• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

My Sequined Life logo

  • Home
  • Recipes
  • About
  • Contact
  • Nav Social Menu

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
menu icon
go to homepage
search icon
Homepage link
  • Recipe Index
  • About
  • Contact
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
  • ×

    Home » Recipes » Main Dishes

    Italian Sausage Soup with Orzo and Spinach

    Published: Jul 10, 2018 · Modified: Jun 29, 2020 by Alyssa · This post may contain affiliate links.

    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe Share via Email

    Italian sausage soup with orzo and spinach is a healthy and filling soup recipe perfect for year round! Serve with a crusty piece of bread and a salad for a well-balanced meal.

    A bowl of sausage soup in front of another bowl and the big pot of soup

    I know it’s July. Yes, it’s sweltering. And yes, this is a hot soup recipe.

    But when something is this good, it would just be wrong to keep it from you for months until the weather becomes a little more soup-friendly.

    One of the perks of growing up in a foodie house is constant chatter about what we’re eating now, what we’ll be eating later, and what we want to eat over the weekend. Rinse and repeat.

    As an adult, this still comes in handy for those times I totally space and can’t think of what to cook for dinner. Which is something that happens more frequently than you might think. I just call my mom and ask what she’s making, and I’ll usually follow suit and make the same. It’s hard to go wrong with this method! 🙂

    A bowl of soup topped with grated Parmesan cheese

    This Italian sausage soup is one of those meals I love eating at my parents, and was the lucky meal in question on a recent “what should I make for dinner?” phone call. But there are several differences, one being that my mom doesn’t exactly measure things. So our beloved Italian sausage soup was described to me as “a few of these, a can of this, a couple good shakes of this, and two handfuls of that”.

    But I got the gist.

    A couple of extra spices, a pasta switch-up, and a few practice rounds later, I’ve landed on my own spin on Italian sausage soup, this one featuring orzo and spinach.

    P.S. If you’re into orzo in soup, you may also want to check out my vegetable beef soup, too.

    Chopped celery, onion, and carrots on a board next to a dish towel

    How to make this soup

    This one pot soup recipe begins by cooking Italian seasoned sausage. You can use mild or hot, but I used mild. We generally like spicy food in my house so hot Italian sausage isn’t off the table, but after buying one brand (that I can’t remember the name of so don’t know what to look out for…) that was hot hot, like REALLY hot, I’d rather go with mild and add crushed red pepper to our taste.

    You do you though!

    After comes mirepoix: onions, celery, and carrots. If you’re wondering why the carrot slices you see above are small and perfectly round, it’s because I absent-mindedly used my last full-sized carrots in a juice just before making this Italian sausage soup for these photos. Since I realized this mid-recipe (and this was going to be dinner tonight), I dug into my snacking baby carrots and used those. Obviously that worked fine.

    You’ll just want to make sure your chopped onion, celery, and carrots end up roughly the same size so they don’t saute/cook unevenly.

    The dry soup spices in a small bowl

    Soup spices

    Now for the spices. I kept it simple with Italian spices you probably have in your kitchen cabinets, but you can really do your own thing here. If you have a bottle of Italian seasoning you can skip a few steps and use that in place of all the herbs listed separately in the recipe card below.

    Since we touched on spice level earlier, I’ll say that the half-teaspoon of crushed red pepper listed in the recipe card below doesn’t bring much heat. Feel free to add extra if you like things to be on the spicier side.

    An overhead picture of two bowls of soup and the larger soup pot ready to eat

    After a nice long simmer, it’s time to add the pasta. I’m partial to tiny shapes like orzo (healthy potato leek soup) and pastina (creamy Italian wedding soup) in my soups, so orzo won out here.

    One of the things I love best about making a big batch of soup is how big the orzo gets after its left to sit in the leftover soup overnight. It makes the soup that much more hearty. Adding half a cup of dry orzo to the pasta ensures you have plenty for each bowl for serving that day, but not too much that it completely takes over the leftovers.

    All that’s left is to add the spinach. Six ounces may look like a lot of spinach going in, but it’ll wilt and reduce quickly. Definitely add as little/much as you want, but I found this much (approximately four cups packed, per my large mixing bowl with side measurements) added the right amount of heft to each serving without being overwhelming.

    A large ceramic pot of soup with a ladle in it

    Recipe notes

    • You can use mild or hot Italian sausage in this Italian sausage soup. If using hot, I would omit adding crushed red pepper until after you taste it prior to serving, and then add if you like.
    • The amount of water you add doesn’t have to be precise. I fill up the empty 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes as much as I can without risking spilling it on the way from the sink to the stove and pour it in.
    • I highly recommend sprinkling grated Pecorino Romano over top for serving! Coupled with a side salad and a crusty piece of bread? Ugh. Perfection.
    A large ceramic pot filled with soup with a ladle plunged into it

    Italian Sausage Soup with Orzo and Spinach

    Italian sausage soup with orzo and spinach is a healthy and filling soup recipe perfect for year round! Serve with a crusty piece of bread and a salad for a well-balanced meal.
    4.75 from 12 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Soup
    Cuisine: Italian
    Prep Time: 12 minutes
    Cook Time: 1 hour 26 minutes
    Total Time: 1 hour 38 minutes
    Servings: 6
    Calories: 377kcal
    Author: Alyssa

