In The Kitchen: Copycat Zuppa Toscana Soup

It's been a sweet forever since we've been "In The Kitchen" over here, but today, I'm sharing a recipe for Zuppa Toscana Soup!

I'm not sure about y'all, but winter makes me want soup. I want something that's going to make me cozy after being out in the brisk cold during winter. It's been too cold for my liking, so last Saturday evening, I wanted to warm things up a bit and get cozy with a good soup! 

DJ loves the Zuppa Toscana soup at Olive Garden, but I've never tried making it before. I quickly googled for the recipe and realized I already had the ingredients at home, and I was excited to try out a new soup! 

Here's what you'll need:

1 lb. Italian Sausage

Russet Potatoes

Onion (I used Onion Powder)

Bacon Bits (optional)

Garlic Cloves (I used Garlic Salt)

Kale (I used Spinach)

Chicken Broth

1 quart water

1 c. Heavy Whipping Cream 

I made some of my own adjustments as you can see above. 

Here's what you'll do:

Brown sausage in your pan. You'll also want to saute your onion. Here's the thing, I never have onions at home. We buy them when we know that we'll need them for a specific recipe, but I just don't buy them and keep them. So, I use onion powder as a quick replacement. 

While the meat is browning, wash and cut your potatoes. 

Drain the excess grease from the sausage. Don't skip this step friends! Add in your potatoes and chicken broth. You'll also add in your water. I used enough to cover the potatoes. 

The potatoes and sausage will cook for about another 25 minutes. While they were boiling, I cooked some bacon to add in later. 

Once the bacon was cooked, I chopped it, and chopped spinach. We didn't have Kale on hand, and I figured that spinach is close enough to the same thing! 

Once your potatoes and sausage have cooked, you'll add in your bacon, kale/spinach, and heavy cream. 

See how it's a bit greasy looking? I didn't get my sausage drained fully. It didn't affect the taste, just the look, and I'm sure my arteries would've appreciated it drained a bit more. 

After stirring in the cream and kale/spinach, cook for another 5 minutes. 

Serve with some freshly grated parmesan cheese. 

This soup was a hit. DJ said that it was pretty close to Olive Garden's version. Gretchen ate two bowlfuls! Adalyn and Megan just picked at it a little bit. I think Megan mostly ate the bacon out of her soup! 

I think this would be an easy soup to cook in your slow cooker, as long as you have browned your sausage before hand.... I would just add the kale/spinach about 5 minutes before you serve it.