Zuppa Toscana

This soup is probably my favorite soup. Not only is it soul nourishing and delicious, it is also:

- Gluten-free

- Grain-free

- Dairy-free

- Paleo compliant

- Can be altered to be compliant to Keto diets

This soup is like a warm hug. It is full of cubed potatoes, Italian sausage, kale, and nutritious bone broth! If you follow me on instagram, you might remember that I made a large batch of turkey bone broth after Thanksgiving. The bone broth potential is part of the reason why I purchase such a large turkey for my small family of four! I have several containers of it in the freezer, so I defrosted some to make this soup. It's been so cold here and soup just feels amazing this time of year! I am a firm believer in our body's messages to us, and this soup makes me entire body feel well and nourished!

If you don't have a stock of frozen broth, don't fret! There are several ways you can get your hands on some bone broth: store brands are packaging and selling high quality broths these days (Bonafide provisions in the freezer section, and Kettle and fire for shelf stable are wonderful); your local butcher might have some that they make; and finally your local butcher likely sells frozen bones you can buy, roast, then make a broth.

This soup looks and tastes super impressive, but it comes together very quickly and easily. Definitely weeknight meal territory here, folks! Let's get started:

I used a large Dutch oven, but a large soup pot will work as well! You want to heat that pot up, then add the ground sausage. If you cant find ground sausage, remember that you can buy raw sausage links and simply cut the ground meat out of the casings. Really break it up as it cooks, you want lots of smaller manageable bites of meat. I let this pan get way too hot and I smoked up the entire house. Hahaha. I got distracted looking for my kids' toys they lost under the couch. It's ok though, anything that slightly burns or browns to a pot adds some flavor if you deglaze it with the broth. So really, it was on purpose.

Then I added the diced onion and garlic and cooked until fragrant.

Then I added the cubed potatoes, kale, broth, and salt and pepper then allowed to simmer under a lid until potatoes were tender (about 20 minutes). Then stir in coconut cream. If you aren't familiar, coconut cream is the solid white part of coconut milk that forms when chilled. It doesn't have a coconut flavor. Also, make sure you purchase the full-fat coconut milk, otherwise there won't be much cream in your can.

Once everything is tender, remove from heat and add the red pepper flakes then the lemon juice. You don't want to cook the lemon juice, as I find it's a delicate flavor. If you cook it, the flavor goes away. Trust me, you want to taste a hint of lemon here!

If you really want to knock it out of the park, serve each bowl with a little bit of shredded parmesan and some crumbled, crispy, bacon!

Hop into the comments, or onto my instagram to tell me what you think! Happy soup season!