    Ingredients

    • 1 lb ground Italian sausage
    • 1 tbsp olive oil
    • 1 onion, chopped
    • 1/2 cup chopped carrots
    • 2 celery ribs, chopped
    • 32 oz reduced-sodium chicken broth
    • 1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes
    • 28 oz water
    • 1/2 tsp salt
    • 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
    • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
    • 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
    • 1/2 tsp dried oregano
    • 1/4 tsp dried parsley
    • 1/4 tsp dried basil
    • 1/8 tsp dried ground thyme
    • 1/2 cup dry orzo pasta (about 3.5 oz)
    • 6 oz baby spinach (about 4 cups packed)
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Instructions

    • Place a large, heavy-bottomed pot on the stovetop over medium heat. Add the sausage and break it up with a spatula. Cook for 8-10 minutes or until sausage is no longer pink and fully cooked, breaking up the pieces into smaller chunks as you go. Remove sausage to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside.
    • Add olive oil to the pot and place it back on the stove over medium heat. Add onion, carrots, and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 6-8 minutes, or until the vegetables have softened some.
    • Add back in the cooked and crumbled sausage. Pour in broth, crushed tomatoes, and water and stir.
    • Add the salt, pepper, garlic powder, crushed red pepper, oregano, parsley, basil, and thyme and stir. Adjust seasonings to your taste.
    • Reduce heat so the soup is at a simmer. Let simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally.
    • Raise the heat to bring it up to a boil, then add the dry orzo. Let cook for 10 minutes, or according to orzo package directions. Stir frequently so that the orzo doesn’t clump together.
    • Stir in the spinach a minute or so before the orzo will be done. Soup is ready to serve once the orzo is tender and the spinach is slightly wilted.

    Notes

    Recipe cook time includes one hour of mostly hands-off time for the soup to simmer.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 377kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 16g | Fat: 25g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 57mg | Sodium: 1458mg | Potassium: 909mg | Fiber: 5.3g | Sugar: 6.5g | Calcium: 40mg | Iron: 3.8mg
    Tried this Recipe?Tag @mysequinedlife – I love to see what you’re making!

    Nutritional information is provided as an estimate. As it can vary due to many factors (brands used, quantities, etc.), we cannot guarantee its accuracy.

    « Easy Instant Pot Sauerkraut
    Sourdough Havarti Grilled Cheese with Peppers and Onions »
    • Facebook
    • Email

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Carol Bobowski says

      April 16, 2020 at 12:53 pm

      5 stars
      Super tasty recipe. I’ve made it several times and just love it. Thank you for sharing it for us to enjoy. Hope its a taste of Italy since I missed my trip of a lifetime to there in March 2020. Looking forward to go in the future! XO

      Reply
      • Alyssa says

        April 18, 2020 at 9:53 pm

        I’m so glad you like this soup, Carol! I’m sorry your trip was cancelled due to all this craziness, but I hope when you go it exceeds ALL your expectations. 🙂

        Reply
    2. Guy Cesario says

      January 25, 2020 at 2:18 pm

      I just made this recipe times five – for our church group’s Soup and Salad Saturday. It’s a big hit, and will sell out completely!

      Reply
      • Alyssa says

        January 25, 2020 at 6:28 pm

        Now that’s a pot of soup! So glad it’s a hit. 🙂

        Reply
    3. Leslie Waddell says

      November 03, 2019 at 8:47 am

      5 stars
      Soup weather is upon us here in Ohio and I am always looking for new recipes. Made this last night and probably the best soup I have made thus far. Perfect seasoning but I added a bit more red pepper for our liking. Paired with some crusty Italian bread and butter. Perfect!

      Reply
      • Alyssa says

        November 06, 2019 at 8:46 pm

        Leslie, I’m so happy to hear this! Glad you liked it, and thanks for letting me know how it went. Crusty bread + butter is the perfect pairing.

        Reply
        • Chris says

          January 21, 2020 at 4:36 pm

          Very good soup, made it before but without the spinach, better with it in tho. Also used toasted French bread with provolone cheese! As you would a French onion soup! Great pair.

        • Alyssa says

          January 22, 2020 at 12:40 pm

          Yum! That sounds a delicious addition to this soup, Chris. Glad you liked it!

    4. Lane Patten says

      August 07, 2018 at 8:43 am

      5 stars
      Oh yes! I absolutely love this soup! There is something very comforting about soup (even in the summer).

      Reply
    5. Helene says

      August 07, 2018 at 8:25 am

      5 stars
      Such a flavorful comforting soup for the senses. Great after a long day at work!

      Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Recipe Rating




    This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    Primary Sidebar

    A picture of a woman smiling with a text overlay reading well, hey there.

    Hi! I’m Alyssa and welcome to my food blog. Here you can find a variety of food and drink recipes, running the gamut from better-for-you main dishes to holiday fare, and from lighter bites to some serious desserts. All with the occasional cocktail recipe thrown in for good measure, too. ♥ Learn more →

    As Featured In...

    A collage of publication logos.

    Simple, Tested Basics

    • The Best Homemade Taco Seasoning
    • Oven Roasted Sweet Potatoes
    • Oven Roasted Frozen Broccoli
    • How to Caramelize Onions
    • How to Make Croutons
    • Easy Homemade Pizza Dough
    • Air Fryer Baked Potato
    • How to Roast Garlic

    Popular Recipes

    • Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken
    • Healthy Peanut Butter Cookies
    • Italian Baked Turkey Meatballs
    • Southern Instant Pot Collard Greens
    • Italian Anise Cookies
    • Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken

    Footer

    ↑ back to top

    About

    • About Me
    • Contact

    Policies

    • Privacy Policy & Disclosure
    • Accessibility Statement

    More

    • Recipe Index
    • Dinner Hall of Fame
    • Instant Pot Recipes
    • Air Fryer Favorites

    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    Copyright © 2013 - 2022 My Sequined Life