Italian Wedding Soup Mix

My Keto Italian Wedding Soup Recipe is a favourite of ours at home.

A bowl of hot soup is always great, but this savory broth with tiny meatballs and a bunch of savory spinach leaves? Absolute perfection for any cold day!

Obviously, when it came time to design packet mixes for camping food, making a sensational Italian soup was high up on our wish list!

This recipe was inspired by my keto meatball soup, just... without the meatballs.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like fussing with making a bunch of tiny homemade meatballs while camping!

Don’t worry, you won’t miss out on the signature tender meatballs that are requisite of this cozy soup!

A seasoning packet is added to ground meat - flavouring it just as you would for the keto meatballs in my original recipe.

Rather than being rolled up into balls, it’s cooked as-us, and broken up. Slightly different texture, but your taste buds won’t know the difference!

This soup packet takes only minutes to make, is GREAT for meal prep - I assembly-line a bunch of them at once - and takes up very little space in a backpack or RV pantry.

Part of what makes it an amazing recipe is that it’s very customizable.

As I try to stick to my keto diet even when camping, I use a “pasta” that’s suitable for a low-carb diet.

If you don’t need it to be low in net carbs, you can use traditional pasta... or swap it out for a gluten free alternative.

Anyway, let’s take a look at what you’ll need for this Italian Wedding Soup mix recipe!

Ingredients

As with my other camping mix recipes, the ingredients for this Italian wedding soup mix recipe can be looked at in two sections:

The soup ingredients for the mix itself, and then the fresh ingredients you’ll need to use the mix.

A nice thing about this recipe: If you don’t need it to be Keto, you can find EVERYTHING you need in grocery stores!

For keto, you just need to one specialty ingredient - that’s it!

Anyway, as always... I have some notes for you:

The Instant Soup Mix Packets

These are the ingredients you’ll measure into freezer bags, ahead of time.

Dehydrated Spinach

You can buy Dried Spinach Flakes if you like, but it’s really easy to make from fresh spinach ... I can’t bring myself to pay the convenience upcharge.

Also, the retail stuff tends to be pretty pulverized - it won’t rehydrate into nice pieces of spinach.

Fresh baby spinach is SO affordable - I’ll buy loads of veggies and dry enough to make a season’s worth of instant soup packets in one go.

All you need to do is arrange your spinach in a single layer in your Food Dehydrator.

Let your machine run until the spinach is dried through - it goes REALLY quickly. Allow it to cool to room temperature, then bag it until you’re ready to assemble your soup mixes.

Not as into spinach? Use whatever leafy greens you like - Swiss chard, curly kale... whatever floats your boat!

Dehydrated Vegetables

Beyond the cabbage, I use 2 other types of dehydrated vegetables in this camp soup mix recipe.

The first is a pantry staple - Onion Flakes, the other requires either a specialty purchase, or a little work ahead of time.

When it comes to the Dehydrated Shredded Carrot , I’ll just peel and large-shred some carrots, then dry them in my Food Dehydrator - it only takes a few hours.

Starting with 2.5 cups fresh shredded carrot tends to get me about ¾ cup dried carrot, or about 12 Tablespoons worth.

It’s cheap and easy, if you have a food dehydrator!

If not, you can order Dehydrated Carrot Flakes online.

It’s a bit more expensive than making it yourself, but really - they’ll last you a while, and even with that additional cost, your soup mixes are way cheaper than buying specialty camping food from outfitters.

Healthier, too!

Powdered Bone Broth

I use Powdered Chicken Bone Broth, rather than chicken bouillon - for a few reasons.

It’s higher in protein, more neutral flavoured, not as salty, and just plain tastes better. All around, a great base for this recipe - I use Organika Chicken Bone Broth.

It tastes more like a hearty chicken stock, than some of the thinner chicken broth options you can buy.

You can try using a powdered vegetable broth - or beef broth, if you prefer a beef base - instead of the chicken broth, though.

