Wyoming Wedding Soup (Venison)

October 2024

With deer season on the horizon, I thought perhaps my readers would enjoy some ways to use venison. This recipe is the fourth in my fall 2024 venison recipe series. This makes 4-5 quarts depending on how many veggies you put in. It freezes well.

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Ready for a fall lunch of Wyoming Wedding Soup

This fall, my husband, Stan, and I went antelope hunting for the first time. We both brought home meat. This soup is the first recipe I made with the burger. This is a riff on a recipe that my daughter shared from Cuisine Italian, Soups and Stews called Pittsburgh Wedding soup. She, of course, made changes and I, of course did as well. This may be the best soup I have ever made...and I make a lot of soup.

Ingredients for Wyoming Wedding Soup. Makes 4-5 quarts.

Meatball Ingredients:

1/3 lb ground venison

1/3 lb ground pork

1/3 lb ground beef sirloin

2-3 slices bread torn in chunks

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 large egg yolk

3 TBSP chopped fresh parsley

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp Italian Herb mix Penzeys

Ingredients for the soup:

1 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

1/8 tsp red pepper flakes

3 quarts chicken stock

2 carrots chopped

1 large yellow onion chopped

3-4 large kale leaves, deveined and chopped.

1 cup orzo

3 TBSP chopped fresh parsley

1 tsp Italian Herb Mix

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

Soak your chunks od bread in the milk. In a fairly large bowl add the meats. the egg yolk, the cheese, the parsley, salt, pepper, and oregano. Using your hands mix these ingredients. Form the meatballs. I made slightly larger then an inch and ended up with about 43 meatball. If you want this to be more traditional, make smaller meatballs and end up with more of them. Place them on a baking sheet and store in the fridge until you are ready to assemble the soup.

Pretty meatballs ready for the soup

To assemble the soup add olive oil to a Dutch oven and cook the onion until translucent. Add the carrots and red pepper flakes.

Then add the stock and bring to a boil. Add the meatballs and orzo and simmer 15 minutes. Add the kale and simmer another 10 minutes. Stir in the parsley, salt and pepper to taste and serve.

A steaming kettle of Wyoming Wedding soup.

Chef's Notes:

1. I had to thaw out a total of three pound of meat to make this. The soup used only a third of each kind of meat. I used the balance (2 lbs) to make meatloaf. I will share that recipe next time. Subscribe to my site to get a notice when the meatloaf recipe posts.

2. The original recipe called for dried oregano in the meatballs. I substituted Penzeys Italian herb mix. I personally think that you need to be light-handed with oregano in some venison recipes. It can overpower everything else. If the meat has a strong taste..and this antelope did not....it can make it taste even stronger. I have found this to be particularly true in meatloaf. The mixed herbs really worked well. This mix included Turkish oregano, basil, marjoram, thyme, and rosemary.

3. I save bread scraps from homemade bread and use them for this purpose.

4. I make most of my own stock. You can use no-sodium commercial stock if you do not have your own.

5. I saved the egg white from this recipe and tossed it in the meatloaf I made with the extra meat.

6. I started out using 2 quarts of stock, but added a third when I saw how much liquid was absorbed by the orzo.

7. You could substitute spinach for kale. I like the texture from the kale. you could add zuchini or yellow squash.

There are so many wonderful flavors and textures in this soup. It is visually appealing as well. We loved this one. I hope you do also.

A great way to use your venison in soup.