Zuppa Toscana is lightened- up using poultry sausage then filled with creamy russet potatoes and hearty kale. This Olive Garden copycat recipe is perfect for rainy fall day!
I know I have mention before that, along time ago in another life, I worked as a waitress at the Olive Garden. Those were fun times filled with lots of salad, bread sticks, and yummy Zuppa Toscana.
If you never tried Zuppa Toscana from the Olive Garden then you’re missing out! It is filled with Italian sausage, potatoes, kale, butter, cream, and I am sure other yummy ingredients. It is soooooo good and I used to love sopping it up with breadsticks. If you haven’t guessed already, I wasn’t exactly health conscious back then.
When I first started to prepare this recipe it was not my intention to make a Olive Garden copycat Zuppa Toscana. I originally planned on making a slow cooker sausage and kale soup I found in one of my cookbooks. But I didn’t have time for a slow cooker recipe so I decided to make it on the stove. I also wanted to change it up a bit and add potatoes for richness, some milk for creaminess, and I substituted poultry Italian sausage. And that, my friends, is how this delicious lightened-up Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana recipe was born.
Anyway, I don’t mean to toot my own horn, but I was blown away when I took a taste of this Zuppa Toscana. It’s delicious and tasted almost exactly like the Olive Garden’s.
Honestly, in all the soups I’ve made I can easily say this is one of my favorites. It’s really good. The flavors of the sausage, onion, garlic, and spices are great. I added a ½ teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes. This gives it a nice kick. If you’re using a hot sausage you might not need it. But if you like it spicy then throw it in. Instead of cream or half and half I decided to just use 1% milk – mostly because that is what I had on hand. It leant the perfect amount of creaminess to this soup.
You will get about 7 servings from this batch of Zuppa Toscana. We had 2 bowls then I put the rest in 16-ounce mason jar containers for lunches and/or dinners this week. You can freeze them but if you do leave about 1 inch of room to allow for expansion. Then let thaw in the refrigerator and warm up on stove or in microwave.
I hope you give this Zuppa Toscana recipe a taste because it is perfect especially for those of you who are living in a city – like Buffalo – where the winter just won’t quit.
Here are some of my other favorite soup recipes:
Healthy Stuffed Pepper Soup Recipe
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound of ground turkey (or poultry) Italian sausage (or 6 links casings removed)
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 4 medium russet potatoes, skinned, thickly sliced, and quartered
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups 1% milk
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3-4 cups chopped kale
- Heat olive oil in medium to large soup pot and cook italian sausage until no longer pink. Break apart and crumble as it cooks.
- Add to sausage the onion, garlic, basil, oregano, and thyme. Cook for 5 minutes or until the onion and garlic start to soften.
- Add in potatoes, chicken broth, and milk. Cook until potatoes are soft. About 25 to 30 minutes. Give it a taste then add in the salt.
- Stir in the kale and cook for another 15 minutes or until kale is tender. Serve hot.
This soup can be made ahead completely then frozen in individual containers. Thaw in refrigerator then warm up on stove or microwave.
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Am I missing something on the nutritional info? It doesn’t have calories? I can’t wait to make it, though!
Just fixed it. Sorry.
do you have the sodium count on this?
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 1/7 of recipe Calories: 316 Fat: 11 Carbohydrates: 34 Fiber: 3 Protein: 20
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 1/7 of recipe Calories: 316 Fat: 11 Carbohydrates: 34 Fiber: 3 Protein: 20
Will the potatoes freeze okay with this recipe? I have read that they typically don’t freeze well?
My husband is dying for me to try this!!
Yes only raw potatoes have issues freezing. try this recipe. You will love it – and so will hubs 🙂
Yay!! So excited 🙂 thank you!
Super recipe Kale is the latest in thing.
Absolutely delicious!!! Thank you
The recipe reads 7 servings, but how much is a serving? Is it a cup, two cups? I want to use the nutrition information but need to know the portion size. Thanks for all you do! Can’t wait to try this.
Hi. I was looking for kale recipes and came upon your website.
Tried the kale soup last nite and it was delicious and easy to make. I will definitely be trying some more of your recipes!!
PS funny thing is I am from Buffalo!
Awesome!! Love my fellow buffalonians!
can we substitute spinach?
Have done that with success, as my family does not care for kale.
So delish. Thanks for sharing!
I made this last night and my hubby and I both love it! There wasn’t any left to freeze. Next time I will double the recipe and have some to freeze. Thank you for the good healthy recipe!
Really great. My boyfriend wanted us to try to make his favorite Olive Garden soup, and I was hoping to find a recipe that used milk instead of cream. This recipe was perfect. We used lean pork sausage instead turkey. Great flavors, loved the texture of the broth.
Very good. I would add note not to worry about exact amounts, etc. I added more broth and only one c 2% milk (all I had). Simmered only five min after kale added because I like it crunchy. Thank you for posting!
YUM! It smells amazing simmering on my stove right now! I added extra red pepper flakes to make it spicy! I can’t wait to try it!
