best crock pot soup of the year. I KNOW I like that sort of thing.
The super bowl is on Sunday and it would make a great main course meal with little prep, fuss, fanfare, fireworks and exhaustion required. I’m definitely SURE you love that sort of thing. Who doesn’t!
Make the soup:)
Make it and kick back, and put your feet up while it simmers away all day. Then eat it and love it and thank the heavens for fabulous tasting food.
Meatball Minestrone Soup
Time: 15 min prep + 6-8 hours cooking
Yield: 10 servings
Recipe adapted from my dear friend Heather Peterson
3 (14.5 ounce) cans Italian Style Stewed Tomatoes
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
4 C beef broth
1 1/2 C carrots, sliced
1/2 C onion, chopped
1 C green beans, fresh or frozen
1 t basil, dried
1 t oregano, dried
1 t thyme, dried
1 (15 ounce) can Kidney Beans
1 (15 ounce) can Garbanzo Beans
6 C (about 1 1/2 pounds) Italian Meatballs, fully cooked
1 (16 ounce) box Ditalini Pasta, or Elbow Macaroni
1 (10 ounce) can tomato soup
Parmesan Cheese
1. Into a large crock pot, pour 3 cans Italian Style Stewed Tomatoes and 1 can tomato sauce.
2. Add 4 C beef broth. (I just dissolved 4 teaspoons beef soup base granules into 4 cups hot water.)
3. Slice 1 1/2 cup carrots, chop yourself 1/2 a cup of onions, and about 1 cup of green beans. Add them to the crock pot.
4. Next you will need 1 teaspoon basil, 1 teaspoon thyme and 1 teaspoon oregano.
Once you have the seasonings measured out, crush them between your fingers as you add them to the pot. This really maximizes the flavor.
5. Drain and rinse 1 can kidney beans and 1 can garbanzo beans. Add them to the pot.
6. Now for the meatballs! These Italian Style Meatballs from Costco are absolutely fabulous.
Toss about 6 cups of these frozen treasures into your pot. Cover and let the old girl cook on high for 6-8 hours.
7. When your soup has simmered away all day and you are ready to eat, cook the pasta according to package directions. Don’t be tempted to add the uncooked pasta to the crock pot. The pasta will be kind of squishy and gross, and will also soak up a lot of the broth, leaving you with a thicker soup than you want. Just cook the pasta separately and all will be well. 
8. Add 1 can of tomato soup into your crock pot. Give it a nice stir, cover the soup and let it heat through. Your soup should thicken just a bit with the addition of the tomato soup.
9. When you are ready to serve, dish a nice healthy portion of the pasta into each soup bowl then pour the Meatball Minestrone over the top. Garnish with a bit of grated Parmesan cheese.
Enjoy!
{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
This sounds amazing
YUM!!
why not add the pasta to the crock pot and let it cook?
I always make a soup on Wednesdays, and this is what we will have this week. I think I'll take the anonymous suggestion and add the pasta to the crockpot. This sounds so delicious!
Katherine and Anonymous,
It seems like a handy idea to add the pasta to the crock pot to cook…but please beware. The pasta will end up being kind of goopie in texture. It will also soak up most of the broth leaving you with a thicker soup than you want. This recipe will turn out best if you cook the pasta separate. Good luck! Hope you both love it!
~Jamie
Yay! It looks like I am a winner of Unbroken! I am so excited! I'm not sure how to go about getting it though. Let me know. Thanks!
~Jamie
Great idea about keepin the pasts separate. I hate how the pasts sucks up all the broth.
Ok, so I'm throwing it all in the pot right now. Here is my question. Why does the recipe say to put 1 tsp of each oregano, thyme and basil, but then the instructions say to only do 1/2 tsp?
Hi Stacey,
Thanks for catching my mistake! You need 1 teaspoon of each seasoning. Hope it turns out well for you, thanks again.
~Jamie
Awesome! Thanks! It already smells wonderful! The title also says Minestone soup. Not MinestRone.
I made this and it was great! Thanks for such an easy and yummy dinner idea
I also blogged it today @ http://thehomeheart.wordpress.com/ YUM! I look forward to trying more of your recipes.
This soup was amazing, easy and relatively healthy. I used turkey meatballs from Costco. Will make it again, my family loved it. I don't like Garbanzo beans so I used Great Northern beans and added a can of Pintos.
