Creamy Tuscan Soup

My husband's favorite restaurant (until a couple years ago) had always been the Olive Garden. Any place that will let him have unlimited soup, especially Zuppa Toscana, was alright by him. Now, we don't really visit the OG anymore. But we do make ourselves some healthy soup, similar to the Tuscan sausage potato soup you get from there.

This recipe has many substitute options:

• You can go for red potatoes or yucca root, or you can even replace those with cauliflower, turnips, rutabega- all good choices for the "starch" part of this soup.
  
• Sometimes I even sub turkey bacon for the turkey sausage, just make sure to cook it until very crispy.
  
• For the greens, if you're not a huge kale fan, you can substitute spinach or another milder flavored green, like chard. Any variety of kale will do, but I recommend Tuscano Kale if you can find it. We get ours from a local farm.
• This creamy Tuscan soup is a great use for my Basic Broth, found here. But you can sub store bought broth as well, and for a meatier flavor a Chicken or Beef broth would be nice- just be sure to buy low sodium!
  

Creamy Tuscan Soup

Dairy-free and Gluten-free
Makes about 4 quarts of soupIngredients

• 2 Tbsp grapeseed oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 5 medium to large cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 pounds ground turkey sausage, spicy if the have it (if not, then add 1 tsp of crushed red pepper flakes and 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper in when you brown the meat)
• 1 tsp dried Herbs de Provence, or 1/4 tsp each of rosemary, basil, thyme, and oregano
• 2 quarts of broth
• 2 large yucca root, peeled and chopped into quarter-sized pieces (or 8-10 small red potatoes, 1 head cauliflower [nice for lower carb version], 2 large turnips, or 2 rutabagas)
• 1 can full fat coconut milk (I use Thai Kitchen brand- any quality brand will do, but the lower cost brands usually separate when heated)
  
• 4 cups of loosely chopped Tuscano Kale
  
• sea salt to taste if needed

Method

• Heat the oil in a large stock pot.
• Saute the onion for about 5 minutes until softened, then throw in the garlic and saute for another 2-3 minutes being sure not to brown.
• Add the sausage to the pot and brown (be sure to add the red pepper and cayenne here if you bought regular turkey sausage).
• Once the meat has fully browned, add the broth to the pot and yucca root (or other root vegetable or cauliflower if using).
• Bring to a boil, then turn down to low heat and simmer, uncovered, until the yucca root are tender.
• Once yucca is fork tender, add the coconut milk and kale (or other green of choice) to the pot and simmer another 5 minutes more. Taste for saltiness and add extra sea salt if necessary.
  
• Serve in bowls. This will keep in the refrigerator for 5-7 days more. (Note: doesn't freeze and thaw well because of starchy vegetables.)

This post has been linked up to Sugar Free Sundays @ Flip Cookbook. Check out the other sweet and savory refined-sugar free recipes!

Happy Soup Making,
Eryn