This is the first time making this recipe, easy to follow instructions. I omitted the red pepper flakes and used Tuscan spice blend with sweet Italian sausage. Smells amazing.
Thanks! I’ve still got kale in the raised bed, and a huge bag in the freezer. Everything on hand except the sausage. So, this goes to the top of my list once I finish freezing and canning from the garden. I’m really enjoying your blog!
hi this recipe sounds delicious but I’m asking about the kale in your freezer. can kale be frozen fresh is there anything I need to do to it before freezing it I bought the only kale I could find and it was a super large bag and I would like to use only half of it so freezing would be ideal how do you freeze kale Thanks
Yes you can just throw kale into a freezer bag and freeze. I do it all the time and it works great.
I absolutely love this recipe! Have made it twice already! But how much is 1/7th of the recipe? A cup? A cup in a half?
This was so good, we spiced it up much more for our taste profile. Definitely a new recipe in our rotation!
I make a very similar recipe only I slice up raw cauliflower, looks like little sliced potatos, and throw them in the pot the last 10 minutes. They keep a firmness and are still yummy the next day.
Much more than 10 minutes and they add a sweetness to the soup that I dont like.
I made this yesterday and it was delicious! The only thing I changed was the turkey sausage. My grocery store was out and I couldn’t bring myself to buy the regular sausage links (21g of fat per link! YIKES) so I just bought the ground turkey (98% fat free) and it was still good. Thank you sharing, I’ll definitely make it again!
I made this yesterday for my brother who had pancreatic surgery a month ago I substituted omion powder for onions and garlic powder for the garlic and he loved it and wanted the rescipe . It was so good! Thank you for the lighter version of Zuppa Touscana.
I made this one for my husband and it was an absolute hit. The recipe was easy to follow and turned out IMO better than Zappa Toscana from Olive Garden – Thank you for posting this one. I will definitely be making this one again.
Absolutely delicious! M new favorite for me. I used hot Italian pork sausage and omitted the red flakes. Magnificent!!!
Could this be made in the crock pot?
I made this tonight for my family and it was a hit. The taste is so close. Thanks for the awesome recipe.
Made it tonight, couled not be more pleased! This was delicious, thanks for sharing.
Me and my boyfriend used to both work as servers at the OG and toscana was our absolute favorite!! I never imagined i could make it from home so easily! It was delicious thank you so much for sharing! Best recipe I’ve found online yet!!!
Turned out amazing. Very savory, and you don’t even miss the heavy cream.
Thank you for sharing your story and for all the guidance and recipes that you offer.
I would like to make a suggestion for recipes, especially soup. I would love to see serving sizes listed in cups (when possible) instead of 7 servings or the like. I find I avoid some recipes when the serving size isn’t a “no brain-er”.
My daughter loves this soup. She keeps going into the kitchen to smell it while it is cooking.
Is the serving size of 1/7 equivalent to 1 cup or?????
Thank you
Family member made this, and it was Awesome!!!!👍👍👍
Awesome! So glad everyone liked it!
What’s the sodium for a serving of this?
So good!!! A go to time and time again.
Ooh, most excellent! We’ll definitely be having this dish again! Used fat free half and half instead of milk since that’s what I happened to have in the fridge and it turned out great!!
Could spinach be substituted for the kale?
Yes that would work.
Thank you for the recipe. I chose to sub carrots for potatoes and almond milk for 1% milk to meet my personal nutrition goals. It tasted great! Thanks again!
I made this for my BFF…she’s dieting and I’m serving as coach. 🙂 I used spicy Italian sausage and omitted the red pepper flakes, and used 3 teaspoons of Italian seasoning instead of dried thyme, oregano and basil. She loved it and said it tasted better than Olive Garden! Ask anyone who knows me well…I don’t like any type of soup for some reason. Strange…I know LOL (I always order salad at Olive Garden). I, of course, tasted the soup before giving it to my friend and it was so delicious. You broke my “don’t like soup curse”…I plan to make this again for myself next time. Thanks for a great recipe! God bless 🙂
Read so many remarks on this soup can’t wait to try it.
I made this as per your recipe with a few changes. I doubled the amount of kale, halved the spices, and added red pepper flakes. Didn’t use milk as I had some heavy cream and half & half and used them. It was excellent. Will definitely save this recipe and make it a lot in the future.
Has anyone used almond milk?
I made this tonight. We are trying to follow a low carb/KETO style of eating so I substited cauliflower for the potatoes. Wow! Great flavor! My husband said “you could feed this to the Pope”, his highest compliment and he’s not even religious! Very good! Thank you!
wow thats amazing! Tell him I’m so happy he loves it.
How well do the potatoes freeze?
They freeze great in the soup.
Can coconut milk be used instead of the 1%? Very sensitive to dairy but would love to make this soup.
yes I’ve substitute coconut milk in MANY soup recipes and it works great. I even use it in mac n cheese and nobody notices.