Made this yesterday. So easy to throw together and delicious. Love your blog, Jamie!
How does the soup freeze as leftovers? Any recommendations for doing this soup in a freezer cooking session? Looks delicious, thanks so much!
Anonymous,
I recently did a post about freezing meals, and this very recipe was included. Here is a link.
http://www.jamiecooksitup.blogspot.com/2012/03/35-freezer-safe-recipes.html
Good luck to you!
~Jamie
Jamie,
Thanks for posting your crockpot version of this recipe. I make a similar version on the stove. I use V-8 juice along with beef broth for the soup part. May have to try meatballs instead of hamburger one of these days. Sounds yummy!
I made this. It was yummy. A wonderful fall/winter soup. Definitely a keeper!
I'm trying this tonight but I was wondering–any idea about how many servings it makes? I am trying to count calories…what fun. I just thought it would be good to know how many I was looking at before I ate too much of it
Thanks for sharing all your great recipes!
Okay, I am blind–found the “yield 10 servings”–sorry!
Jamie,
My question is why can’t you add the tomato soup at the beginning of the recipe? Gonna try this here in Paducah, KY. this week since the temps are finally starting to get a little cooler. Can’t wait! Thanks for all of your recipes!
We made this today. Ate it tonight…Yummo! It goes to the top of our soup recipe list! Thank You for sharing.
This sounds wonderful, I just checked my pantry and freezer and have all the ingredients on hand, wish I saw this this morning, but will try this Sunday as it is supposed to be a rainy nasty day. May have to try the Bonesticks to go with it. Thanks for all your great recipes Jamie.
My family LOVED this recipe! I had to share with you what my 5yr old son said. He liked it so much that he asked about it at breakfast the next day. When we did eat it again the next night, he looked at me with a very serious face and said, “I just can’t stop eating this soup!”
Sounds yummy! I think I’m going to make it for my freezer meal group that I’m in. When you freeze the soup do you add the cooked pasta or do you still cook that later before serving? Thanks!
Cindy,
Yes, I would cook the pasta and add it just before you serve it. Good luck!
~Jamie
Just made this soup. So yummy! We had it with warm beer bread-a perfect combination and great for soaking up that yummy broth. Thanks!
My family LOVES this soup! It really only takes minutes to assemble and is sooo yummy! The trick is NOT adding the pasta to your crock pot! I don’t know why I never thought of adding the pasta separately before. Thank you for sharing, Jamie!
I NEVER comment in blogs or in any forum. But this soup was so GOOD that I must comment. It was so easy to make and my whole family loved it!!! I filled the instructions to cook noodles seperately and that was a great idea. Thanks for this new recipe.
Jaime, help! I guess my crockpot is not quite as big as yours – I just tried to get this going & only got 3 to 4 cups of meatballs in & it’s filled to the BRIM (I’m hoping it doesn’t overflow as it cooks). Any suggestions about the REST of the meatballs & how to add in the tomato soup later? I don’t think there’s any way I can add more to the crockpot for sure. Do crockpots potentially overflow as the cook? Please offer any help you can! Thanks.
Hi Jenny,
It will still turn out great, don’t worry. You can leave the tomato soup out at the end if you need to. It just thickens the soup up just a bit. If you still want to use it, you could pour the soup into a large pot, add the tomato soup (and the meatballs you couldn’t fit in at the begining) and then heat it through on the stove to finish things off. I have tried this recipe just on the stove top as well. Just let it all simmer together for about an hour.
Hope you love it!
~Jamie
Someone might have already asked this but what size crockpot do you use? Looks like it gets pretty full and don’t want to have the surprise of mine not being big enough!
I love soups once, somebody give me a recipe of a Minestrone soup to help you lose weight, it was very similar, the difference they use cabbage n peas and kidney beans minus the meat. By the way this frozen meatballs loose lots of fat? Tku!!
I found this recipe on Pinterest and will be making it for the second time later this week. I absolutely love this soup, it was so easy to make and had so much flavor. Thanks for the great recipe!
This is so delicious! Thanks for sharing.
I googled minestrone soup recipes and found this one. I am taking it to a church potluck. I had planned to add the macaroni in the morning but the crock pot barely accomodates the soup! I didn’t really want to take two containers but …
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