If you can find something that’s just pure vegetables / beef - without a bunch of additives, salt, or seasoning - that’s going to be your best bet.

Pasta

Traditional Italian wedding soup is made with tiny pasta - Acini De Pepe, usually.

Feel free to use 1.5 oz of the real thing in this recipe, if you don’t need it to be gluten-free or low carb.

I need both, though, so I use Kaizen Rice - a keto-friendly rice substitute made from lupini beans.

Basically, a low carb pasta.

Want a cheaper option? Try dehydrating frozen (well, thawed!) cauliflower rice!

Need it a gluten free, but not necessarily low carb soup?

Feel free to use about 1 oz of Minute Rice or Instant Brown Rice instead.

Everything Else

Rounding out the soup packet ingredients, you’ll need:

Parmesan Cheese Powder
Dried Parsley
Dried Basil
Garlic Powder
Dried Oregano
Onion Powder
Ground Black Pepper
Salt

... These ones are all pretty straightforward, easy to come by, and self-explanatory, though!

That said, if you’d prefer to use Italian Seasoning instead of individual dried herbs, go for it - 1 ½ teaspoon in the seasoning packet, in place of the parsley, basil, and oregano.

Cooking and Serving

To use a soup packet, you’ll need at least one more ingredient, in addition to water:

Ground Meat

We tend to use ground chicken or ground turkey meat, but feel free to use different meats if you’d like.

Lean ground beef or ground pork are other good options - you can even use ground vegan meats, if that’s your thing.

I’ll section a lb of ground meat into two ½ lb portions, wrap and freeze them. Then, when it’s time to make a batch of soup, I’ll take them out a bit early to thaw.

When using ground poultry or lean beef, you want a little olive oil or vegetable oil to cook it in.

Optional Toppings

We’ll usually serve this delicious soup with just a handful of fresh Parmesan, if we have some on hand - it really doesn’t need much in the way of garnish - but you can top it however you like.

Fresh Italian parsley is another good option, if you have it with you!

How to Make Italian Wedding Soup Mix

The full recipe is in the printable recipe card at the end of this post. Here is the pictorial walk through:.

Measure the Soup Mix ingredients into a medium sized freezer Ziplock Baggie. Stir or shake to combine.

Measure the Meatball Seasoning ingredients into a snack sized Ziplock baggie.

Stir or shake to combine, then press excess air out and seal.

Add the sealed Meatball Seasoning baggies to the larger freezer bags of ingredients, press excess air out and seal.

Ideally, label with some version of the “Cooking & Serving” info, below.

Cooking & Serving

Combine ground meat and the meatball seasoning mix, roll the meatball mixture into small meatballs (optional).

Note: I usually can’t be bothered to make mini meatballs when camping, so I mix the ground meat and seasoning together in my Dutch oven

Cook meatballs or loose seasoned meat in a medium soup pot or large skillet over medium-high heat, using a little vegetable oil if you’re using a really lean meat.

Bring to a low boil, then turn the heat down and simmer on low heat until the rice and vegetables are re-hydrated to the right texture.

Serve hot, with extra Parmesan cheese if you have some on hand!

More Camping Recipes

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Banana Protein Pancakes
Cabbage Roll Soup Mix [Just Add Meat and Water!]
Camping Breakfast Skillet
Camping Tacos, 2 Ways
Dutch Oven Pulled Chicken
Egg Roll Soup Mix [Just Add Meat and Water!]
Gingerbread Latte [Protein Powder Mix]
Hobo Eggs
Homemade Mushroom Jerky
Hot Chocolate Mix [Protein Powder Mix]
How to Make an Epic S'Mores Board
Instant Camping Pancake Mix
Instant Cream of Chicken Soup [Protein Powder Mix]
Pepperoni Jerky
Pumpkin Chai Latte [Protein Powder Mix]
Smoky Campfire Chili
Traditional Bannock
Vegan Tofu Jerky