Turkey Meatball Soup

This turkey meatball soup is hearty, filling, and delicious! Tender turkey meatballs, pasta, and fresh herbs in a tomato broth make this one tasty soup.

I didn’t have a turkey meatball recipe on this blog until now, so I figured it was time. They’re leaner and lighter than your traditional beef/pork meatballs, and some people prefer white meat. I like to have plenty of options available.

I didn’t originally plan on making this a soup, actually, but it turned out nicely. I made these on a weekend where I had a stinker of a cold. I was pretty out of it, but I had recipes to make. I was attempting to make a sauce, and somehow decided that adding a 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes and 4 cups of veggie broth was a good idea. It was more like soup, so I just went with it.

How to make tender ground turkey meatballs

The key to making these meatballs really tender is by using bread soaked in milk instead of breadcrumbs. These meatballs melt in your mouth. Using soaked bread to make a paste (called a panade) is an old trick that helps keep ground meat tender in recipes like meatballs.

I used really lean ground turkey meat, so the panade is particularly important since lean meat is even more prone to drying out (especially if you over-cook it).

I baked the turkey meatballs for 10 minutes to ensure they would hold their shape when added to the soup. Simmering them in the soup finishes cooking them and gives the soup better flavor and texture.

The healthy turkey meatball recipe can be used by itself (or you can make a separate sauce for it) if you don’t want to make it as soup. Just make sure you cook the meatballs fully (I only pop them in the oven for 10 minutes before finishing the cooking off in the soup). I’d bake them for about 20 minutes or so, depending on their size, to ensure they’re cooked through.

Hope you love this soup with easy turkey meatballs!