Zuppa Toscana, as made popular by Olive Garden. If you’ve gotten past three baskets of breadsticks and successfully made it to your entree, this one is for you.

As always, if you dig this recipe, tag me at @draggedthroughthegarden on instagram and and harass me into a copycat Olive Garden breadstick recipe. It’s not gonna happen, you can’t beat perfection.

Vegan Zuppa Toscana. When you’re there, you’re family. When you’re here, you’re as lonely as I am.

VEGAN ZUPPA TOSCANA

prep time: 15 minutes
cook time: 45 minutes

Zoopa Doopa.

This soup is fairly easy to throw together. The basic idea is cooking vegan sausage & bacon, building a soup base, adding peeled potatoes and kale. And then cream. There’s a bay leaf in there somewhere.

FIRST!

You’re going to peel your potatoes and get some oil in a pot for your sausages to bathe in. Then you’re going to dice up an onion and some garlic.

What you’ll need:

potatoes (modest sized, not too small or large)
garlic
onion (white or vidalia…or yellow I guess)
olive oil
vegan sausage
salt
pepper
dried oregano
dried fennel
red pepper flakes
vegan butter

I’ll mince the garlic in a minute, gosh.

As stated, mince your garlic and chop your onion up. Peel about 7-8 medium-sized potatoes and chop them up into chunks.

I’ll cut the potatoes in a second, gosh.

Now that you have that stuff prepped, add a nice splash of oil to your pot and throw your sausages in there. Let them cook for a few on each side. Break them up with a spoon and the casing should pop right off. Grab those with tongs and get em outta here.

I’ve seen pictures far more unassuming than this one.

When your sausage is all broken apart and without casing, add a pinch of salt & pepper. Then add a tablespoon of dried fennel, a tablespoon of dried oregano and as much red pepper flakes as you desire.

You can add more fennel if you like, OH!

After your sausage mess is cooked out, pull them outta there and put in a separate bowl. They will 100% be super greasy so get some of that out of the pan before you proceed. Leave a little though to cook the bacon in. If the bowl of sausage you set aside is also extra greasy, strain some of that out too so your final product doesn’t have a floating layer of oil on the surface. It’ll taste fine, it just looks kinda gross. The sausage will be reintroduced to the mix later.

This is a terrible picture but my hands were greasy.

Now with the drop of fat/grease you did leave in the pot, add your vegan bacon. Doctor these up with the aforementioned seasonings as well. If it needs a little extra oil, go on and add a little extra oil.

As you can see I didn’t get all of the sausage out. I’m not perfect.

Cook out the bacon on both sides and then transfer to a plate with a paper towel on it. These will be added later.

Now add your diced onion into the pan with a small dollop of vegan butter. Give them a stir and then add your garlic in as well. This will function as the base of your soup. Throw some salt in there and let everything cook out.

Make sure you have smell-o-vision enabled in your browser.

Now that your nostrils are singing, it’s time to make soup

What you’ll need:

vegetable broth (64 oz…or less if you want. There will be leftovers.)
water
salt
pepper
bay leaves
kale
vegan creamer
red pepper flakes
your chopped up potatoes
the sausage and bacon from earlier too

Add your 64 ounces of veggie broth into the pot along with 16 ounces of water. Give this a stir. Toss a bay leaf or two in there. Bring it up to a boil. When you have a boil, add your potatoes and partially cover your pot. Don’t cover it all the way.

Allow your potatoes to cook until they are…al dente. If you overcook them, you will have mush soup. Check on them in about 10 minutes. If they are still too hard, it’s cool because you still have other stuff to add.

Make sure you rinse your kale and toss that in there next.

I don’t mind the stems. Pull them out if you want.

Check your potatoes again and if you can pierce it with a fork without it falling apart completely, you are doing great. Next you’re going to add all of your sausage mess into the pot. Bring your soup down from a boil to a simmer.

Now you have a soup. Let it cook out for a minute and taste for salt & pepper additions. I added more red pepper flakes too. Once it’s seasoned to your liking, add a half cup of vegan creamer into the mix. Give that a stir. Then add another half cup of vegan creamer and your soup should have a nice beige color going on.

Ladle your new creation into a bowl and add your vegan bacon right on top of your individual serving. Crack some black pepper on there too.

I hope this soup was enough to make you forget about breadsticks for a minute. If you must, place an order at Olive Garden for breadsticks and eat them with this soup. Cook this, tag me @draggedthroughthegarden and share it with a friend. When you’re here, you’re friend.