If you like the Zuppa Toscana soup at Olive Garden you are going to love this easy to prepare at home copy-cat recipe for Crock-Pot Zuppa Toscana soup!
Slow Cooker Zuppa Toscana Soup
If you like the Zuppa Toscana (Tuscan Soup) at Olive Garden you are going to LOVE this recipe that you can make at home in your slow cooker.
The recipe starts with some Italian sausage and crispy bacon that you cook on the stove-top.
Then potatoes and some other great ingredients are added to the slow cooker with the sausage. Everything is cooked in the slow cooker until the potatoes are tender and the flavors of the soup are developed.
And then…the best part of the soup… cream is added right before serving so you end up with a lovely slightly creamy (but not thick like a chowder) soup is the final result.
I often make this soup for dinner and serve it with a nice fresh green salad and a baguette of bread.
The bread is a must for my family so that they can sop up the lovely creamy broth.
So good!
Products Needed:
- 6 Quart, 6.5 Quart Or 7 Quart Slow Cooker
- Large Skillet
- Wooden Spoon
- Knife
- Cutting Board
- Liquid Measuring Cup
- Ladle
Special Diets
Crock-Pot Zuppa Toscana Soup Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Pound Ground Italian Sausage (Sweet Or Spicy)
- 1 Pound Thick Sliced Center Cut Bacon (Diced)
- 1 Quart Water
- 29 Ounces Low-Sodium Chicken Broth (Store Bought Or Homemade Chicken Broth)
- 4 Medium Yukon Gold Potatoes (Washed And Diced Into Bite Sized Pieces)
- 1 Medium Yellow Onion (Peeled And Diced Small)
- 2 Cloves Garlic (Minced)
- 2 Cups Kale (Roughly Chopped (May Also Use Swiss Chard Or Baby Spinach))
- 1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- Salt And Pepper (To Taste)
Instructions
- In a large skillet on the stove-top, brown and crumble the Italian sausage. Drain off excess cooking fat. Set aside.
- In the same skillet, cook the diced bacon until crispy. Drain off excess cooking fat. Set aside.
- Add water, chicken broth, potatoes, onion, garlic, bacon and sausage into a 6 quart or larger slow cooker.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 6 hours or until the potatoes are cooked until ‘fork tender“.
- Add chopped kale and heavy whipping cream and stir to combine into soup.
- Recover slow cooker and cook for an additional 30 minutes on LOW.
- Taste soup and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Enjoy!
Nutrition
I made this recipe in my crockpot today exactly as it says above. It was absolutely delicious. My husband and my brother raved about it and had seconds. My husband asked if we could put it on the the menu rotation for Fall/Winter months. Thanks!!
I just made this yesterday and never really enjoyed Olive Garden’s but I really, really like this recipe. I cut everything in half because it’s just my husband and I now and didn’t want to eat it for days and days. Oh, yeah, I also wasn’t paying attention when I bought the greens and picked up turnip greens by mistake and you couldn’t tell the difference from them and the kale. Thanks for posting this!!
Fantastic recipe. My wife orders Zuppa Toscana every time she goes to Olive Garden. She suggested we make it at home for an alternative to the traditional Christmas dinner. It was so delicious! We had leftovers for days as there was only 2.5 of us but we didn’t care. This soup tastes even more delicious as leftovers. We’re pulling this recipe out again as we have a dinner party tonight. I do add more than two cups of Kale as I had plenty left and there seemed to be room for more in the crock pot. A highly recommend this recipe.
I will give this a try as I live in a small space for. I also have family in Sheridan, Wy.
I made this for a potluck and people actually took the crockpot out to pour the last drop of soup! I was so sad…I wanted leftovers.
It is that good! next time , make more and leave some for yourself at home. lol
Is there a low calorie version of the soup?
You could use Turkey Italian sausage and fat free half and half to make it lower in fat.
How many cubes if i use the chicken bouillon cubes
Your chicken bullion cubes should have conversion for cubes to broth ratio on the package. I would follow that.
But as a general rule it is 1 cube + 1 cup of water = 1 cup chicken broth.
Make sure you use low sodium bouillon cubes otherwise your dish may come out too salty.
I have some lactose intolerant friends. I wanted ideas before I made a whole batch, can I make this with coconut milk or any other dairy substitute? I understand the Constancy is different, but just thinking about what substitute would taste better.
Without testing this recipe with dairy alternatives I cannot say for sure how it would turn out. However, given that the cream is added at the end of cooking on this soup I would think it should work OK however there will be a difference in consistency (as you mentioned) and probably flavor too. Let us know how it comes out if you give it a try Kayla!
I say – give the coconut milk a try! It is so yummy!
Something I like to do is make a HUGE pot of chicken soup. I divide it into 3 dinners for my family of 6. One night is traditional chicken soup (sometimes with noodles or Matzoh Balls), another night I add coconut milk,Thai Curry paste, a big bag of baby spinach and frozen potstickers to the chicken soup. Another night I turn it into a version of Italian wedding soup (with eggs, frozen meatballs, greens and parmesan cheese)…
There is a dairy free heavy whipping cream. My friend as made this with coconut milk for me before and it was very good.
Using dairy free whipping cream sounds great Megan!
I try a lot of online recipes. This is the first one that exceeded my expectations. So yummy! Thanks for sharing!
Love Love Love it! I added a little pepper jack cheese to my bowl and made some corn bread to go with it…yummy stuff.
Awesome! So glad you enjoyed the recipe Sly!
I have made this and it is delicious. But to cut down on prep I have used Simply Potatoes and it is very quick and easy and good.
Great idea using refrigerated cut potatoes to save a little time prepping! Thanks for the tip Andee!