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This rich and hearty Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana is comfort food at its best. It’s loaded with potatoes, sausage, onion, garlic, kale and a splash of cream. It is truly satisfying and irresistible.
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It has become one of our favorite soups on cold winter days. Scratch that. I made it even last summer. It’s so easy and perfect for busy days year round.
This Italian Sausage and Potato Soup has only 5 main ingredients, prep work is minimal and it takes only 10 minutes to cook in the Instant Pot after it comes to pressure. I am sure you will love it too.
Even my father-in-law said that it tastes much better than the Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana.
It’s one of the easiest recipes to make in the Instant Pot (after these Instant Pot hard boiled eggs) and is packed with so much flavor!
Italian Sausage Potato Soup
Zuppa Toscana means soup of Tuscany or soup in the style of Tuscany. This so-simple rendition is cooked to perfection in your own kitchen on the counter using the Instant Pot. You don’t have to venture to Italy to try this flavorful soup. 🙂 This potato and sausage soup makes it easy to bring the taste of Tuscany home.
Tips For Making The Best Zuppa Toscana Soup
- Saute the sausage and the onion for a couple of minutes. You can saute them while you still prep the rest of your ingredients. It literally takes you no time but adds so much flavor.
- Use Idaho or Russet potatoes. They are more starchy, creamy and fluffy, making them great for soups and will make the soup more creamy. Check out this guide on potatoes and their best uses.
- When adding the heavy cream at the end, first add a little bit of the hot broth in a bowl, and then slowly whisk in the cream. This should prevent the cold dairy from reacting badly to the hot stock.
- Add chopped kale at the end, just before serving. Kale cooks very fast, and it’s not necessary that you cook it for so long with the rest of the harder vegetables. Otherwise, it will result in a wilted kale that nobody wants to eat. Adding the kale at the end will preserve its freshness, color, and nutrients.
Healthy Zuppa Toscana (Paleo, Whole 30 and Dairy-Free)
Zuppa Toscana is naturally a gluten-free and grain-free soup. It’s loaded with delicious and nutritious vegetables, and it’s healthy.
If you would like to make it even healthier, you could use turkey sausage instead of pork sausage.
Also, for a dairy-free Zuppa Toscana, you could substitute the heavy cream with coconut cream/milk. Make sure that your can of coconut milk is refrigerated and use only the solid white cream from the can.
For a Paleo and Whole 30 Zuppa Toscana, substitute the potatoes with chopped cauliflower florets.
For those of you that count calories, the Zuppa Toscana recipe has 428 calories per serving.
Can You Freeze This Zuppa Toscana Soup
Yes, you can freeze this Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana Soup. The potatoes might be a little bit broken up and creamy when you thaw the soup but it would still taste great! Omit the cream and kale when freezing. Add it to the soup after you reheat it before serving.
How To Make Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana Recipe
Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana
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INGREDIENTS
- 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 lb mild or spicy Italian ground sausage, *
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 cups peeled and chopped potatoes, **
- 32 oz vegetable stock
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1/2 cup heavy cream (or coconut cream for Paleo), ***
- 2 cup chopped kale
- cooked bacon bits, (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS
Instant Pot Instructions
- Press the ‘Saute’ button, and add the olive oil. When the pot is hot, add the ground sausage and brown it until no longer pink, about 3 minutes.
- Add onion and garlic and saute for another 3 minutes. Add potatoes, vegetable stock, and oregano and season with salt and pepper. Stir everything.
- Lock the lid and turn the valve to ‘Sealing’. Press the ‘Manual’ or ‘Pressure Cook’ button and adjust for 10 minutes, pressure set to ‘High’. When the cook time is over, turn off the Instant Pot by pressing the ‘Turn Off’ button. Carefully quick release the pressure with a wooden spatula by turning the valve to releasing. Make sure you don’t hurt your hands from the steam.
- Once the steam is completely gone and the metal pin on the lid drops, carefully open the lid and add heavy cream, the chopped kale and coked bacon bits (optional) to the pot. Stir everything, and serve warm.
Stovetop Instructions
- In a large pot over medium heat, cook sausage, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until browned and no longer pink, 5 to 7 minutes.
- Add onion to pot and let cook until soft, 2-3 minutes, then add garlic and cook until fragrant, 1 minute more. Season with salt, pepper and oregano. Add vegetable stock and potatoes and cook over medium heat, until potatoes are tender, 23 to 25 minutes.
- Stir in kale and let cook until leaves are tender and bright green, 1-2 minutes, then stir in heavy cream and simmer 2 minutes more.
- Season with pepper, and serve.
