I’m always looking for soup recipes. My favorite dinners have great soups as either a side or entree. One of my favorites has always been Italian Wedding Soup. I think the reason I always loved it was because that soup is made with meatballs, among other things, which I always felt as a novel concept and and interesting addition to a soup.

This recipe is my latest find and is for Herbed Meatball Soup. Basically, it’s Italian Wedding, but made with MOSTLY meatballs,  so of course I’m on board! My favorite things about this recipe are, what I think, are unique variety of ingredients.  First you have a mixture of ground beef and ground pork for the meatballs that adds to the flavor.  Then there is the use of instant tapioca and lemon zest added to the meatballs, two ingredients I have NEVER used, or even considered for that matter, in meatballs before now.  The flavors in this soup are really quite amazing, you and your family are going to love it!

Also, feel free to add things to the soup if you wish. The rice in the image above, for instance, isn’t part of the recipe, but it’s something I like to add to light soups to make them more filling. Just a thought.

Here’s what you need:

1 lb. ground beef
½ lb. ground pork
1 c. onion
4 clove garlic
1½ tsp. instant tapioca
1 lemon zest
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. red pepper
3 tbsp. olive oil
6 c. low-sodium chicken broth
3 sprig fresh oregano
3 sprig parsley
1½ tbsp. fresh oregano
1½ tbsp. parsley

This awesome recipe is coming to  you today thanks to countryliving.com. You’ve heard of Italian Wedding soup, right? Well this is what I’d call an Italian Civil Ceremony Soup: simple, no added flair, no guests, no nonsense- just the things that matter… in this case MEATBALLS! If you would like to be invited to this one, then be sure to head on over to Country Living now for the full instructions. Enjoy!