Orzo Spinach Italian Sausage Soup combines orzo pasta, baby spinach and other vegetables, plus zesty Italian sausage in a flavorful soup!
It’s officially soup season in our book. I just love it when my husband Jack cooks up a big batch of soup – like this Orzo Spinach Italian Sausage Soup. (The kitchen smells amazing while it cooks!)
How do you make it?
This Orzo Spinach Italian Sausage Soup starts with a flavorful stock – you can use chicken, turkey, or vegetable stock. (Jack used this as an opportunity to make a homemade stock from the various leftover chicken and turkey carcasses we had in the freezer after our holiday dinners.) Canned stock is fine to use as a shortcut.
Once the stock is prepared – this Orzo Spinach Italian Sausage Soup comes together quickly in just a few steps:
- You’ll toast the orzo pasta in a dry skillet until lightly golden brown. This little extra step adds a nice nutty flavor to the pasta even after it is cooked.
- In a large stock pot, cook crumbled, sweet Italian sausage over high heat until it starts to brown and caramelize. Add diced onions, celery, carrots and seasonings and saute for a few minutes – then add garlic and a pinch of red pepper flakes.
- Pour a can of diced tomatoes into the pot, along with your homemade stock and simmer until the vegetables are tender.
- Then add the toasted orzo and baby spinach to the pot to cook through. We also added a leftover rind of Parmesan cheese (we save those in the freezer too) which adds great flavor to the soup.
Once the orzo is tender and cooked through, you’re ready to serve your Orzo Spinach Italian Sausage Soup.
How do you serve it?
We toasted and buttered some crusty ciabatta bread – and served it with soup. Garlic bread would also be delicious!
This recipe makes a big pot – around 8 servings. Plenty for dinner, then leftovers for the next few days.
You may enjoy these other soup recipes:
- Slow Cooker Creamy Tortellini and Sausage Soup
- Zucchini Tomato Italian Sausage Soup
- Keto Italian Sausage and Cauliflower Rice Soup
- Tomato Lentil Soup with Sausage
- Hamburger Soup
Orzo Spinach Italian Sausage Soup
Orzo Spinach Italian Sausage Soup combines orzo pasta, baby spinach and other vegetables, plus zesty Italian sausage in a flavorful soup!
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Category: soup
- Method: stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
1 cup dry orzo
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound sweet Italian sausage, removed from casings
2 cups onion, diced
2 cups carrot, diced
1 cup celery diced
1 teaspoon dry oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons dry basil
1/2 teaspoon dry marjoram
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic
Pinch red pepper flakes
1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes with juice
2 quarts chicken or vegetable stock
1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated and divided
5-ounce package baby spinach (4 cups)
Ciabatta bread, for serving
Butter, to toast the bread
Instructions
- In a small saute pan over medium heat, toast the dry orzo until browned, about five minutes, tossing often. Set aside.
- In a large soup pot or Dutch oven, heat oil over medium high heat and once hot, add the sausage and cook to brown, breaking up into small pieces as you brown. Leave the sausage fat in the pan with the cooked sausage.
- Add the onions, carrots, celery, oregano, basil, marjoram, salt and pepper and cook for three minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add garlic and pepper flakes and cook one minute.
- Add diced tomatoes and stock and bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook until the vegetables are tender, about ten minutes.
- Add half of the Parmesan cheese, the browned orzo and the baby spinach and simmer 10-15 minutes until the orzo is tender.
- While soup is simmering, cut the ciabatta into slices, butter and toast on a grilled pan.
- Serve the soup in bowls with the remaining Parmesan sprinkled over each portion and a few slices of the toasted ciabatta bread.
I use ditalini instead of orzo, delicious!
Thank you!
This soup is delicious! Lots of flavor, the orzo is light and doesn’t overwhelm as some pastas do. If you think it sounds good before making it, you’ll love it after you do!
Thank you Malinda!
Simply delish!
Thanks Kinga!
Great recipe, gave it to my neighbors
Thanks Joyce!
absolutely delicious. I highly recommend
Thanks Shannon!
Delicious!! The whole family loved it. However I made a couple of changes. Added half the orzo and used Italian seasoning instead of the spices called for. Also added dried zucchini and dried green beans from our pantry.
Glad you liked the soup Sara!
Hi! For some reason, I have a hard time finding sweet Italian sausage. I keep seeing the chicken version. Do you have any alternative suggestions? Thank you!
You could use the hot Italian sausage but it will add a spicier kick to the soup.
Instead of diced tomatoes, could I use a can of crushed?
Hi Janet – Crushed will make the broth more tomato-ey overall versus seeing and tasting the diced tomato chunks. If that doesn’t bother you, yes, you could add in the same (14.5 ounces) amount.
Martha…Martha…Martha. I love your recipes! Thank you so much! By far you are my favorite. You and your husband are doing a wonderful thing for so many. Everyone I feed with your recipes rave how delicious they are. All credit goes to you.
Please note that my new email address is going to be [email protected]. Dropping my cable company because we hope to move to SC. Berry. It’s cold in CT! Thanks again Martha!
So glad you are enjoying the recipes Heidi!
BTW – I see this email address subscribed as a new subscriber – you’ll start to receive our welcome series and a weekly series of top posts, but will need to sign up for our Instant Alerts if you’d like to receive an email each time we post a new recipe. If you could email me back with your old email address, I can make sure that gets unsubscribed and then update the new email profile to match your old subscriptions. Thanks!