This is exactly like the soup at 'OG.'
EXCELLENT! My teenage son ate 4 (yes, that's a four) bowls of this for dinner tonight. Each bowl got a comment: Bowl 1) Wow Mom, that is really good! Bowl 2) Does Grammie know how to make this? (he's going to visit soon) You should teach her. Bowl 3) Mom, can we have this every night when we go skiing? Bowl 4) Man Mom, I think this is better than you and Grammie's Cheesy Potato Soup. We need to have this again. So, a success would you say? Yes, please, and thank you!
Read MoreI have never had this soup at OG so I can’t compare mine to the original. I didn’t add the hot pepper flakes as I have an issue with “spicy” but I followed the recipe and while I thought the broth was very good the kale never really seemed cooked after 15 minutes and by that time the sausage was overcooked. The recipe called for the potatoes to be “diced” but it seemed they should have been larger to add to the soup (the picture seems to show them being bigger). All in all, I think the ingredients are good but the recipe itself needs to be reworked.
Read MoreEXCELLENT! My teenage son ate 4 (yes, that's a four) bowls of this for dinner tonight. Each bowl got a comment: Bowl 1) Wow Mom, that is really good! Bowl 2) Does Grammie know how to make this? (he's going to visit soon) You should teach her. Bowl 3) Mom, can we have this every night when we go skiing? Bowl 4) Man Mom, I think this is better than you and Grammie's Cheesy Potato Soup. We need to have this again. So, a success would you say? Yes, please, and thank you!
This recipe is very similar to the others here on AR. The two changes I made was use Better than Bouillon ® instead of a bouillon cubes, and cut the water and cream in half. (I like my soups and stews chunky.) Still very good but a bit salty for my taste. I will use some chicken broth in place of some of the bouillon base next time to better control the salt level.
Great soup, but we don't go to the trouble of cooking everything separately, and made a couple of changes. We cook the bacon first, then remove it from the pot. Then add the sausage and red pepper flakes and let it cook in the bacon fat. Then we add the onions and garlic to the sausage, then we add 4 cups chicken broth instead of the water and bouillon cubes, along with the potatoes and kale, and also add a parmesan rind (MAKES IT!). Then we do the heavy cream at the end. Great base recipe, but a couple of minor changes make all the difference!
OG = Olive Garden :) It was delicious and I loved the addition of the cream! I used red potatoes because it was what I had, and they were perfect, too.
Made this last year and this year. Probably 6 times or more and my neighbors love it! I live around some 80 year old men, who wont cook for themselves. They have lost their wives. I make a bunch in the crock and freeze, give away. This is mine and my daughters fav. soup at OG. She says it taste better than theirs
this is my husbands favorite soup. i use to work at the og so i have been making this for a long time. one thing i change is i don't use bullion i use chicken base. it makes it richer and creamier.
OG uses equal parts beef and sausage. Half milk half water and I don’t remember bacon being in the OG recipe but I do love bacon half of a stick of butter. Otherwise this was a spot on recipe. This is a substantial food source. Proteins, fats and greens!!
Easy recipe. Easy to follow. I didn’t have bouillon cubes but I had leftover chicken and beef broth in the fridge, 2 cups each and the remainder I used water. I left my bacon in bigger chunks because I forgot to crumble them. Lol But hey we all need more bacon in our lives. Great recipe!
Best ever. Family favorite. I add more kale and cook it longer. Use half&half cheaper and tastes same
This is exactly how I make my Zuppa Toscana. After serving finish with fresh parmesan or Romano cheese and fresh cracked pepper. I love serving it with homemade bread also.
Universal approval from my picky eaters. The pickiest said, "I don't love the sausage, but it's good enough to eat." And that is HIGH praise. I used chicken stock instead of bouillon cubes. I think the pureed garlic is an unnecessary step unless you already have some, but I did it just in case.
It is absolutely delicious. I made it as the recipe calls for and it is my husbands favorite.
Made this tonight and it was amazing. I used Italian seasonings and sage in the sausage. I’m not an onion person so no onions. This turned out great!
I make this all the time. My daughters love this soup and my grand kids. I use red baby potatoes and add more Italian Sausage, Kale and Bacon.
Oh this is outrageously good! I also cut back on the water (6-7 cups) and used fresh spinach instead of kale and it was outstanding! Just the right amount of heat to give it a slight kick. A great addition to your soup collection, as it's a great change from the ordinary! We got four servings from this.
