I also use two rolls of Hot Jimmy Dean Sausage and add to the broth. I cook 8 pieces of bacon, crumble the bacon and add it to the broth. I also use small red potatoes and cut them in 3 to 4 pieces and cook them in a separate pot until slightly cooked because I don’t want all the extra starch. I add shredded carrots (some people prefer large cuts of carrots but I don’t).
Then I pour in 3 to 4 large box containers of low sodium chicken broth and 2 cups of water (you can add more if you want, you can learn with each pot you make the way you like it best). I use a whole onion chopped, minced garlic, saute in olive oil in large pot. I make a large pot because the family eats more than one bowl. I have been making Tuscan Soup for years. It comes in a jar and is kind of a powder. They make beef, ham and vegetable soup base too. I use chicken soup base which is way cheaper but tastes awesome. Here is something I want to share… I’m not fond of chicken bouillon cubes and canned or boxed broth is way too expensive. My husband likes thick soup so I add boxed mashed potatoes to thicken. Brown the sausage (I do two pounds but that is not necessary), Remove sausage, drain most of the grease off and add the veggies, saute a bit, put the sausage in the pot, add the chicken broth and then add the potatoes and chopped kale – six cups or more, it is strange but you cannot taste the kale so you have a bit healthier soup. I love this soup and if you don’t change a thing I think you will still love it.īecause I can’t ever leave well enough alone, here are some changes you can consider to have an alternate soup: to the chopped onion, add three stalks of chopped celery and three chopped carrots. Next time I’ll sub the heavy cream for half and half as others suggested to lighten it up, but I have no doubt it will still be outstanding! We were eating it as our entire meal (in normal size soup bowls), no other sides, so maybe that made a difference? If you were serving it with a hearty salad and bread then maybe you could get away with 8 servings for the total recipe, but if you’re eating it as your entire meal, you’ll likely only get 5-6 servings out of the whole recipe. Not only did I have to add an additional 1.5 cups of broth to be able to cook the potatoes uncovered, but even then, it only came out to make 3 servings total for us. Since I was only cooking for two, I halved the recipe to get 4 servings (yes, I even used 1.5 russet potatoes…not sure what I’m going to do with that other half of a potato…). And you can’t forget that heavenly crunchy, crumbled bacon on top! I had about 2 servings more than I should have but I honestly could not stop eating this until it was all gone!Īnd really, the only complaint about this soup is that I didn’t make enough! Jason took the leftovers to school but I’m slowly realizing that I should’ve hid it from him and kept it for myself!įirst and foremost, this soup is DELICIOUS! Having said that, I would caution others to think carefully about the broth to potato ratio and the serving size. The soup was incredibly creamy with chunks of spicy Italian sausage and potato bites that just crumbled in your mouth. And you know what? It was unbelievably 100 times better than what I had imagined.
Now it’s been years since my last visit to Olive Garden but when I saw Recipe Critic‘s copycat recipe for this soup, I immediately ran to the grocery store so that I could recreate it. I never really knew what was in it but all I could remember was slurping it nonstop, downing that creamy goodness like it was water.
Not to mention their warm breadsticks that I would obviously get too full off of before the main dish even came out.Īnother favorite of mine from Olive Garden was their soup, particularly their zuppa toscana. See, my mother made Korean food every single night of the week, and as grateful as I was, I was still incredibly excited to skip over the rice and Korean stew for a huge plate of fettuccine alfredo from the kid’s menu. I absolutely loved going to Olive Garden as a kid. This copycat recipe is budget-friendly, incredibly easy to make, and tastes a million times better than the original!