This recipe gave me yet another reason to use my spiral slicer. Who knew that making noodles out of vegetables could be so fun? The great thing about this soup is that you can just throw in any vegetables you have around the house. To add an even better texture and flavor to the meatballs you can use equal parts of ground beef and ground pork. To make this whole30 compliant, omit the parmesan cheese. You can replace it with crushed pork rinds or just omit it altogether.
Check out some of my other favorite low-carb vegetable noodle recipes:
- Rainbow Vegetable Noodles
- Garlic Thyme Squash Noodles
- Cabbage Noodle Tuna Casserole
- Mediterranean Zucchini Noodle Pasta
- Spaghetti Squash Carbonara
Italian Meatball Zoodle Soup
Calories: 129
Carbs: 3 net grams
Fat: 6 g
Protein: 15 g
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 6 hours
- Total Time: 6 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 Servings 1x
Scale
Ingredients
- 32 oz beef stock
- 1 medium zucchini, Spiraled
- 2 ribs celery, chopped
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 carrot, chopped
- 1 medium tomato, diced
- 1 ½ tsp garlic salt
- 1 ½ lb ground beef
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese, shredded (omit for whole30)
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 large egg
- 4 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 ½ tsp sea salt
- 1 ½ tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Heat slow cooker on low setting.
- To the slow cooker, add beef stock, zucchini, celery, onion, carrot, tomato, and garlic salt. Cover.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine ground beef, Parmesan, garlic, egg, parsley, sea salt, onion powder, oregano, Italian seasoning, and pepper. Mix until all ingredients are well incorporated. Form into approximately 30 meatballs.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, add meatballs and brown on all sides. No need to worry about cooking them all the way through as they will be going into the slow cooker. Add meatballs to slow cooker, cover and cook for 6 hours.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cup
Debby says
This sounds yummy, like a healthier version of Italian Wedding Soup. I am putting together a FREE ebook of Spiral Sliced Vegetable Recipes. May I have your permission to include some of your recipes along with photos in my ebook? If so, of course I will give the appropriate photo credit along with a link to your website. Thank you for your consideration.
Peace Love and Low Carb says
I'm sorry but no, I do not give my permission for my work to be published in an ebook. Please DO NOT use my recipe or my photos in your book.
Carmen says
This sounds simple and hearty and healthy, but i feel like 6 hours is too long and the zuccini noodles will turn to mush. Also i don't have a spiral slicer and instead use a julienne peeler + which i think makes the noodles a little thinner. Thoughts? I think i may try cooking the meatballs a bit more in the pan and then doing 4 hrs in the crockpot instead.
Susan says
This was sooo YUMMY. I used deer meat instead of beef and a can of fire roasted tomatoes instead of fresh because i didn't have either and it was AMAZING!!!! Will defiantly be making again!!!! I didn't chose the best day because it isn't cold today but still good fall/wither comfort food! Plan on trying several of your other recipes too! I did use a julienne peeler instead of my spiral slicer and it still turned out good! Also didn't cook it as long and the "noodles" weren't mush! Prepped everything the night before, put in the fridge and turned it on right before i left for work. Came home at lunch to the house smelling wonderful!!!
ROSIE CAB says
This recipe looks awesome. I stumbled upon your recipe and your website from a whole 30 diet blog/website. However, the addition of cheese in your recipe is not whole 30 compliant. Please confirm.
Thank you.
Peace Love and Low Carb says
There is a note in the blurb about substituting with crushed pork rinds or omitting the cheese altogether to make it Whole30 complaint. Yes, you are correct that cheese is not Whole3o
Whole30islove says
I don't think pork rinds are whole 30. 🙂
Peace Love and Low Carb says
In this context they aren't being used as a tool for mindless snacking in place of chips. They are used as a binding. The ingredients in pork rinds are whole30 compliant and context is key.
KV says
This tasted delicious but my carrots and celery totally lost their color. Didn't look nearly as pretty as it tasted. Any suggestions to prevent that next time?
LAURIE says
blanch them first and it will help them keep their color.