This soup was amazing! It was even better than Olive Garden because I controlled the amount of ingredients that went in it. Ours had lots more meat than what you get in the restaurant! It was so good I’ll be making it every week!
It was good but not great. A little bland for my taste, but my wife and daughter loved it. I did make one change, and that was spinach instead of kale. Only because my family is not a fan of kale. We are firm believers that kale is a salad bar garnish that is not to be eaten. Just our opinion, you do you.
Loved it! I'm on the Keto Diet so I just eliminated the potatoes and it still was great!
So good! Just like the restaurant. I took someone’s suggestion and did 4 cups of chicken stock and 6 cups of water versus 10 cups of water. Perfect! Making again tonight.
Just like OG Zuppa Tuscana! I followed the recipe exactly (maybe 1-2 more slices of bacon). It was AMAZING!
I've made this several times and it is always good. I really like soups in the Tuscan style and this one doesn't disappoint. I'm reviewing it now because I've strayed from the recipe and it turned out really well, so I thought I'd offer the modification. I replaced the potatoes with about a cup of lentils, the kale with about a pound of brussels sprouts, the water and bullion with homemade chicken broth, and the cream with buttermilk. I put the brussels sprouts, cleaned and halved, in on top of the onion/garlic/bacon/sausage mixture with a cup of chicken broth. I let that cook until the brussels sprouts were softened some, then added the remainder of the broth and the lentils. I boiled that at barely a boil for 20 minutes to cook the lentils then added the buttermilk. We really liked it.
Both my husband and I enjoyed this soup. The only change I made was that I decreased the red pepper flakes to 1 tsp. May even go a bit less next time. Also was considering the next time eliminating the red pepper flakes altogether and using “hot” ground sausage.
Amazing! My family doesn't like onions or kale so I left them out and only added fresh spinach to my bowl when serving. With some buttered crusty bread to dip in the soup it was delicious!
I made mine with hot Italian sausage and it was so so good! My husband thinks “it’s better than OG!”
This is our favorite soup. I took it to a potluck New Year’s Eve and it was enjoyed by all. One gal said it’s her favorite at Olive Garden & this was exactly like it. I make huge batches & freeze them in quart jars. It’s the perfect meal for my husband and me.
My husband loved it. I used chicken stock/bone broth from Costco, not water and bullion cubes, otherwise followed recipe to the letter
Love this soup! I don't eat pork, so I make my own spicy Italian sausage from ground turkey. And I leave out the bacon. I do however, use turkey bacon in recipes if I have it on hand.. I added a little shredded carrot for color too. Great soup whether you make it with make it using kale or spinage!
More red pepper flakes, also 1/2 lb Italian sausage and 1/2 lb hot Italian sausage. We make a double batch for the 2 of us, and will eat it night and day. Addictive !!!!
I half the potato’s and put in cauliflower and change the kale for fresh spinach chopped. Taste great.
Very tasty soup- quite similar to OG. I read some of the other reviews about being watery, so at the end I did a bit of french magic. I cooked everything in one pot in a different order. Fried bacon to render fat, remove from pot & set aside. Fried up hot italian sauage (I removed it from casing as we like spice), added onion, 4 cloves minced garlic. Browned up a bit. Then added qt. chicken broth (had about a cup of leftover beef broth & tossed it in ). Simmered a bit. Cut up 1 1/2 lb Yukon gold potatoes (next time I will add more) and cooked potatoes till almost done. Tossed in 4C chopped kale (how much is 1/4 bunch? ) and next time I will add more kale. Cooked till potatoes and kale done. Lowered heat and added "buerre manie" which was 3 Tbsp butter squished with 3Tbsp flour in a small prep dish until it is a thick well mixed paste. Then stirred into the simmering soup. No lumps this way and soup is not watery. Lastly added back bacon crumbled and a cup of heavy cream on low simmer to be sure it doesn't curdle. Tasted before serving to adjust salt and pepper as no way to tell how salty the broth or hot the sausage was. This is a wonderful base recipe and easy to adjust to family taste. BTW- I love this soup at OG and this is darn close.
Absolutely delicious. It makes a lot so I shared with my family. Red pepper flakes give it a good kick, if you’re not into spicy I’d cut that a bit. And I had some chicken stock left over from another recipe so I include some of that and reduced water/ bouillon cube ratio.
