My Italian Ground Turkey Soup is just what the whole family needs to stay warm and cozy in the colder months. We just had several inches of snow fall as I type this, and boy, does it put me in the mood for this soup. This healthy soup recipe is one of my favorite recipes because it’s so comforting and delicious!
Best of all, this turkey and veggie soup is diabetic-friendly with relatively low carbs and a great balance of fat, fiber, and protein to help stabilize blood sugar levels. Plus, we are using a lean ground turkey instead of ground beef to help keep fat in check. And the added beans provide a great deal of additional fiber and protein to the dish. Plus, it’s super flavorful!
Why You’ll Love this Hearty Ground Turkey Soup
- First of all, it’s completely delicious or I wouldn’t be sharing this with you. The Italian seasoning is amazing.
- This soup is great for maintaining stable blood sugar levels because of the balanced nutrition from the simple ingredients and fat, fiber, and protein.
- Also, the nutrition facts show it is lower in fat (5g), but higher in protein (17g) and fiber (7g).
- This recipe is all cooked from start to finish in one pot for easy clean up. Yay!
- It’s a hearty soup full of protein that will fill you up and keep you full during soup season.
- The recipe makes a ton, so you can freeze it and thaw it later on another cold day.
Making Ground Turkey Soup with Vegetables
The first thing for this soup, because it has several ingredients, is to gather and prepare what you need. This way you have everything ready to go. Round up all the ingredients and chop the carrots, sweet potato, zucchini, onion, and bell peppers. You’ll also want to drain and rinse your beans. For the spices, just measure them all and put them in one container to add to the soup all at the same time.
Now that everything is ready, we need to brown the meat. So get out a large pot and start to brown and chop the turkey. You can add in a bit of olive oil to the pan if you like. Once it’s fully cooked, you will drain the fat off and return to the stovetop. Lower the heat to medium.
Add in the onion, green bell pepper, and all of the spices: salt, black pepper, oregano, garlic powder, basil, paprika, thyme, and crushed red pepper.
Cooking the Ground Turkey Vegetable Soup
Now, cook and stir the ingredients to combine them. Add in the chicken stock and bring to a boil.
Once the soup is boiling, add in the carrots, sweet potato, and diced tomatoes (including the juice from the can). Add in both white beans and black beans, and stir to combine. Lower to medium heat and simmer for 20 minutes, until the carrots and sweet potatoes are more than halfway cooked.
A Final Step to Making Italian Ground Turkey Soup
After the carrots and sweet potatoes are almost done cooking, add in the zucchini and simmer another five minutes or so to soften. Serve warm.
Serving Ground Turkey Soup with Vegetables
You’ll want to ladle up this soup and serve it warm, after it cools just a bit. It’s such a delicious bite of nutrition and a ton of flavor, especially on a cold day.
CARBS FOR This Healthy Ground Turkey Soup Recipe
There are carbs to count in this ground turkey soup, although they are pretty low. They come mainly from the beans, sweet potato, and tomato.
With the specific brand of ingredients I used for this healthy recipe, the entire total was 195g of carbs. With this recipe making 8 servings, that’s 24g of carbs per serving. Once you take into account the 7g of fiber per serving, that puts us at 17g net carbs per serving.
(Need help counting carbs for your recipes? Check out my blog post with step-by-step instructions!)
Be sure to work this into your diet how you best manage your diabetes. And be sure to count the total carbs (or net carbs when dealing with fiber) in the specific products you use. Different brands vary in ingredients, so be doubly sure of the nutritional information in what you’re eating.
What Makes this Recipe Diabetic Friendly?
The term “diabetic friendly” is considered differently by different people. We all have unique diets and preferences and ways to manage our diabetes. And although many people with type 2 diabetes may limit carbs and sugar intake for more of a low carb lifestyle, some people with type 1 diabetes will tell you they can eat literally whatever they want as long as they dose for it.
For me, after living with type 1 for 30+ years, I consider something to be diabetic friendly if it is either:
- a recipe that combines fiber, fat, and protein to help stabilize blood sugar levels to avoid a blood sugar spike
- a more diabetes friendly alternative to the ingredients you would normally find in a traditional version of that recipe
This recipe is option 1.
The fat, fiber, and protein in this recipe are a great balance to keep blood sugars stable. Each serving has 5g of fat, 7g of fiber, and 17g of protein.
