Olive Garden eat your heart out – it’s Slow Cooker Zuppa Toscana Soup for supper!
Winter seems like a soup fest! If I have a fire burning in the kitchen wood stove, I will leave pot of soup simmering on it. But even in the winter, I don’t always have the time to babysit the kitchen woodstove so I rely on my slow cooker. Crock pot cookin’ is a favorite of mine year-round. And I love it for soups – soups are so good when they have been slow cooking all day. It gives the flavors a chance to blend together – a sort of marriage of flavors.
Those words Bill loves to hear ….”It’s Zuppa for Suppa’!”
When we go to the Olive Garden, Bill’s all time favorite soup is their Zuppa Toscana! It’s almost embarassing that he will have at least two bowls of it. So on one visit to the Olive Garden I took out my pocket notebook, sat at our table with my own bowl and started making notes so I could start making it for him at home. It is really an easy soup to make and is even better when cooked all day in the slow cooker. Although I can’t make a claim that it’s healthy (would be a stretch with sausage and cream as ingredients) the kale does add a healthy note to it!
Soups are perfect for a slow cooker!
Soups are absolutely perfection when they simmer all day allowing flavors to blend together so they are the perfect meal to cook in a slow cooker aka crockpot. Here on The Wilderness Wife we have quite a few slowcooker/crockpot soup recipes that you might enjoy.
Slow Cooker Curried Carrot Soup
Slow Cooker Mushroom Barley Soup
Slow Cooker Beef Curry Soup Recipe
PrintSlow Cooker Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup
This delicious soup is my husband’s favorite when we go to the Olive Garden! I have worked at figuring it out to cook in my crock pot/slow cooker. Bill says its as good as there’s if not better. Yummy!
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 6 hours 20 mins
- Total Time: 6 hours 35 mins
- Yield: 6-8 1x
- Category: Soup
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb. bacon, diced
- l lb. Sweet Italian Ground Sausage
- 1 med. yellow onion, diced
- 2 Cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
- 4 cups Chicken Broth
- 2–3 large russet potatoes, cut into 1” cubes
- 2 cups water
- 3 cups loosely chopped kale
- Kosher salt & fresh ground pepper to taste
- 1 cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Brown bacon in large skillet till golden and crispy. Remove from skillet and place in crock pot.
- Brown sausage in same skillet. Be sure to break up large pieces. Remove from skillet and place in crock pot.
- Cook onion in same skillet till translucent then add garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Add one cup of chicken broth to deglaze the pan. Be sure to loosen all the bits of crusty goodness from the pan and pour all into crock pot.
- Add the rest of the chicken broth, the water and the potatoes to crock pot.
- Cook on low 4 hours until potatoes are tender.
- Add kale and salt and pepper to pot and cook for additional 1/2 hour.
- Add cream and allow to heat for 15 – 20 minutes.
I have always wanted to make this soup. I LOVE olive garden’s version.
I am excited to try this!
This sounds great! Thanks for linking up to Tip Me Tuesday linky party this week. {knuckle bumps}
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If you upload at least 2 images, 2 steps, and blog post URL into your Tip Junkie craft room, you’ll be in business!
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Yum! Thanks for sharing via Mommy Monday 🙂
I’ll be pinning this to our MMBH Board.
XOXO
I’ve never made this soup before. Sounds delicious. Stopping by from the All Things Pretty linkup.
My favorite soup! I’ve made it the regular way but I’m excited to try the crock pot recipe! Thanks for sharing–pinning! 😉
We have to drive two counties over to get to the nearest Olive Garden but yet those tempting commercials are always popping up all the time. It will be quite nice to be able to pull this out of the recipe box. Thanks so much for sharing. I’m visiting from the Farm Blog Hop.
Have a great weekend!
I can relate to your plight. We are 85 miles from the nearest Olive Garden in Bangor, Maine to the south of us. But we do go to Bangor a couple of times a month and the Olive Garden is always on our list of things to do! Living in such a remote area is a trade off – we give up convenience for quiet and rugged beauty, but its worth it to me.
that looks so yummy. makes me want to sit by a cozy fire and eat it up. . thanks for linking up to the all things pretty party
Sounds amazing….there is still enough cold around to make this often! Thanks for posting on the Thursday Blog Hop!
This looks so good can’t wait to try it. This has for sure been a soup winter!
This is my favorite soup!!!! I’ve never seen it made in the crockpot before, so excited! Totally pinning and making! Thanks!
Love your picture! Stopping by as co-host of Homemade link Party.
This is my favorite soup!! Thanks for sharing with us at Happiness is Homemade! Hope to see you back on Sunday!
This seriously is one of my all time fav soups!
Thanks again for joining the Link Up this week!
My hubby Bill loves this stuff! He would eat it everyday! And it is such an easy soup to make……real comfort food.
Looks tasty!! Thanks for sharing at the Happiness Is Homemade Link Party! Pinning to the party board and can’t wait to see what happiness posts you share next week! Have a terrific week!
Cathy
APeekIntoMyParadise.com
It’s absolutely addictive…..yummy!
I’ll have to try that, sounds interesting……but I do love my potatoes (I’m from Aroostook County, Maine..potato country!lol).