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Trim Zuppa Toscana (S)

Gather the family around - it's soup night! Down with small portions of flavorless, diet broth. Let's eat hearty, delicious, comfort food and get our bellies filled! The Olive Garden restaurant made this soup famous. People who had previously never been kale fans suddenly changed their minds about that veggie with one slurp of this soup. There are many copycat recipe versions of the original recipe floating around cybersphere these days, but this is our trimming version - and it’s easy enough for any Drive Thru Sue! This recipe can be found on page 86 of the Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook.

Cooking Method:
Courses: , ,
Servings: 6
Description

Gather the family around - it's soup night! Down with small portions of flavorless, diet broth. Let's eat hearty, delicious, comfort food and get our bellies filled! The Olive Garden restaurant made this soup famous. People who had previously never been kale fans suddenly changed their minds about that veggie with one slurp of this soup. There are many copycat recipe versions of the original recipe floating around cybersphere these days, but this is our trimming version - and it’s easy enough for any Drive Thru Sue! This recipe can be found on page 86 of the Trim Healthy Mama Cookbook.

Ingredients
  • 2 lbs ground sausage (spicy sausage works great)
  • 1 large onion (diced) (or 1.5 cups Seasoning Blend: onions, celery, peppers)
  • 2 Tbs butter
  • 64 oz chicken broth (2 quarts)
  • 2 cups water
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 32 oz frozen cauliflower (2 - 16 oz bags)
  • 2 cups frozen okra (diced)
  • 6 cups kale (fresh, or fresh spinach)
  • 1 3/4 tsp TH Mineral Salt
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • 1/4 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1 handful bacon (1 or 2 handfuls, crumbled)
Instructions
  1. 1
    Brown the sausage with the onion (or seasoning blend) and butter in a large soup pot. Once the sausage is cooked through, transfer the meat and veggies to a bowl and set aside.
  2. 2
    Pour the broth, water, and cream into the soup pot. Add the cauliflower and okra, cover the pot, turn the heat to high, and bring to a quick boil. Turn the heat down and simmer the veggies until tender (takes just a few minutes).
  3. 3
    Using a slotted spoon, transfer about half the cauliflower and all the okra to a blender. Add 1 cup of the soup broth to the blender. Blend until smooth, then return the puree to the pot and stir to incorporate.
  4. 4
    Return the sausage and sautéed veggies to the soup pot as well, then add the kale, seasonings, and bacon crumbles (if using), then simmer the soup for another 15 or so minutes. Taste and adjust the seasonings to “own it.”
Note

his soup is a solid S, but thankfully it’s not ridiculously loaded with abusive amounts of heavy cream – just enough to give a delicious and satisfying mouth feel when blended with the cauliflower and okra. You won’t miss the potatoes that were in the Olive Garden original - we've subbed those out with cauliflower florets . We’ve heard of people using water chestnuts or radishes as optional S potato subs, so you can have fun experimenting with those, but we are very happy with our cauli. We use venison sausage since we have plenty of that in our freezers - thanks to the hunters in our families, but feel free to enjoy this with pork, turkey, beef, or chicken sausage.

Read it online: https://trimhealthymama.com/recipe/trim-zuppa-toscana-s/