What to Serve with Recipe
- Try out my cornbread muffins with this recipe. You can throw them together pretty quickly and let them bake while the soup is simmering. They are so delicious and fluffy, you’ll be making them on repeat!
- I also love a good soup-salad combo. It’s one of my favorite pairings! Plus, it adds more veggies without typically adding many carbs to the meal.
- You could always do a half a sandwich as well. Using my favorite bread to toast would help keep the net carbs down by adding more fiber, too.
- Another option is a fruit salad. Yes, this adds carbs in the natural sugar from the fruit, but berries are good with fiber as well (especially raspberries), so opt for some fresh fruit when you can.
- I have also eaten this flavorful soup with a standard baguette bread as well (as pictured above). Because of the fat, fiber, and protein already in the soup, it doesn’t spike my blood sugar.
PICTURED WITH MY LOW CARB CHILI
VARIATIONS ON Italian Ground Turkey Soup
The beauty of this kind of soup is that you can add, subtract, or substitute what you prefer. Here are a few ideas:
- Swap the sweet potato for a traditional potato if you like.
- Want more kick? Notch up the crushed red pepper and use fire roasted tomatoes.
- Prefer a different kind of bean? Swap them out.
- Use whatever kind of squash you prefer as well.
- Exchange the chicken broth for vegetable broth if you prefer.
- Want a thicker broth for this soup? Add some tomato sauce or tomato paste.
- Can’t get enough veggies? Throw in some green beans.
- Top it with some sour cream or a little bit of greek yogurt if you like.
MAKE AHEAD INSTRUCTIONS
This ground turkey soup can be made in advance for sure. You can easily cook it one day and eat it the next. Or you can also freeze it and thaw it when you need it. It’s super versatile, which is another reason it’s one of my favorite soup recipes. By the way, it’s perfect to thaw for busy weeknight meals.
OTHER PRO TIPS & IDEAS
I personally love a dusting of parmesan cheese on top of this delicious soup when I eat it. It adds just enough bite from the cheese, and who can go wrong with cheese?
As I said above, I always prepare all the ingredients ahead of starting to cook, just because there are several and the chopping takes time.
And I would suggest making this in a large stock pot. This recipe makes 8 cups of soup, and you will also want room to stir.
STORING FOR LATER
This soup is great for storing for later. Simply keep your leftover turkey soup in an airtight container or covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator for a 3-4 days.
For freezing this soup, I prefer to scoop it into a freezer bag. I only fill it half way to the top. Then I lay it flat in the freezer. Not only does this help with freezer space, but it makes thawing quicker because it’s a thinner frozen piece to thaw.
And now for your free recipe:
Hearty Italian Ground Turkey Soup with Vegetables
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground turkey
- 1/2 med. onion chopped
- 1 t. salt
- 1/2 t. pepper
- 1/2 t. oregano
- 1/2 t. garlic powder
- 1/2 t. basil
- 1/4 t. paprika
- 1/4 t. thyme
- 1 pinch crushed red pepper
- 5½ c. chicken broth
- 3 lg. carrots chopped
- 1 sm. sweet potato peeled, chopped
- 14.5 oz. petite diced tomatoes with juice
- 15.5 oz. cannellini beans drained, rinsed
- 1 c. black beans drained, rinsed
- 1 zucchini chopped
- 1 green bell pepper chopped
Instructions
- In a large soup pot, brown and chop the ground turkey until fully cooked. Drain the fat and return to the stove.
- Lower heat to medium. Add onion, green bell pepper, and all the spices. Stir to combine.
- Add broth and bring to a boil.
- Add in the carrots, sweet potato and diced tomato including the juice. Add in both types of beans and stir.
- Lower heat to medium and simmer 20 minutes, until the carrots and sweet potatoes are more than halfway cooked.
- Add in the zucchini and simmer another 5 minutes. Serve warm.
Notes
DID YOU MAKE THIS Delicious RECIPE?
If you’ve made this ground turkey soup recipe, would you please let me know? I would love to hear from you!
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NOTE: I am not a certified nutritionist or registered dietician. Nothing here should be taken as professional medical advice. Any nutritional information provided should be used as a general guideline and estimate only. For the most accurate information, please calculate based on the specific ingredients and brands you use, as well as any changes you make to the recipe.
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