Zuppa Toscana is easily made in the slow cooker, made with potatoes, sausage and kale. Great for a weeknight dinner.
With many soups to try in the slow cooker, this is a very popular one to try! Zuppa Toscana is a classic recipe that you may have seen on the menu at Olive Garden. It is a potato and sausage soup that has cream and kale added at the end. It makes for a hearty dinner, just needs some crusty bread!
I apologize for only having one recipe for you this week. I’ve put off inputting my taxes into QuickBooks for too long. Right after getting my tax work done, we received our load of girl scout cookies to sell, I thought Christmas time was busy!
This soup takes a little bit of prep work, but nothing too time consuming. I don’t peel the potatoes for this recipe, I like the texture of the unpeeled potatoes in this soup.
Be sure not to add the kale and heavy cream until the end of the cooking time.
Below is my YouTube video of the making of this meal. You can follow me on YouTube here.
Have a great weekend I will be back next week with more recipes.
- 6 slices bacon, cut, cooked and drained
- 1 lb. mild pork sausage, browned and drained (such as jimmy dean)
- 4 cups diced russet potatoes
- 1 cup diced white onion
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. pepper
- 1 tsp. dried basil
- ½ tsp. dried thyme
- 2 tsp. minced garlic
- 1 (32-oz.) box chicken broth
- 1.5 cups heavy cream (add at the end)
- 4 cups chopped kale (add at the end)
- 4-quart or larger
- Add everything to the slow cooker EXCEPT the cream and kale.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 7 hours.
- When the cooking time is done, add the heavy cream and kale, push the kale down in to the soup.
- Cover and cook for and additional 20 minutes.
- Serve and enjoy!
I used my 6-quart oval Crock-Pot® for this recipe though any slow cooker larger than a 4-quart will work fine.
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My husband love love loves this soup at Olive Garden and I have made a stove top version. Yours sounds delicious and a lot more convenient and I can’t wait to try it.
Has anyone swapped out the kale for something else, like spinach? Interested to hear how that is.
Spinach doesn’t hold up as well as the kale. I was never big on kale but in soup it is so much better than spinach.
I have never had this soup at Olive Garden, but you make it look so delicious and sounds so easy that I will have to give it a try soon. Thanks for the recipe!
Great recipe; we made it today. Can it be frozen?
I think the cream may weird after being froze. Has anyone else froze this after making?
What brand and type of mild sausage.?
Pork sausage. I use jimmy dean.
Does this freeze well?!?
I don’t recommend freezing anything with dairy or potatoes, doesn’t thaw out well.
Can I put it on high and cook for half the time?
Yes! I would try 4 hours on high
I love this soup and this recipe is great. Love that it’s easy and I don’t have to watch it in the slow cooker. I doubled it the second time because it disappeared so quickly. I did use fresh baby spinach instead of the kale and thought it was great. Thanks!!