Spinach, Orzo, and Meatball Soup
Italian wedding soup logic in one pot, built from a bouillon cube and freeze-dried greens.
- calories
- 700
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 127
- protein
- 30 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 3 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 15 min
- water
- 650 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- Winter / snow
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Orzo | 1/2 cup | cooks faster than any other shaped pasta |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried spinach | 1/2 cup | packs down to almost nothing |
| Shelf-stable meatballs or summer sausage | 3 oz | vacuum-sealed cocktail meatballs, or dice sausage if you cannot find them |
| Chicken bouillon | 2 cubes | |
| Tomato paste | 1 tbsp | from a tube, or one single-serve packet |
| Dried onion flakes | 1 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Dried oregano, basil, and thyme | 1 tsp total | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Bring 650 ml of water to a boil. Stir in the bouillon, onion flakes, garlic, herbs, and tomato paste until the paste breaks up.
- Add the orzo. Simmer eight or nine minutes, stirring often so it does not weld to the bottom.
- Drop in the meatballs and the spinach. Two more minutes, just long enough to heat the meat and rehydrate the greens.
- Kill the heat, pour in the oil, and let it sit two minutes. The orzo keeps drinking water as it stands.
- Salt and pepper at the end. Bouillon is already salty, so taste first.
The original is a fridge-clearing soup: fresh onion, homemade stock, a bag of spinach on its last day. None of that travels. Bouillon replaces the stock, dried onion and garlic powder replace the aromatics, and freeze-dried spinach replaces a pound of leaves that would turn to slime in a pack by noon. Tomato paste from a tube is the one thing worth carrying as-is — it gives the broth color and a backbone that bouillon alone does not.
Orzo is the reason this works on a stove. It is small enough to cook through in under ten minutes on one boil, and it thickens the broth as its starch comes out, so you get a stew rather than pasta sitting in water. Add the meatballs late; they are already cooked and long simmering only makes them tough.
Packing
Bouillon, onion, garlic, herbs, and orzo go into one bag at home. Meatballs stay sealed until camp. Tomato paste in a tube, oil in a dropper bottle.
Variations
- Skip the meatballs and use a foil pouch of chicken. Same protein, less weight.
- Swap the orzo for instant couscous and cut the simmer to a two-minute soak off the heat.
- A spoonful of parmesan powder on top if you are carrying it.
https://www.bowlofdelicious.com/italian-spinach-orzo-and-meatball-soup