Sausage & Kale Soup (Copycat recipe for Olive Garden's Toscana Soup)

This soup is adapted from a copycat recipe for Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana. Something about this flavor combination just warms you from the inside out. Michael always says he wishes he could just put the broth in a mug and drink it (not that I have ever told him he couldn't). I always make a huge pot of this soup because we love to have leftovers. You can easily halve this soup if you only want to eat it, say, 2-3 times in a row :) As I made it above, it makes 8 large servings, 7 points each.

Sausage & Kale Soup

Ingredients:
- 8 c. chicken stock (2 cartons)
- 1/2 c. fat free half & half (I used to use all cream, but decided to use some half & half to cut calories)
- 1/2 c. heavy cream
- 6 small or 2 large red potatoes
- 4 c. chopped kale (1 bunch)
- 1 lb. andouille sausage (or spicy Italian)
- 1 t. salt
- 1/2 t. black pepper
- 1/4 - 1/2 t. crushed red pepper flakes

Directions:

1. In a skillet over medium-high heat, saute the sausage. You can either remove the casing and crumble the sausage, or cook in links, then cut into slices. I've tried it both ways, and they both rock!

this time, we removed the casing

and crumbled the sausage

2. In the meantime, combine chicken stock, half & half, and cream in a large soup pot over medium heat.

3. Slice the potatoes into 1/4" thick slices. Halve smaller potatoes, or quarter larger ones. Add to the soup.

4. Chop the kale and add to the soup. FYI - not all kale has the purple veins... this is an organic purple kale. I'm not partial to one or the other, this was just all they had at my store.

wash the kale - remove tough stems

roughly chop the leaves.

Don't be alarmed - it looks like a lot of kale,

but I promise it cooks down to a manageable amount of greens!

see, much better already!

5. Add sausage and spices to soup. Bring to boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

the cream will separate slightly, stir before serving

printable recipe