Italian Wedding Soup

None of the recipes I found called for the normal soup starters: onions, garlic, celery. I figured I'd at least want those flavors, even if I didn't have them floating around in the soup, so I made my own stock.
Italian Wedding Soup
Makes 4 servings
Ingredients:
Stock:
- 1 yellow onion
- 1 head garlic
- 4 stocks celery
- 1 carrot
- 1 tablespoon bacon grease (or oil)
- chicken bones/scraps
- 1 bay leaf
Soup:
- 1/2 lb ground turkey
- 1/2 slice bread (or 1/8 cup breadcrumbs)
- 1 egg
- dash garlic powder
- dash onion powder
- dash Italian seasonings
- dash ground pepper
- 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese
- 2 carrots
- chicken bouillon
- beef bouillon
- salt & pepper to taste
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup Israeli couscous, depending on how thick you want your soup
- 1 bag fresh spinach
Instructions:
Stock:
- Heat the grease in a large pot
- Cut off the roots of the onion but do not peel. Quarter the onion, skin and all. Sear in the grease while you chop the garlic. Chop garlic head in half, separate cloves, throw into pot, skin and all. Coarsly chop celery and carrot, throw into pot.
- Add chicken bones, bay leaf, and 2 quarts of water. Simmer for 6-8 hours. Drain, reserving liquid and discarding solids.
Soup:
- Bring stock to a boil. Meanwhile, make meatballs: tear bread up into little pieces and put into mini food processor. Add egg. Blend a bit. Let sit for 5 min. Blend until smooth. Remove blade and mix in turkey, spices, and cheese. Spoon 3/4 inch lumps of meatball mixture into boiling stock.
- Add carrots and couscous. Boil for 12 minutes or as directed by couscous package.
- Add 1 cube beef bouillon, 2-4 cubes chicken bouillon, and salt to taste.
- Add dash of Italian seasonings and bag of spinach, stirring until spinach is cooked, about 1 min. Enjoy!