How to Make an Easy, Inexpensive Thanksgiving or Winter Soup With Ground Turkey, Pumpkin, Spinach, and Orzo (Diabetic Friendly)

This simple soup--more like a stew, because it's quite thick--is full of the tastes of winter with little turkey meatballs in a thick pumpkin base. Orzo pasta helps thicken the soup, and spinach gives the soup extra taste, color, and nutrition. The soup is a meal in a pot, and it's hearty and warming on a cold winter night. The soup is quite simple to make. The meatballs mix up in minutes, and you can use canned pumpkin and frozen spinach in the soup. I use whole-wheat orzo, but you can substitute a similar shaped whole-grain pasta or just use regular orzo. The stew is great if you're on a diabetic diet or want to "eat healthy" as it includes lean protein and is packed with vitamins, minerals, and fiber. The stew really is "worth eating" nutritionally. Even better, it tastes good. You won't need a lot of weird ingredients to make the soup, and most are comparatively easy to find and inexpensive. We like the soup with a salad for a simple, low-fuss dinner. Leftovers reheat well in the microwave. Enjoy!

How to Make an Easy, Inexpensive Thanksgiving or Winter Soup With Ground Turkey, Pumpkin, Spinach, and Orzo (Diabetic Friendly)

Easy Thanksgiving or Winter Soup -- Serves 4 With a Lot of Leftovers!

Meatballs

1/2 cup of chopped onion

1/4 cup of chopped celery

16 ounces of lean ground turkey (90 or 93 percent)

1 large egg

1/2 cup of plain Greek yogurt

1 teaspoon of poultry seasoning

1/4 teaspoon of pepper

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese

3/4 cup of whole-wheat bread crumbs (use 1-2 slices of stale bread to make them), plus

extra if necessary

In a large bowl mix the onion and celery and add a tablespoon of water. Microwave the vegetables on high for 3-4 minutes until they soften. Let the veggies cool and then add the ground turkey, egg, yogurt, poultry seasoning, pepper, salt, and Parmesan and stir everything together well. Add about 1/2 cup of bread crumbs and mix them into the meat mixture. Add the remaining bread crumbs and mix them in. The meat mixture should stick together, but it will be moist. If your meatball mixture won't stick together, you can add more breadcrumbs to the mixture, but go easy on the crumbs. Set the meatball mixture aside and start the soup mixture. When the soup mixture is hot, with damp hands, form walnut- or golf-ball-sized meatballs and carefully drop them into the soup, spacing the meatballs around the pot.

Soup

5 cups of water

2 tablespoons of reduced sodium chicken base (I use "Better Than Bullion)

15-ounce can of pumpkin puree

1 teaspoon of onion powder

1/4 teaspoon of salt, plus more to taste

1/4 teaspoon of pepper, plus more to taste

3/4 cup of whole-wheat orzo

12-ounce bag of chopped frozen spinach

Mix the water, chicken base, pumpkin puree, onion powder, salt, and pepper together in a large soup pot and bring them to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and drop in the meatballs carefully. Stir in the orzo gently. Partially cover the pan with a lid. Turn down the heat so that the soup simmers and let it cook, stirring it gently periodically, for about 30 minutes or until the meatballs are done (they should register at least 165 with an instant read thermometer) and the orzo has cooked. Stir in the frozen spinach and let the soup cook another 5-10 minutes. Taste the soup and add additional salt and pepper to taste before serving the soup.

How to Make an Easy, Inexpensive Thanksgiving or Winter Soup With Ground Turkey, Pumpkin, Spinach, and Orzo (Diabetic Friendly)