I cant believe it … but it’s fall y’all! We had such a fun and busy summer. It just flew by!

 

I’m always a little sad to see summer go but all things fall make the adjustment from summer to autumn a breeze. I mean football, pumpkins, colorful trees, Fall fashion, warm drinks, and comfort food …. sign me up!

Although here in North Carolina the weather is still screaming summer. Yes we are still in the 80’s and 90’s! It is usually not until the end of September beginning of October we drop down into the 70’s. Yet, that doesn’t stop me from decorating my front porch in mums and pumpkins and drinking a little apple cider and rum on the weekends! I guess my Michigan roots stand strong, September means FALL my friends!

So, with fall here I felt sharing this soup recipe with y’all was completely appropriate. I came up with this recipe two years ago and froze enough the past two years to last us threw the winter and I always look forward to indulging in it.

This soup typically has many vegetables from the garden. Carrots that I canned from the spring, zucchini and squash I frooze from the summer, and rosemary. This is why I typically start making this soup in the fall, I can use my carrots, squash, and zucchini I preserved and my rosemary is in full force by September.  Also when I make this soup in October and November I can use spinach from the garden for the meatballs! Lots of veggies from the garden and as I have said before the more veggies from the garden the better!

Ingredients

1 squash

1 zucchini

1 onion

2 cloves of garlic

6-8 mushrooms

1 potato

6 carrots peeled

2-3 tbsp of chopped fresh rosemary

1/4 cup of tomato paste

32 oz chicken broth

8 cups of water

salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients for Meatballs 

1 lb of ground turkey 

3 cups of fresh spinach

1/2 onion

1-2 cloves of garlic

1 egg

1/4 cup of Italian bread crumbs

1 tbsp of olive oil

Chop onion and garlic and heat olive oil in the pan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and onion to the pan, sauteing for about two minutes. While sauteing wash spinach then add spinach to the pan and continue sauteing until spinach is wilted. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and in a bowl mix with your hands turkey, Italian bread crumbs, egg, and spinach mixture. Roll into medium size balls and place on baking sheet. Bake meatballs for 20 minutes or until meatballs are cooked threw out and set aside. Turkey releases a lot of liquid when cooked so I like to remove my meatballs from the pan and place on a plate with paper towel.

Chop onion, mushrooms, garlic, zucchini, squash, potatoes, rosemary, and carrots and set aside. In a large pot add water and chicken stock over medium- high heat. Add tomato paste to stock and whisk in thoroughly.

Add onion, garlic, carrots, potatoes, and rosemary to pot. Cover with a lid and allow to cook for about 10 minutes. The carrots, potatoes, and onions will take longer to cook then the other vegetables so this gives them a head start. You do not want uncooked veggies in your soup.

After ten minutes uncover and add squash, zucchini and mushrooms to the pot cooking for an additional twenty mins or until all veggies are tender.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle soup into bowls and add two to three meat balls per bowl. Top with fresh graded Parmesan cheese.

This soup is bursting with flavors and it is healthy! I love serving up this soup to my boys, they absolutely love it and its a great way for them to get their veggies in!

Grow it. Pick it. Cook it. Eat it.

Chantelle