Meatball Soup

This is my first recipe from Deceptively Delicious! We had this on Thursday night. I was very sneaky, I didn't tell the kids anything...Steve knew we were having something out of that cookbook, and he was trying to figure it out the whole time...he didn't though, I had to tell him, because it blended in so well...So this cookbook had like 45 pages of intro, about pureeing and stuff, which I will not tell you, but you just have to cook the vegetable and then puree it in a food processor. Which I do not have. But I can use my Tupperware choppy thing for small quantities and it does the same thing. But I am going to look at yard sales this summer for food processors. Not just for this cookbook but there have been some other things come up as well...

Meatball Soup
3 oz pasta, such as bowties or wagon wheels (we used Wacky Mac)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 28-oz can whole peeled tomatoes, with their juice
1/4 cup carrot puree
1 1/2 tsp salt, divided
3 cups beef or chicken broth
3 slices whole-wheat bread, cubed
1 large egg, lightly beaten (all my eggs are always the same size, so...)
1/4 cup sweet potato puree
1/4 cup milk
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp paprika
1/2 lb lean ground turkey

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water according to package directions until al dente. Drain in a colander and set aside.

Coat a large pot with cooking spray and set it over medium-high heat. When the pot is hot, add the oil and then the onion and garlic. Cook, stirring often, until the onion is softened but not browned, 3 to 4 minutes (my onion pretty much browned instantly, but oh well).

Puree the tomatoes and their juice with the carrot puree in a food processor or blender (I used a blender--it leaked--now I also need a new blender--I told Steve but he didn't agree--hmmmm), then add to the pot along with 1/2 tsp salt. Add the broth, reduce heat to low, and simmer, covered, for 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, put the bread in a large bowl. Add the egg, sweet potato puree, milk, Parmesan cheese, 1 tsp salt, the pepper, and paprika, and let soak until bread is very soft. Stir to break up the bread, add the ground turkey, and mix until smooth. Form into mini meatballs 1/2-inch in diameter (this was hard...it was too soft to make meatballs they way you should be able to...I ended up just using my PC cookie scoop, getting a scoop of meat, and plopping them into the soup pot...it was fine, I got 19 meatballs using this method).

Add the meatballs to the pot. Simmer, covered, until the meatballs are no longer pink in the center, 12 to 15 minutes. Stir in the pasta (which might be all stuck together, because mine was...it came apart when I added it to the soup though). Serve sprinkled with Parmesan (I used shredded Parmesan for this part).

Okay so amazingly amazing, is that Nathan liked the meatballs, and Samuel didn't. "What??" you may be asking yourself. But it's true. Nathan even took another one out of my bowl because he liked them so well. Steve said it was the best soup he's had in a while. We've had soup 3 times this week, so I'm not sure if I should be offended or not, ha ha. So overall it was a success. Obviously 1/2 cup of vegetable puree isn't going to equal much for each person, but hey it's better than adding that much fluff to it, right? And, the recipe was pretty healthy to start with anyway. On to the next one!