Lizzy T
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Paleo Zuppa Toscana
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Paleo Zuppa Toscana is a rich soup filled with potatoes, kale, Italian sausage and bacon. Your slow cooker makes this dairy free recipe easy to make.
Paleo Zuppa Toscana Recipe
One of my favorite things to eat is soup. And something that I don’t fix very often is soup. I know it doesn’t make sense. For some reason, soup is generally not what comes to mind when I’m menu-planning. The one exception is when we are on a Whole30 or eating strictly paleo. Although I know there are a lot of unhealthy soups out there, soup in my mind equals healthy.
Copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup Recipe
This Paleo Zuppa Toscana is our grain free, gluten free, sugar free and dairy free version of one of our Olive Garden favorites. That creamy soup is my husband’s favorite and we realized how easy it is to make the Olive Garden soup recipe into a low carb soup that would be hearty enough and spicy enough to still bring smiles.
Zuppa Toscana Ingredients
Zuppa Toscana literally means “soup in the style of Tuscany”. This creamy Whole30 zuppa toscana soup is full of potatoes, Italian sausage, kale, onions, and most importantly, bacon.
Bacon makes everything better.
Except chocolate. I do not care for chocolate covered bacon. I’ll take my bacon and chocolate separate, thank you.
Sausage Soup Recipe
I used our own Italian sausage blend that you can find here. Homemade sausage seasoning is so much better than store-bought. Yes, it takes 5 minutes to throw the seasonings in a pound of ground meat, but the exploding flavor that will happen in your mouth is so worth it. Plus, you get to decide what type of “sausage” meat you use. Our favorite meat to add sausage seasoning to is ground turkey because it is so lean. I did a little bit of prep work the day before and got a pound of ground turkey seasoned and browned, so the next morning, it was all ready to throw in the slow cooker.
{And if you’re looking for homemade Italian seasoning mix? Try THIS!}
You can also prep the bacon ahead of time, too. Just a little bit of thinking ahead will make this an easy paleo sausage and kale soup to throw together on those early mornings.
Zuppa Toscana with Coconut Milk
One last thing before you head to the store to get the ingredients for this dairy free zuppa toscana soup. The recipe calls for coconut milk to make the soup creamy. If you don’t need the soup to be dairy free, you can add whole milk or half and half creamer instead.
The coconut cream (or regular milk) should be added at the very end of cooking. Make sure that your can of coconut milk are refrigerated and use only the solid white cream from the cans. Save the clear milky liquid for a smoothie or another recipe. Add the cream in, stir it into the soup a bit so it melts in and voila…you’ve got creamy soup!
Slow Cooker Zuppa Toscana
I like to double this recipe to fill my 5 quart slow cooker right to the top. That way we have plenty for leftovers. Meal prep can be hard, so having a soup recipe with lots of leftovers makes dinner the next day or even lunches a breeze.
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Paleo Zuppa Toscana
Paleo Zuppa Toscana is a rich soup filled with potatoes, kale, Italian sausage and bacon. Your slow cooker makes this dairy free recipe easy to make.
Servings 6 servings
Prep Time 2 minutes
Cook Time 6 hours
Total Time 6 hours 2 minutes
Ingredients
- 1 lb bacon cooked and crumbled
- 1 lb Italian sausage browned and drained
- 4 cups chicken stock
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 1 medium onion diced
- 3 large potatoes peeled and cut into cubes
- 2 cups kale diced
- 1 can full fat unsweetened coconut milk refrigerated
Instructions
- Place half of the cooked and crumbled bacon into the slow cooker. Reserve the other half as a topping for the soup.
- Add the Italian sausage, chicken stock, garlic, onion and potatoes to the slow cooker.
- Cover and simmer on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4-6 hours until the potatoes are tender.
- With 30 minutes left, add the kale to the slow cooker. Cover and allow the kale to cook for 30 minutes.
- Five minutes before serving, open the can of refrigerated coconut cream and add just the solid white cream to the slow cooker. Reserve the clear coconut milk for another use. Let the cream heat through the soup for about 5 minutes.
- Serve with crumbled bacon on top.
Video
Notes
*You can lower the calories in this recipe by using lean turkey sausage and not adding as much bacon.
Nutrition
Calories: 818kcal
We substitute parsnips for the potatoes. They honestly don’t change the flavor and my kids don’t know the difference between when I use potatoes and when I use parsnips. Just wanted to share if anyone is looking for alternatives to potatoes.
What size can of coconut milk should be used?
This is just about the most perfect recipe for this dish. Been using it since posted and haven’t felt the need to make any adjustments. Grown ups and kids alike in our house love it!
I made this last night and the flavor was delicious! Great for a cold winter night!
I have had this at Olive Garden. The only thing I didn’t like was the kale. Can I use spinach? I don’t like the taste or texture of kale.
Could I use almond milk instead of coconut milk, I don’t have any on hand!
Can low fat milk be substituted for the coconut milk?
This looks delicious and I cant wait to make it! Do you also have an Insta Pot recipe?
The recipe does not specify unsweetened coconut milk. It specifies using “full fat” coconut milk! Is this a typo or are you suggesting that by specifying full fat coconut milk that your readers will take that to mean unsweetened full fat coconut milk?
The devil is in the details, don’t you know?
Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Absolutely delicious! One of the best things I’ve ever made!
Its funny. I’ve never been a huge soup eater. But I wanted to try something that I could freeze and reheat for days when I’m not feeling good or don’t want to cook. I stumbled across a recipe and then looked up the Paleo version which is how I found this. The verdict is in. It’s better than anything I could have bought premade. Flavorful, warm, hearty and comforting. It’s perfect. Thank you.
This Zuppa Toscana recipe is incredibly flavorful! When looking for new recipes, I look for ones that are 1) not complicated, 2) require ingredients that I have on hand or are easy to find at the local grocery store and do not drain our budget, and 3) prep does not require the use of every dish I own. This recipe involves easy prep, minimal cleanup, and a delicious meal that was ready in under an hour! The butcher recommended mild Italian sausage, which was flavorful and allowed for me to determine the level of spiciness by adding perfect amount of… Read more »
Doesn’t the coconut milk make the soup sweet?
This recipe was so delish! Subsituted cauliflower for the potatoes and you couldnt tell the difference. Thanks for the great recipe
Re. Your Zuppz Toscano soup, I use sweet Italian turkey sausage and cauliflower stems or the core and it is delious