This easy Zuppa Toscana copycat recipe will let you enjoy the flavors of the Olive Garden from the comfort of your own home! Place everything in the crock pot and then relax until dinner is ready!
A few of our other favorite copycat recipes are these Cinnabon Cinnamon Rolls, Hostess Cupcakes and Chick-Fil-A’s Frozen Lemonade.
The Best Copycat Soup
I LOVE a good restaurant copycat recipe, don’t you? When my husband and I go out to eat at Olive Garden, Zuppa Toscana is one of my favorite things to order! I think it is easily the best soup you can order at Olive Garden. In case you were wondering, Zuppa Toscana means “Tuscan soup” in English. Now you can share that fun fact with your friends the next time you’re out to dinner.
Since we have 5 little ones at home and going out to eat doesn’t happen as often as I would like it to, I decided to find another way to get my fix for this delicious soup. This homemade copycat soup recipe is PERFECT! It tastes exactly like the soup from Olive Garden, but we get to enjoy it from the comfort of our own home. As an added bonus, our house smells amazing all day while it cooks in the slow cooker!
How To Make Zuppa Toscana Soup
Prep The Sausage – Using a large skillet, you’ll want to brown the sausage over medium heat so it doesn’t cook too quickly. You’ll also want to stir it frequently to keep it from burning.
Prep The Veggies – While the sausage is browning, cut the potatoes into bite-size pieces. You’ll need to chop the onion and mince the garlic as well.
Combine & Cook – Pour the sausage, vegetables, and the remaining ingredients (except the whipping cream and kale) into the crock pot. Cook everything on the low setting for about 4-6 hours. Once the potatoes are hot and tender, the soup will be ready to serve.
Finishing Touches – Before serving the Zuppa Toscana, mix in the heavy whipping cream. Garnish the soup with kale leaves and then serve nice and hot. This soup is extra delicious when served with our homemade 30-minute breadsticks!
Storage & Freezing
Storage – Once you’re done enjoying your Zuppa Toscana you can store it in the refrigerator for about 4 days. My husband likes to take some of the leftovers to work so I’ll pour some into a couple of deli containers to make it easier to grab in the morning.
Freezing – Yes, you can definitely freeze this soup recipe. Allow the soup to completely cool before placing the extras into a freezer-safe soup container. The soup can be store in the freezer for about 2-3 months. When you’re ready to eat it, thaw it out in the refrigerator the night before and then warm it up on the stovetop until it’s heated throughout.
More Easy Crock Pot Soups
- Slow Cooker Taco Soup
- Crock Pot Cheeseburger Soup
- Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup
- Crock Pot Lentil Soup
- Homemade Split Pea Soup Recipe
Leave us a comment below and let us know how close you think this copycat recipe is to the Zuppa Toscana you get at Olive Garden. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media so you can stay up to date on all of our latest recipes.
Zuppa Toscana Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 lb mild Italian sausage
- 2 large potatoes, cut in half lengthwise, and then cut into 1/4" slices
- 3/4 cup onion, diced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons chicken base
- 1 quart water
- 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 cups kale leaves, broken into bite sized pieces
Instructions
- Brown Italian sausage in large skillet over medium heat, stirring often to prevent burning, until cooked through.
- While meat is browning, cut up potatoes, onions and garlic.
- Add all ingredients except heavy whipping cream and kale to crock pot and set to low.
- Allow to cook on low for 4-6 hours until potatoes are tender.
- Add heavy whipping cream and garnish with kale.
Nutrition
Other Notes
I make this all the time. It has been in my repertoire for about 1.5 years. My daughter loves Zuppa and I was invited to a soup party so I decided to try this. Everyone raves about how good it was! And my family asks for it about once every month or so. I don’t use onion because no one in our family cares for onions much so I just add a tiny bit of onion powder for flavor. I also make it a little ingredient heavy. A little extra potato’s, sausage and kale. But in truth I probably just double it because I end up adding more broth as well😂. Now when we have Olive Gardens Zuppa I always think mines better. And I do NOT consider myself a good cook! This is just a great recipe!
Thanks Lauren, you’re too sweet! So glad you and your family love this recipe as much as I do. It’s one of my favorites!
This is my “go to” recipe to impress. It does it every time. Thank you so much!
I’m so glad you love it as much as I do!
When you say 2TBLS chicken base for your copycat Zuppa Tuscans do you mean
Chicken bouillon granules or chicken broth?
Chicken bouillon granules – not broth. 😉
Hope that helps!
I used chicken broth… and you said this makes a full crockpot. Mine made less than 1/2 even though I followed the directions. So I put 4 more cups of water, more cream, more garlic, oregano, basil, salt and pepper to try and fix it. Ugh!
I’m sorry Monike! I hate when recipes don’t turn out as we hoped!
are you kidding me?!?!
I was JUST thinking about this soup yesterday afternoon while grocery shopping, I knew I’d need kale, sausage and some kind of cream but couldn’t rack my mind for what else. Potatoes, of course! d this handy dandy recipe of course! Thank you for reading my mind, my tummy will thank you as well. With the cold creeping in, this recipe is going to be a winner, add some French bread and I will be in heaven.
Now you know my secret power – MIND READING! 🙂
Glad I could help! 😉
LOVE that you can do this in the slow cooker. It looks amazing!
Thanks! It’s one of my favorite soup recipes.
Thanks for sharing and being a part of the blog hop. That looks amazing!
How can I make this dairy-free? I’m lactose intolerant 🙁
This recipe is so easy and delicious! We enjoyed it so much the first time around that I made a double batch the second time. If you do this more time in the crockpot is needed -just a heads up. I added a salad with the Olive Garden dressing. We will be enjoying this all winter!
This is my FAVORITE soup at Olive Garden. I, too wanted to eat this soup any day of the week, so I tried to recreate it by memory to match up the taste, texture and look of the soup. I think the only difference is I cook the kale along with the potatoes and I use milk or lactose milk and it tastes exactly the same as the original Zuppa Toscana.