Have you ever made lasagna soup?! It’s one of my favorites! Spicy Italian flavors, soft noodles, and a delicious tomato-based soup, all topped off with creamy ricotta cheese. It’s perfect. I’ve made this soup for a lot of people over the last couple of years and every single person has raved about it and asked for the recipe. It’s super hearty – a total comfort food and you’d never believe that it’s just 4 Blue WW SmartPoints/5 Green WW SmartPoints per serving! The secret to my version of Lasagna Soup?! We make our own low point Italian sausage – so easy!
So about the homemade Italian sausage… the first time I did this was actually out of desperation. I was making lasagna soup for my parents who live in a small, rural town. Their grocery story didn’t have the Italian sausage I was looking for so I googled how to make your own and voila! It turned out so good that I never looked back. The sausage seasoning that I make is adapted from this recipe by Tastes of Lizzy T. The WW FreeStyle plan wasn’t around when I first started making my own sausage but now that it is?! It’s even better since fat free ground turkey and chicken is zero points! #score (The sausage is only zero points on the BLUE WW plan.)
So first thing we do is get together our spices. This is about as hard as it gets for the recipe, seriously. We brown our meat with the spices and then start adding in the rest of our ingredients. It’s so easy – the hardest part is waiting for it to finish cooking because you’ll be drooling over how good it smells. The soup needs to come to a boil before we add in the pasta – it goes in uncooked and will cook right in the soup broth which makes the noodles extra flavorful.
Once the pasta is cooked we’re all done. Sometimes I like to add in a few handfuls of chopped fresh spinach at the end to sneak in a little bit of greens. Just serve up a big bowl and top with a scoop of ricotta cheese! I also like to add fresh basil when I have some on hand.
My Lasagna Soup is perfect year round but especially on cold winter days- hearty, cozy, and a crowd pleaser. I love serving it with an Italian side salad and leftovers are great for lunch. Makes 8 servings at 4 Blue WW SmartPoints/5 Green WW SmartPoints each. Enjoy!
Psssst – You can use the recipe for zero point Italian sausage in lots of recipes so don’t forget about it! Just add the spices to one pound of fat free ground turkey or chicken and use as you wish. The spices are so flavorful you won’t even miss the higher point meat!
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp paprika
- ½ tsp fennel seed
- 1 lb 99% fat free ground turkey or chicken (I prefer turkey)
- 2 cloves garlic. minced
- 4 c low sodium beef broth
- 1 15oz can Italian seasoned diced tomatoes
- 1 8oz can tomato sauce
- 3 c water
- 1 bay leaf
- 8 oz uncooked farfalle (bowtie) pasta
- 2-3 handfuls of roughly chopped fresh spinach (optional)
- 1 c (8oz) part skim ricotta cheese (2 tbsp per serving)
- basil to garnish, if desired
- In a small bowl mix together the parsley, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, paprika, and fennel seeds.
- In a heavy soup pot over medium heat, spray with nonstick spray and add ground meat. Sprinkle evenly with the Italian seasoning blend and mix well with the meat while cooking and breaking apart, until meat is fully cooked and browned.
- During the last minute or so of cook time add in the 2 cloves of garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add in the beef broth, water, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and bay leaf. Bring to a boil.
- Once soup is boiling add in the uncooked pasta and cook according to the package directions, stirring occasionally, until the pasta is cooked al dente, usually about 12-15 minutes. The pasta will absorb a lot of the cooking liquid.
- If you'd like to add spinach add it during the last 3 minutes or so of cook time - it just needs a couple of minutes at the end.
- Soup is done once pasta is cooked. Removed bay leaf. Serve topped with 2 tbsp of part skim ricotta cheese per bowl. Soup will continue to thicken as it cools, the pasta continues to absorb more of the liquid.
Nutritional information is calculated for ⅛ of the recipe.
Nutritional information is calculated with MyFitnessPal and may vary based on brands used. Smart Points information is calculated with the Weight Watchers app and may also vary based on brands used.
*Italian sausage seasoning blend is adapted from Taste of Lizzy T.
I am so excited you are making one of my recipes and I would love to see how it turns out! Make sure to share it on Instagram and tag me @rachelshealtyplate and use #rachelshealthyplate so I can see your creation!
I made this tonight. It’s phenomenal!!! Thank you!
Glad you like it! Thanks for letting me know =)