This Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana recipe clone is so savory, delicious and easy to make. It’s pretty much my favorite soup ever.
Unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks. Oh Olive Garden, how we love thee…. except for the amount of money we spend there! Thus the reason I like to make copycats of my favorite recipes.
This copycat version (but better) of Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana recipe is perfection. The soup has a creamy base with potatoes, kielbasa sausage and some melt in your mouth cooked kale.
Please do me a favor and make this soup for dinner tonight.
You can thank me later.
I’m telling you… this stuff is so good.
The funny thing is, I swear Olive Garden’s recipe used to use sliced sausage like in this recipe. However years ago they did change it to using a crumbled spicy sausage. I still think this way tastes better.
I find this goes perfectly with a side salad loaded with my Copycat Olive Garden Italian Dressing Recipe.
And if you love this recipe you will also LOVE my Olive Garden Chicken Scampi Recipe. It is to die for.
Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Recipe
Copycat recipes are so much fun. I love trying new things and trying to make clones of recipes.
Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 12 oz package of kielbasa sausage
- 64 oz chicken broth
- 1/4 onion, finely diced ( or substitute 1 tbsp dry onion flakes)
- 4 red potatoes, cut into 1-1/2 inch chunks
- 1/2 tsp minced garlic
- 3 tbsp bacon bits (optional)
- 2-3 kale leaves, washed & thinly sliced
- 1 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Thinly slice your sausage.
- In a large skillet over medium high heat, add a little bit oil or cooking spray. Place sausage in pan and cook, stirring and flipping meat often till you get some crispy browning on both sides. Remove from heat.
- In a slow cooker or crockpot add cooked sausage. Then add in chicken broth, onion, garlic, bacon bits and sliced potatoes and gently stir to combine.
- Slow cook on low for 4-5 hours.
- Remove lid, add in sliced kale and heavy cream. Stir to combine. Let cook additional 15 minutes until kale is cooked.
- Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
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Recipe notes:
- Feel free to substitute smoked beef sausage, or even Spicy Italian crumbled sausage in this recipe.
- If you use red potatoes you don’t have to peel them, but you can if you like! Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t, depending on how much time I have.
- You can substitute yukon gold or even russet potatoes in this recipe. However if you use russet potatoes, make sure to peel them as their peels are tough.
- You can buy bacon bits from the store or just use up any fried bacon you have on hand. Both ways bring that deep bacon-y flavor to this soup.
About Karrie
Food is my love language. But so is saving money. So I like to combine the two a lot and make thrifty make ahead and freeze meals to save time. Because life is busy, and freezer meals can come to the rescue for all of us. And yes, they actually CAN taste good. Read more...
Comments & Reviews
Hannah says
Do the potatoes do okay frozen? Looking for freezer meals to make ahead
Karrie says
Can’t freeze the potatoes raw. They’d have to be cooked completely first before freezing
Laurie says
Have made this recipe 2 weeks in a row and it is a hit for me and my kids! I had everything except the cream so I used 1/2 and 1/2 and it worked perfectly 🙂 <3
Elle Ryan says
This is a wonderful recipe but I am stuck at home right now and I have everything but Kale. Any suggestions?
Karrie says
You can use spinach instead, or just leave it out!
Jenny says
I was hoping you’d suggest spinach as a substitute as I’m not a huge kale fan. Have you ever made Olive Garden’s chicken gnocchi soup?
Sandra says
I have a couple of questions before I try this recipe of our all-time fave OG soup! One involves the volume of potatoes (approximately)…we eat keto so I am going to try substituting daikon radish chunks for the potatoes, and I’d love some clue about what volume/amount I will need. The second question is about converting this to an Instant Pot recipe – could I just use the soup setting or is there a better way to avoid overcooking or undercooking the veg? It’s the radish that I’m mainly thinking of. Oh, one more question – would it taste all right to use any other greens besides kale (like spinach leaves or shredded greens like collards)? Thank you!
Karrie says
Those are tough questions haha! I haven’t tried using radishes in the instant pot yet. My best guess would be to try to add all ingredients to instant pot, Select Soup program. Timer should say 15 min but reduce time to 10 min. Then a quick release. Oh and about the other greens, I’m sure those would be good as well, but I’ve always used kale!
Nita says
I too have done keto and I used radish and any kind of greens and was wonderful!
Kelly says
I have used cauliflower instead of potatoes and you can’t tell he difference. Especially if the cauliflower is slightly over cooked, just not crunchy.
Carolyn says
I assume the direction is 1/4 Tablespoon minced dried onions, yes? Measurement is missing. 🙂
Karrie says
Hi! It’s 1/4 of an onion, diced or use about a tablespoon of minced dried onions. I’ve updated it in the recipe, thanks!!
Bev says
I just made Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Recipe and it was sounds great ever! Thanks for the super the recipe. Can’t wait to make more them.
Stephanie says
I just found your site today and am excited about trying several of your recipes! What kind of sausage did you use for this soup? I’m guessing smoked sausage by the picture, but I just wanted to be sure before I went grocery shopping. Thanks!
Happy.MoneySaver says
I have used regular sausage and smoked sausage for this recipe and they are both delicious!
Bethany says
Oh yeah, my rolls (I will make them homemade next time) but they were 3.99 for 6. Can you believe that!
Bethany says
My heavy cream was 4.00 (not very good deal here in Alaska) and I used 8 bollion cubes instead of chicken broth. Pretty much I paid full price for everything but it was still affordable. Thanks
Bethany says
I cooked this for dinner today. The hardest part is cutting everything up. The best part is it is warming and filling. Thanks for the recipe. Tis the season for soups!
Bonnie says
THANKS A MILLION for posting a recipe that calls for chicken broth! 🙂 I only have, um, (nervously glaces away) something like 45 or 50 cartons of it from the big ALbertsons sale a few weeks ago. The soup sounds yummy! Looking forward to trying it!