Made this for the first time, followed recipe as it’s written and it turned out great!! The only thing I did different was I left skin on half the potatoes and i added a little salt. My oldest daughter loves most soups and she loved it. My husband has never had kale and he loved it! Love that it’s quick and easy too. Will definitely make this again!
LOVE this recipe! I have made it several times and bring this to family members who are under the weather. The leftovers heat up just as yummy! Thank you so much for this recipe! It is a keeper!
Pretty quick and easy soup recipe and absolutely delicious. Instantly a family favorite.
Yum! I've never ordered this from OG so can't compare, but I'll take the word of some of the other reviewers that said it's spot on. I'm a spice wimp and only used 1/2 t. of pepper flakes, and might try some spinach next time in lieu of kale as others suggested. Otherwise, followed the recipe exactly. Peep_jerkey posted that it wasn't as tasty as they'd hoped, but seriously, they didn't follow the recipe at all. I think everything was pretty much substituted for something else. So unfair when somebody gives a deducted rating on a recipe when they're actually rating their own failed recipe.
I’ve made this several times and it’s always a big hit. So good my kids even eat the kale.
Over the top delicious. Both healthy and tasty. Win. Win.
I replaced the potatoes with cauliflower, 2 cloves of fresh minced garlic rather than puree and hot Italian sausage. It was delicious and so easy to make.
I have never had this soup at OG so I can’t compare mine to the original. I didn’t add the hot pepper flakes as I have an issue with “spicy” but I followed the recipe and while I thought the broth was very good the kale never really seemed cooked after 15 minutes and by that time the sausage was overcooked. The recipe called for the potatoes to be “diced” but it seemed they should have been larger to add to the soup (the picture seems to show them being bigger). All in all, I think the ingredients are good but the recipe itself needs to be reworked.
I added fennel to the sausage as I browned it for additional flavor. Also suggest cubing bacon frozen before cooking i.e. easier to cut up. I used cracked pepper bacon to add flavor. Would also suggest cooking bacon separately to render it crispy and to avoid burning the garlic. Did not have any heavy whipping cream on hand, so I substituted with regular milk. Worked just as well. "OMG" OG Good!
This was a wonderful recipe tastes great easy to make. I halved the amount of red pepper flakes ( due to a spice sensitivity) and i used a regular almond milk all I had for non dairy cream.
I used mostly chicken stock rather than water. I also used spicy italian sausage and left out the pepper flakes. I am not a fan of Kale so I used swiss chard instead. With these few changes the soup turned out very good.
I cut 2 cups of water and the equivalent amount of bouillon cubes out. It was perfect, just like the restaurant version.
It's very good, but felt like it needed more salt or bouillion. Instead of using the pepper flakes I used spicy Italian sausage because we love Italian sausage. If you are in a hurry I would have the potatoes cooking in one pan and the sausage and or bacon/onions cooking in another pan so that you don't have to wait on the potatoes.
Didn't have cream so used whole milk, other wise followed recipe and it was delicious! However it is too salty for my low salt diet, so next time I will use reduced sodium broth, and also will check to see if I can find reduced sodium bacon and sausage.
my husband loved it, will make it again. 10 cups of water was too much, I put 8. Delicious soup
I used 2 boxes of chicken stock rather than the water and bouillon as I had them on hand. Turned out great, and was a huge hit with everyone who tried it. I will definitely be making again.
I made this and it was a big hit. I did add more of the heavy cream than the recipe called for to give it a more creamy flavor which my family prefers. Will be definitely making it again and again.
This is a new hit with my family. After prep it is dead easy to make. I have moved far from any OG locations and it’s been a decade since I’ve had it, this literally flew me back into time, awaking memories with old friends who we used to go with for their all you can eat soup/salad deal. This is a new favourite go to soup.
Just like the OG! This recipe will be used again! I did alter the recipe. I used 4 cups low sodium chicken stock and 1 cup water instead of water and bullion. Used 1/2 lbs ground beef and 1/2 lbs ground italian sausage instead of 1 lbs beef. 5 strips bacon instead of suggested amount. I did 6 russet potatoes but will use 4 next time. 1/2 bunch of kale instead of 1/4. I used the same pot to cook everything. Covered pan when cooking potatoes. Did not change temperature on stove from medium heat during the whole cooking process. Added salt at the end and sprinkled more pepper flakes (I like the kick).
