Julie Clark
Posted: Updated:
Paleo Zuppa Toscana
This post may contain affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
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.
BUY OUR DOWNLOADABLE HEALTHY DINNER RECIPES COOKBOOK WITH 22 OF OUR MOST POPULAR HEALTHY MAIN DISH RECIPES INCLUDING PALEO, WHOLE30, GLUTEN FREE AND SUGAR FREE OPTIONS!
ONLY $4.99!
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
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
SOOO delicious. My hubby loves the Olive a Garden version but this one is just as good if not better! Incredible flavor. We doubled the recipe so we could eat all week : Already looking forward to lunch tomorrow!
Absolutely love this recipe, thank you so much for sharing! This has become a family favorite and a regular in my meal planning rotation. I like to buy the sausage and bacon in advance, brown the sausage while the bacon cooks in the oven then bag them both up & toss in the freezer. This way when I decide to make the soup, the meat-prep is already done. I like to make it in my Instant Pot pressure cooker on the “Soup” setting, let the pressure release a bit, then add the kale to simmer for 30 minutes, then the… Read more »
I made a double batch of this soup this morning and it is amazing! Tastes just like Olive Gardens version as Far as Ican remember. Had to cook it on the stove as it was too much for the slow cooker – took 40-50 min. I didnt peel the potatoes and it took 3 1/2 times the liquid to make a double recipe (I used 12 C chicken stock and 4 C water). I used ground pork and followed the linked Italian sausage recipe. i have made your sausage recipe 4 times and it is also awesome! I always put… Read more »
This looks so delicious! I absolutely love zuppa toscana soup! Since I have celiac disease, paleo recipes are perfect for me! Thank you.
Just made this soup for dinner and all I have to say is WOW! I also followed the sausage recipe using pork and loved it. I was worried that the coconut flavor would be overwhelming in the soup but I didnt even notice it. I will now always use this recipe instead of the “traditional” version that is loaded with dairy and store bought sausage with God knows what added ingredients!
Hello, want to make this for company. Just quick question… Do the potatoes get too soft from being in crockpot so long? Thank you so much!!
Potatoes are not paleo!
Daaaang! This looks perfect for rainy season. Can’t wait to try it when it cools down!
Making this as we speak! I have a can of trader joe’s coconut cream, not milk. I still refrigerated it, however. About how much cream should I use? (In cups)
I have been craving this soup from Olive Garden (despite the 90 degree weather we’ve been having) and came across this recipe. I made it today and I have to say it was probably better than the Olive Garden version! Thanks for this recipe, I look forward to trying more of the recipes on your site! (Especially if they satisfy my pregnancy cravings like this one did!)
I’m going to try this tonight just cooking it up in a bot, not doing the slow cooker. Can’t wait!
My daughter sent me this link and I made it last night. I didn’t have an kale, but I had baby spinach, and made the sausage with ground turkey. This dish is absolutely delicious! Thank you so much!!!!