TIPS & NOTES
Freezer Instructions
This soup freezes well, just omit the cream and the kale when freezing. Add them to the soup when you reheat it before serving.NUTRITION
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I’ve made this soup several times and the whole family loves it!! I think it’s better than Olive Garden
I like this soup at Olive Garden but it’s just a little too spicy for me.
This recipe turned out great! I used mild turkey sausage and added a dash of hot sauce to jazz it up. My husband loved it.
So glad to hear that you and your husband loved it!
We love this soup! It’s in our regular rotation now. 🙂
I love this recipe, thanks for sharing. I’m going to make it again but wanted to know what you thought about small red potatoes instead of cutting the russet.
Yes, you can use red potatoes but I would recommend increasing the time to about 12 minutes (depending on their size) since they are bigger than the pieces of chopped russet potatoes. Also, russet potatoes release their starch and break down a little bit when cooking which makes the soup creamier. Red potatoes have less starch and the soup won’t be as creamy. You can also cut the red potatoes in half to make them similar in size to the chopped russet potatoes. I am sure it will still taste very delicious even with red potatoes. 🙂
Our family LOVES this soup. I make a few moderations: I use chicken broth instead of veggie. And I use coconut milk instead of heavy whipping cream or even coconut cream. And lastly, we leave out the bacon. It’s a staple in our home during the cold season, sometimes making it once a week. Thank you for the amazing recipe!
Great recipe. Very easy to make. Came together exactly like you said. I used chicken stock and extra garlick but that was to my taste. Added the kale just before serving, didn’t wilt down quite as much as your photo but still was outstanding.
So, glad you loved the recipe! It’s one of our favorite Fall soups at home. 🙂
This was ridiculously easy and delicious!! I highly recommend it 😊
Yay!! So glad you loved it, Erin! 🙂
I’ll be using cauliflower instead of potatoes, do you know the time I should set it for?
Since the sausage has to cook as well, I would suggest about 5 minutes. Hope you enjoy it!
Could I sub half and half for the heavy cream? If so, do I need to add butter to it to up the fat content?
Hi Sarah,
yes, you can use half and half. I don’t think you necessarily need to add butter to it but you can taste it and see if it needs butter or not. I think it will taste great even without butter. 🙂
Hope you enjoy it!
This soup is delicious but the cook time was too long and the potatoes turned to mush! I don’t know if I cut them too small or what but next time I think I will only pressure cook for 5 minutes instead of 10.
Just made this tonight and my husband and I loved it! We’d never had this soup before so we were pleasantly surprised. Sharing this with our Italian neighbor to see what he thinks as well. The only change I made was using baby spinach instead of kale. Will make this again!
Do you have to peel the potatoes? I prefer to leave the skins on whenever possible. Just got my instant pot for Christmas. Still learning and not sure if the skin would make a difference?
I would peel the potatoes but I know some people don’t, and the soup still turns out great! You can try it both ways and see which one you prefer better. Hope you enjoy it!
Could you use spinach instead of kale? How would that change the taste?
yes, you can use spinach. It will taste just as good. Hope you enjoy the soup!
I haven’t tried it yet… but I’m doing the dairy free version and I also used a six court instant pot! The ingredients all fit and it didnt reach the max fill line, the only thing was it took along time to begin the pressure cook timer!
We substituted beef for spicy chicken sausage, and we left out the kale, but beyond that, stuck to the recipe. Literally, so good! Simple and tasty.
Awesome! I used ground grass fed beef!
Might want to edit:
coked bacon bits…. haha.
Thank you!! Fixed it 🙂
This soup is delicious! Even better than Olive Gardens. One of our family favorites!
Currently cooking this and there’s this weird orangish foam forming on top. It also looks like the soup is going to be way to greasy to eat. Kind of disappointed. I would suggest draining the fat from the sausage.
I never have that much grease on top. It depends on the kind of sausage you use, it looks like yours was more greasy than usual. Hope you enjoyed the recipe.
Wow. Very easy. I used the instant pot directions. I also switched out the pork for Trader Joe’s Sweet Italian sausage links, sliced open the links and cooked ground style.
I could not believe the flavor and simplicity at the same time. Oh, also used an entire bunch of kale not just the two cups as called for. Thank you for this recipe. I will be trying others from you too.
I meant to say Chicken sausage from Trader Joe’s 🤦🏻♀️
Awesome! So glad you liked it! And yes, simple ingredients but so much flavor!! I think you will enjoy the other IP recipes as well!!
Hi, thanks for sharing this recipe! I wonder if it will freeze well. Any thoughts?
Yes, I think it will freeze well. The potatoes might be a little bit broken up, but it would still taste great. Just omit the cream & kale when freezing. Add them when you reheat the soup. Hope you enjoy it!