Showing posts with label soup. Show all posts
Showing posts with label soup. Show all posts

Monday, February 17, 2014

The Olive Garden's Zuppa Toscana Recipe

My Olive Garden Styled Zuppa Toscana Recipe
Zuppa Toscana from the Olive Garden is one of my favorites dishes. I enjoy preparing it fresh with Italian sausage and thick cut bacon, sliced potato and yummy green, vitamin C-rich kale.

First I cooked the sausage, drained it and set it aside. In a large stock pot I cooked the bacon until it was crisp. I removed the bacon from the pot. 


In the bacon fat I sauteed the chopped onion, garlic, and sliced potato, sliced lengthwise down the middle and then with the cut side down on the cutting board I sliced half moon slices. I sauteed the onion, garlic, and potato for about 5 minutes until the potatoes were starting to become translucent. 


Then I combined the cooked bacon, sausage, chicken broth, crushed red pepper and Italian seaoning. I brought the soup to a boil and then turned the fire down low. I let the soup simmer until the potatoes were cooked through. After 12-15 minutes I added the chopped kale and stirred in the heavy whipping cream. As always I added a dash of the wonder spice turmeric


Turmeric is an antioxidant, has anti-inflammatory qualities, reduces the risk of blood clots, slows the progression of Alzheimer's, is a natural painkiller, is beneficial to skin health, and is used as a cancer fighter.* That sounds wonderful to me! I use turmeric in just about everything that I cook.


Ingredients:


1 pound bulk mild Italian sausage
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
4 slices bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 large onion, diced
1 tablespoon minced garlic
5 (13.75 ounce) cans chicken broth
2 potatoes, thinly sliced
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups of chopped kale

*Source: Top 7 Amazing Health Benefits of Turmeric