Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup

"This is The Olive Garden's recipe, from their cookbook. It is not a copycat. It has been cut down to make a more reasonable size. I have made this for several years, and everyone who has tasted it, loves it. It is a hearty meal in itself, or it can be served with salad and bread. This is especially good on a cold winter night ! ***I have edited the cooking order to make the preparation time shorter.***"
 
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photo by alenafoodphoto
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Ready In:
45mins
Ingredients:
11
Serves:
12
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ingredients

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directions

  • In a large stockpot, put water, bouillon, salt, red pepper flakes, garlic, and potatoes. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally.
  • Sauté the sausage and onion in a skillet, until the sausage is brown, then add it to the stockpot, along with the Kale. Simmer for 20 - 30 minutes, or until Kale and potatoes are tender.
  • Add the cream and bacon bits, and simmer for about 10 minutes.
  • Notes:

  • I use 10 medium size potatoes.
  • Half and Half can be substituted for the heavy cream if desired.
  • Kale can be found in the produce department of most grocery stores.
  • The soup at The Olive Garden is not thick. If you wish yours to be more like a cream soup, simply simmer it longer, and mash some of the potatoes in the pot with a wooden spoon, and stir frequently until of the desired consistency.

Questions & Replies

  1. May I substitute spinach for the kale?
     
  2. Does this recipe save/freeze well? When cooking for one or two. Its nice to be able to freeze the left overs.
     
  3. This recipe looks great! I have a few questions: Do you really only call for 1 bacon slice, or is this a typo? I have everything ready to start chopping and I'm thinking I'll just alter the bacon to a 1/2 lb (?). Also, I looked for 16 oz of bagged kale and that seemed like a LOT, considering one bag is 5oz. Is that also a typo? Fortunately they had kale bunches so I went with that. However, I second guessed how many bunches to get because I was comparing to 16 oz.
     
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Reviews

  1. This soup was amazing! I fried up some real bacon instead of bacon bits and chopped them up finely and it tasted fabulous! My husband takes us out to Olive Garden all the time just for this soup he's obsessed and this recipe was even better than Olive Garden's he said! Very satisfying I served it for dinner with a salad and dinner rolls and everyone was happy, a definite new favourite in my family! Thanks for sharing!
     
  2. This is our favorite soup! I have a steaming bowl in my hand right now, so comforting!! I do cut back on the water a bit, maybe 5 cups, and 4 bullion cubes. I also used 1/2 box of chopped spinach instead of kale, that's hard to find in our small town. We like spicy so yes, a tsp. or so of chili flakes is a must! :) yummy
     
  3. Okay, I don’t do kale. At the Olive Garden I sit and pick it all out all the kale, and by then it’s cold. So, I had chicken stock and not bullion. I used 48 plus 32 ounces of stock, a handful of finely diced fresh chives, a handful dried onions, a handful of dried parsley, a whole pound of bacon (to replace the kale for volume), and because half and half only comes in a 16 ounce container, 2 cups of 1/2 and 1/2. The sausage I used was Jimmy Dean Hot. My husband said it was the best soup he has ever, ever had. The broth is much more complex, savory, and delicious than Olive Garden’s. It really came out well. Wishing everyone good food and good company with which to enjoy it !
     
  4. This is excellent. Hubby doesn’t like a lot of spice so I omitted the chili flakes. I also subbed spinach for the kale which we Are not fans of. We used freshly cooked bacon in place of the bacon bits.
     
  5. I did not have a chance to try this soup at Olive Garden, but I'm happy I have made this recipe: the combination of the flavors is on top! The only thing is that I have reduced the amount of water till 7 and it was pretty enough. Served with warm baguette, yum!
     
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Tweaks

  1. Replace the potatoes with cauliflower and the soup becomes Keto-friendly. I personally like it better that way. Oh, and I use two bunches of kale instead of one. it might seem like a lot, but it will wilt down quite a bit. Just use a large stock pot and push it down under the liquid to speed up the process.
     
  2. does tweaked mean change?? changed nothing but omitted the bacon.... and discovered to thicken it a bit you can add some instant Mashed potato flakes. just add enough so it is as thick as you want it.
     
  3. I did not have any kale in the house so I substituted some chopped fresh brocolli. I liked it this way also, almost better!
     
  4. We would cut back on the red pepper flakes by 1/2 tsp. This is good with chicken instead of sausage. And pepperoni in place of bacon.
     
  5. Also, we used 1/2 pound of kale (that was a bunch)... it's hard to imagine using twice that much... wouldn't hurt, but 1/2 pound is a huge amount of kale!
     

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