We love this soup. One of our favorites. My husband keep telling me as he’s eating it, “this is REALLY good honey!” The only change I made was to thicken it a little at the end by stirring in about a half a cup of dry potato flakes.
Wow! Delicious. I made the recipe as directed except... I used 8 cups of chicken stock, unsalted. We loved it! I do wish it was a littthicker
In an effort to get more veggies into my family, I added extra spinach and kale. I also added a red bell pepper and 3 stalks of celery. Left out the bacon because it bothers one of my guys. I cooked it all day on simmer and added the cream just before serving. Guys loved it! Oh, and I put the pepper flakes as an individual add in at the table. One of us doesn't like spicy!
My neighbor used to make her version and I loved it so I came across this recipe and wanted to give it a try. I followed the recipe exactly. It turned out really good but next time I would not add so many red pepper flakes, especially if you are feeding children. Also I would add a few more potatoes. I had leftover soup without potatoes. Overall it was very tasty. Thanks!
Super delicious! Will make again! Made for the first time exactly as written as a double batch and my husband and daughter loved it!!
Excellent soup, will certainly make again!! The only thing I changed was not using the red pepper flakes, as my wife thinks anything like that is unbearable hot! I did add my own flakes to the soup. Very good, very good!
This recipe tops our local Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana!! I double or triple this recipe and there's plenty of meat and veggies with this recipe (unlike OG), and we prefer whipping cream over 1/2 & 1/2.
I made this today. Exactly by the recipe. Perfect! Next time I will start the bacon before adding the onion, the onion got crispy before the bacon. This is so good!
SO GOOD! Hubby thinks this is better than OG's. The leftovers are fantastic as well. Great for entertaining as a side dish. Also great for a nice rainy day. Usually make for the week but disappears in a couple days. Always a crowd pleaser.
Great recipe!! Tastes just like the OG soup. Do not have a heavy hand on the red pepper flakes if spicy is not what you want. Will make this one again. I used half & half instead of whipping cream.
I use mild sausage and less red pepper (1/2 tsp). I use baby spinach rather than kale. I brown the potato cubes. It is better than the restaurant item.
Loved it! I'm on the Keto Diet so I just eliminated the potatoes and it still was great!
It was delicious, the only substitute I made was using (hot) ground italian sausage, everything else was on target. This was so quick and easy, I will make this again and again.
Excellent. My husband and I loved it. I used chicken broth instead of the cubes I will definitely make this again!
This is wonderful. Tastes just like the soup at Olive Garden. My roommate loved it too. Next time I will add more potatoes.
I combined parts of this recipe with parts from the Pioneer Woman recipe. I made my own chicken broth with better than boullion. I used 2 cups of that broth, 1 cup of heavy whipping cream and 3 cups of skim milk to cut the calories a bit. I did use the turkey bacon but I made it ahead of time and mixed it in with the sausage, onion, garlic. I added dried oregano and black pepper to taste. Always a pinch of salt here and there. I did use the russet potatoes but I sliced them rather than in chunks. This taste IDENTICAL to the original thing!! My husband was very impressed as this is his favorite soup!!
I've made this several times for family and dinner guests. It is a hit every time. I follow the recipe step by step. Never been disappointed with it.
This was delicious. Good recipe...easy to follow. I substituted the kale with spinach, only because I didn't have kale. I wilted the spinach in the soup just prior to serving.
Delicious, hearty soup; it is very much like the commercial version and is wonderful for a meal. Mine was served with brown bread and cheese and was a huge hit. I did alter the recipe somewhat, in the way of ingredient modification, but method remained the same. Rather than heavy cream, half and half was used; fresh kale and fresh white mushrooms made a great addition. Definitely a keeper.
I used spinach instead of kale. Next time I will add more potatoes and more bacon. However, as is, is awesome.
Wonderful soup. No bacon; I figured the sausage would be enough and it was. I used prepared chicken stock instead of buillion (?). JUST like OG Toscano soup. I even put less kale in as I don't care for it but it boils down to nothing, Also thickened by adding a tbsp of flour to the sausage while cooking to make a light roux. Loved it!
OMG! This was literally and figuratively gob-smacking! Delicious, hearty and the just the ticket for pandemic stay at home cooking. This is a keeper and will be made several times a month.
