Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Crockpot Zuppa Toscana

 

I don't know about you, but I LOVE the Zuppa Toscana at Olive Garden.  I have made copycat recipes of this soup before, but none have been this easy and yummy!  I found the recipe HERE, but I made some adjustments, you can see my recipe at the bottom.  Here's how to do it:

First, prep the ingredients by browning and draining the sausage, cutting the potatoes into bite size pieces, chopping the onion, mincing the garlic, and chopping the kale.  I have the Food Chopper from Pampered Chef and it is AWESOME for chopping onion!  No tears for this girl!


Place all ingredients, except the kale and heavy whipping cream into the crock pot.  Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours.


Make sure the potatoes are soft.  If so, turn the crock pot off and add the kale.  Put the cover back on and let sit for 5 minutes.


Mix in the heavy whipping cream, stir and serve with bread sticks or fresh rolls.  Perfect soup for Fall chills, YUMMY!!!!  If you're like me and you like a little spice in your life, sprinkle in some red pepper flakes before serving.  I think next time I'm either going to get HOT sausage or sprinkle red pepper flakes in during the browning of the sausage.

NOTE: I put red pepper flakes in the soup before I refrigerated it last night.  When I heated it up for lunch today it tasted EXACTLY like the Olive Garden version!!!  Now if only I had some of their bread sticks. :)




Katie's Crock Pot Zuppa Toscana
1 lb. mild (or hot if you want it spicier) Italian ground sausage (browned and drained)
2 large baking potatoes (cut into bite size pieces)
1 small-medium onion (chopped)
1/4 cup bacon bits
3 garlic cloves (minced)
32 oz. chicken broth
2 cups water
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups kale or Swiss chard (chopped)
1 cup heavy whipping cream

1. Prep all ingredients as indicated above.
2.  Place sausage, potatoes, onion, bacon bits, garlic, chicken broth, water, and salt and pepper in crock pot (all of the ingredients except kale and cream).  Cover.
3.  Cook on high for 3-4 hours until potatoes are soft.
4.  Turn crock pot off and add the kale.
5.  Return lid and let sit for 5 minutes.
6.  Add whipping cream, mix well.  Serve with bread sticks or fresh rolls.

1 comment:

  1. Yum! This sounds really good! I use the crock pot all the time, so it's always nice to have new recipes.

    ReplyDelete