Italian Wedding Soup - Vegetarian Version

We all love soup during the colder months, it warms you up and is filling.  I have taken all of my soup recipes and tweaked them a bit to make them vegan/vegetarian.  Leaving out the meat or cheese does not alter the flavors of the broth too much, I found out.  That's good, because you don't want to eat a spoonful of something with an expected taste and not get it.  I made two pots of Italian Wedding Soup this week, one regular (recipe on this blog September 2013)  and one vegan.  They tasted the same except I added meatballs to the regular pot of soup and topped it with grated cheese.  My son does not eat any meat or dairy products at all, no specific reason, he just doesn't eat them.  I had to find a new way to cook things that we all can eat and be happy with at the dinner table.  I added veggie meatballs in the recipe if you like them, I did not put them in my soup. This is how I made it, recipe below.

Vegetarian Italian Wedding Soup

Ingredients

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves of minced garlic or 2 tsp of garlic powder

1 medium onion, diced

3 carrots, diced or 1 1/2 cups of frozen mini baby carrots

3 stalks of celery, diced

3 - 32 oz. containers of vegetable stock
2 cups of  water

1 T. Italian seasoning

1 T. dried parsley

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

3 bay leaves

1/8 tsp, nutmeg, optional

1 bag vegetarian frozen meatballs, semi-thawed and cut in fourths

1 bx frozen spinach drained or 1/2 head of escarole, chopped (can also use fresh spinach)

1 1/2 cups dry, Acini di Pepe, Pastina or Orzo pasta 

Directions

In a 6 - 8 quart Dutch Oven, saute minced garlic, onion, carrots and celery in the olive oil until tender. Add vegetable stock, water, Italian seasoning, parsley, salt, pepper, bay leaves and nutmeg (if using) and bring to a boil.  Add the frozen meatballs and cover with a lid, simmer for 10 minutes. Bring soup back up to a boil and add the pasta and spinach/escarole, cook for 10 minutes or until pasta is cooked to desired taste.  Bring back to a simmer, cover and cook for 10 - 15 minutes more.  If you like, add grated Parmesan cheese on top before serving. Makes about 6 - 8 servings.

NOTE:  If soup gets too thick you may have to add water.