Creamy Pumpkin Gnocchi Soup With Chicken Meatballs Recipe

Once the weather starts cooling down in the fall, soup season is just beginning. If you are a soup fan, there are no shortage of tasty, filling soups to try. We like soups that are rich, satisfying, and full of different textures and flavors. This creamy pumpkin gnocchi soup fits the bill perfectly, and it's chock full of homemade sage chicken meatballs and wilted spinach. The gnocchi can be purchased premade at the store so that you have plenty of time to make the tender mini meatballs yourself.

Recipe developer Taylor Murray came up with this recipe, and it's perfect to make on a chilly night. "It takes an extra step, but I love making meatballs myself so that I have total control over the flavor and texture," she says. Follow along as we make this simple soup recipe that comes together quick enough to whip up on a busy weeknight. 

To make this soup, we'll first need to gather the ingredients for the chicken meatballs — ground chicken, breadcrumbs, egg, garlic, Parmesan cheese, and a scattering of chopped sage and parsley for color and flavor. Once those are cooked, they'll go into the soup, which is made from a base of sauteed chopped onion, celery, leek, and garlic. Those ingredients are simmered in chicken stock and heavy cream. Finally, a few handfuls of baby spinach and a package of prepared pumpkin gnocchi finish this cozy fall soup.

Make the meatballs: In a large mixing bowl, combine the egg and breadcrumbs. Let sit for 5 minutes.

Fold in the ground chicken, garlic, fresh sage, parsley, and Parmesan. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

Form small, bite-sized meatballs (about 1 inch in diameter).

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat.

Sear the meatballs on all sides until browned and cooked through (about 5–6 minutes). Remove from the skillet and set aside.

Make the soup: In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat.

Add the onion, celery, and leek and saute for 5–7 minutes, until softened.

Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.

Stir in the stock, then bring the mixture to a gentle simmer.

Add the cream and simmer for 10 minutes.

Stir in the gnocchi and spinach and cook for an additional 5 minutes, until the gnocchi is tender and the spinach has wilted.

Gently add the meatballs to the soup, letting them warm through, about 5 minutes.

Season, to taste, and serve.

Around the fall season, plenty of stores start to carry autumnal goods. Lucky for us, one of those items happens to be Trader Joe's pumpkin gnocchi. For this recipe, using pumpkin gnocchi is as simple as running to the store and picking up a package. If you don't have access to this, you can substitute the product or make it yourself. For substituting, you can swap in a sweet potato gnocchi, either homemade or another store-bought version. Sweet potato gnocchi has the same kind of earthy sweetness as pumpkin and will taste relatively similar, though a plain gnocchi can also work in a pinch.

Making pumpkin gnocchi at home is fairly simple, especially if you are familiar with the process already. Instead of using cooked potato, you simply swap in cooked pumpkin. Make sure to choose a dry method of cooking the squash, such as roasting it in the oven.

Making dairy-free soup at home has always been notoriously difficult. This is usually due to the lack of available substitutes for heavy cream. Many common substitutions for this ingredient, such as coconut cream, have strong flavors that throw off the overall balance of the dish. Some others, such as almond milk, lack the fat and protein content of cow's cream, and the final liquid ends up with a split and unappealing texture. 

These days, there are many more choices for creating non-dairy creamy soups. Opt for a commercially available non-dairy heavy cream. These are available at many grocery stores. If you can't source that, try simmering cashews in a thick nondairy milk, such as oat milk, then blending and straining that mixture. The fat content in a thicker nut milk should balance the soup without splitting it or adding any overpowering flavors.