Italian Sausage and Orzo Soup
This Italian Sausage and Orzo Soup is a great clean out the fridge recipe! It’s packed with veggies, Italian sausage, and orzo, and it takes about an hour to make from start to finish. Perfect for busy weeknights!
★★★★★
Cynthia says –
“Absolutely delicious, hearty and easy to make.”
This Is My Go-To Soup for Cleaning Out the Fridge
I love that this sausage and orzo soup is full of basic vegetables, yet nothing about it is boring. I mostly use it as a means to clean out the fridge when I’ve got a bunch of leftover produce that’s teetering a little too closely to past its prime status.
It’s full of flavor from the rosemary, thyme, and Italian sausage. It’s hearty without feeling heavy. And even my picky eaters ate it!
Here’s why I think you should make it too:
✔ Hearty But Not Heavy: There’s no cream or half and half in this recipe, so the texture and flavor of the sausage, vegetables, and orzo can really shine. It’s a filling soup that won’t weigh you down!
✔ Super Easy: The hands-on prep takes maybe 10 minutes, and that’s just chopping up all of the veggies.
✔ Reheats Well: I love making big batches of this soup to enjoy throughout the week for lunches and dinners.
Enjoy!
-Katie
The Main Ingredients
You can find the full list of ingredients with their measurements in the recipe card below, but here’s an overview of the key items you’ll need.
- Aromatics — Chopped onion and garlic build the flavor of the base.
- Vegetables — I used a blend of carrots, celery, bell pepper, green beans, and spinach, but this is a super flexible recipe that works with pretty much any vegetable. The only veggies I wouldn’t cut out are the carrots and celery since they help flavor the broth.
- Italian Sausage — I had Italian sausage links on hand that I cut into rounds, but you can use ground Italian sausage too.
- Fire Roasted Tomatoes — You can swap in regular canned tomatoes or even some plain tomato sauce, but the fire roasted variety will provide the most flavor.
- Chicken Broth — Vegetable broth works too, but avoid using beef broth here since it’d overpower the sausage.
- Fresh Herbs — Rosemary and thyme are beautifully fragrant and pair well with the sausage. (Yes, dried herbs may be subbed in!)
- Cannellini Beans — Have a naturally creamy texture that we love. Any variety of white bean may be used.
- Orzo — Looks like rice, but it’s actually a type of pasta! Feel free to sub in another small pasta shape, or a cooked grain like quinoa or wild rice.
How to Make Italian Sausage Soup with Orzo
This truly is such an easy homemade soup to whip up on busy weeknights. Here’s how I make this Italian sausage soup recipe with orzo:
- Cook the aromatics. Sauté the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, and red bell pepper in a large soup pot or Dutch oven until the veggies begin to soften.
- Simmer. Add the sausage, fire roasted tomatoes, broth, water, and fresh herbs. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and let the soup simmer for 45 minutes.
- Add the orzo and delicate vegetables last. Once the orzo is added to the soup, be sure to cook it just until the orzo is tender. If you boil the orzo for too long, it’ll become mushy.
The above is simply a quick summary of this recipe. Check out the full recipe in the free printable recipe card at the bottom of this post for all the detailed instructions.
Recipe Variations to Try
This recipe is fairly flexible, so you can switch up the vegetables, protein, and pasta quite easily!
- Swap the spinach for kale or another leafy green
- Swap the Italian sausage links for ground Italian sausage or turkey sausage
- Sub the orzo for another small pasta shape, such as ditalini pasta, stelline (star shaped), fideo (small, broken spaghetti like pieces), pearl couscous, fregola, mini pene, mini farfalle, or acini de pepe
- Use fresh basil and parsley instead of rosemary and thyme
What to Serve on the Side
Serve this soup with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese on top for extra flavor! As for side dishes, here’s what we love with this sausage orzo soup:
More Hearty Soup Recipes
You can browse all of my soup recipes via the recipe index, but these are some of my favorites for the fall and winter.
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Italian Sausage and Orzo Soup Recipe
I love that this Italian Sausage Orzo Soup is so full of pretty basic vegetables, yet nothing about it is boring. I mostly used it as a means to clean out the fridge of a bunch of random bits of leftover produce that was teetering a little too closely to past its prime status.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 4 carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/4 inch thick half moons
- 2 celery ribs, sliced 1/4 inch thick
- 1 large red bell pepper, chopped
- 19 ounces Italian sausage links, browned, cooked through and sliced into 1/2 inch slices
- 14 ounces fire roasted tomatoes
- 5 cups chicken broth
- 3 cups water
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 1 sprig fresh thyme
- 1 (14 ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 ounces chopped fresh spinach
- 1 cup sliced green beans (about 1/2 inch in length)
- 2/3 cup uncooked orzo pasta
Instructions
- In a large soup post or French oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the Italian sausage links to the pan and cook until browned on all sides and cooked through. Remove and set aside on a plate.
- In the same pot used to cook the sausage, add the onion and sauté for 3-5 minutes.
- Add the garlic, carrots, celery and red bell pepper. Sauté for an additional 3-5 minutes, until the veggies are fragrant and begin to soften.
- Slice the Italian sausage into 1/2 inch slices. Then, stir the fire roasted tomatoes broth, water, rosemary, thyme, and Italian sausage into the vegetable mixture.
- Bring the soup to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30-45 minutes, stirring periodically.
- Add the beans, spinach, green beans, and orzo. Continue cooking over low heat for 20 - 30 minutes, or until the orzo is cooked and tender.
- Remove the rosemary and thyme stems. Serve topped with parmesan cheese, if desired..
Notes
To freeze: Ladle the cooled soup into freezer bags or a freezer-safe airtight container and freeze until ready to enjoy. You can reheat the Italian sausage soup from frozen or place it in the fridge overnight to thaw. Check out this tutorial on how to freeze soup for more detailed instructions.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 563Total Fat: 28gSaturated Fat: 10gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 21gCholesterol: 55mgSodium: 1783mgCarbohydrates: 49gFiber: 8gSugar: 9gProtein: 29g
GoodLifeEats.com offers recipe nutritional information as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators. Although GoodLifeEats.com makes every effort to provide accurate information, these figures are only estimates.
sue says
Great soup for -10 days here in New York! Easy and rib sticking..:)
Katie says
So glad you enjoyed it! Stay warm!
Cynthia says
Absolutely delicious, hearty and easy to make.
Katie says
so glad to hear you liked it!
Jennifer says
This sounds like a wonderful conduit for leftover turkey as well as a stand-alone soup. Thanks!
Karen @ Seasonal Cravings says
Looks so warm and hearty. I love any soup with Italian sausage because it adds so much flavor. I’m also a huge fan of any soup with kale added at the end. Yum!
Katie Goodman says
Thanks 🙂 It is amazing how much flavor even just a little bit of sausage can add to a soup.