Instant Pot Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Italian Soup is better then the restaurant and on your table in less than 30 minutes. Use Radishes instead of Potatoes to make it Low Carb and Keto!
Instant Pot Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Italian Soup
Using your Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker, Instant Pot Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Italian Soup can be on your table in less than 30 minutes!
In 1990, I taught aerobics at Slimmons, Richard Simmons studio in Beverly Hills and after Sunday’s class, some of us would go to lunch and a movie or shopping. At least once a month we would land at The Olive Garden. Soup, salad and breadsticks. I always ordered minestrone and others got the Zuppa Toscana.
This recipe is like the Olive Garden Garden Zuppa Toscana on steroids!
Cast of Ingredients for Pressure Cooker Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Italian Soup
I’ve never enjoyed the food at Olive Garden, other than what I have mentioned above. Frankly, I am not sure how that chain stays in business. (OMG, did I say that?) That being said, my Instant Pot Italian Chicken Olive Garden recipe is fantastic. Clearly, because of the dressing and everyone loves an Olive Garden salad.
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Ingredients for Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana
- Bacon
- Onion
- Hot Sausage
- Garlic
- Red or Russet Potatoes
- Heavy Cream
- Chicken Broth
- Kale
The original Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Italian Soup uses mild sausage and red pepper flakes, but you can get the same effect using hot sausage only.
Sausage Cooks with Onions
There are two ways to cook the bacon.
How to Cook Bacon for Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana
- Use a Mealthy Crisplid and cook the bacon in the basket.
- The bacon can be sautéed right in the pressure cooker cooking pot.
I’ve explained both processes in detail on the recipe card below.
The original Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Italian Soup uses mild sausage and red pepper flakes, but you can get the same effect using hot sausage only.
Add UNpeeled Potatoes
Pretend the potatoes are not peeled. Just close your eyes for a second and try to get this photo out of your mind. My husband was trying to be helpful and peeled the potatoes when I wasn’t looking.
What Type of Potatoes for Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana?
- The Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Italian Soup uses unpeeled red potatoes.
- Russet potatoes are nice to use as well.
Whichever potato you choose, don’t peel off the skins. The peels give good flavor, so don’t peel them.
I think I like the Zuppa a bit better with Russet Potatoes, rather than red potatoes, but use whatever you like or have in the house.
Make Low Carb Zuppa Toscana
- Instead of potatoes use radishes instead.
- The radishes will take on the taste of the soup and have a nice texture.
Cut the Kale into a Chiffonade
After removing the veins from the kale, I like to use a cutting technique called, Chiffonade.
How to Chiffonade
- Chiffonade is a fancy French word that means made of rags.
- You roll up the leaves tightly and then and slice them lengthwise into strips.
If you don’t like kale and many people don’t, just use spinach instead. You will still get that nice and spicy yummy taste from the soup.
Add Fresh Kale after cooking
There is only a five minute cook time, but this Instant Pot Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana tastes like you have been cooking all day.
If you keep the ingredients in your freezer, you can whip up a batch on a moments notice.
If you love soup and need a very simple recipe for a delicious soup, check out my Pressure Cooker Nordstrom Tomato Basil Soup recipe.
My Pressure Cooker Seafood Corn Chowder {Shrimp Gumbo} is a meal in itself, with spices you probably already have in your pantry.
Add Cream and Simmer until Hot
Some people want to save calories and use substitutes for the heavy cream.
Lower Calorie Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana
- Turkey bacon can be used.
- Swap out the pork sausage for turkey sausage.
- Half & Half can be used in place of heavy cream.
It won’t be as satisfying, so I suggest using the full fat and having a smaller portion.
Note that if you do use Half & Half instead of heavy cream, you will want to add the Half & Half to the soup before adding the kale. Otherwise, the heavy cream will cook with the soup.
Pro Tip: Heavy cream does well under pressure and can be added to the raw ingredients. Half & Half and milk would be added after the food has finished cooking and after pressure has been released.
Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana
Don’t forget to serve with Breadsticks or a Crusty Loaf of Bread or with some Nordstrom Parmesan Garlic Crostini.
Another soup you may like is my Pressure Cooker Nordstrom Tomato Basil Soup.
Dorinda, one of the members of my This Old Gal Facebook Group, purchased my This Old Gal Pressure Cooker Cookbook and made the soup from the book. It is slightly different. Dorinda is a much better photographer than me. Plus, don’t you love the chicken hot pad?
More Instant Pot Soup Recipes to Make.
- Pressure Cooker Chicken Marsala Mushroom Soup
- Pressure Cooker Armenian Lentil Soup
- Pressure Cooker Low Carb Manhattan Clam Chowder Soup
- Pressure Cooker Chicken Jalapeno Popper Soup Low Carb
- Pressure Cooker Broccoli Cheddar Soup ~Low Carb Keto
Equipment Equipment and Essentials
- Instant Pot, Ninja Foodi or Pressure Cooker
- J.A. Henckels Classic 7-inch Hollow Edge Santoku Knife
- Amco Advanced Performance 18/10 Stainless Steel Measuring Spoons
- Simply Gourmet (Dry) Stainless Steel Measuring Cups
- Anchor Hocking Glass (Liquid) Measuring Cups
- Cilio Olivewood Spatula
- OXO Good Grips Cutting Board
- Reditainer Extreme Freezer Containers
- Freezer Labels
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Here is your handy printable recipe:
Instant Pot Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana (Italian Soup)
Print Pin Save RateIngredients
- 4 slices Bacon rough chopped
- 1 medium Yellow/Brown Onion chopped
- 1 pound Hot Italian Sausage casing removed
- 4 cloves Fresh Garlic minced
- 6.25 cups Chicken Stock/Broth (or 6.25 cups water + 2 TBL Better than Bouillon Chicken Base)
- 1 cup Heavy Cream
- 3 Large Red or Russet Potatoes UNpeeled and sliced 1/4" thick
- 2 cups Fresh Kale (Chiffonade)
Recommended Products
Instructions
- Chop bacon into 1/2 inch pieces.
Cook Bacon - Using the Crisping Lid
- Place trivet and basket inside pressure cooker cooking pot.
- Place bacon into the crisping basket. Place lid on Instant Pot and cook at 400 degrees until bacon is crisp.
- Remove bacon to paper towel lined plate and set aside.
Cook Bacon - In the Instant Pot Cooking Pot
- Select the Sauté or Browning function on your pressure cooker and allow to heat. Add bacon to the cooking pot and cook until crisp
- Remove bacon to paper towel lined plate and set aside.
Preparing the Soup
- Add onions to the cooking pot and sauté in the left behind bacon grease, for about 3 minutes.
- Add sausage, breaking up into pieces and sauté until browned, about 2 minutes.
- Add garlic to cooking pot and give it a good mix through.
- Turn off Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker.
- Add chicken broth, heavy cream and unpeeled, potato slices.
- Lock on lid and close pressure valve. Cook at high pressure (most machines default to high) for 5 minutes.
- Wash and dry kale. Roll kale up tightly from one end to the other. Using a very sharp knife, cut the kale vertically from end to end about 1/4" in between each slice. When you unroll the kale, it will be in ribbons.
- When beep sounds, wait 10 minutes and then release the rest of the pressure.
- Add kale chiffonade to the cooking pot and stir until wilted.
- Place in serving bowls and top with bacon.
Notes
Lower Calorie Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup
- Turkey bacon can be used in place or pork bacon.
- Swap out the pork sausage for turkey sausage.
- Half & Half can be used in place of heavy cream.
Low Carb and Keto Option
- Use radishes instead of potatoes.
- No one will know!
Crisping Lid - Which to Use
- Mealthy Crisplid will fit on all 6 and 8 quart pressure cookers regardless of brand.
- Instant Pot Air Fryer Lid will only fit on specific Instant Pot models, so please check my article Instant Pot Air Fryer Lid to see if this brand will fit your model.
- Each lid can be purchased from Amazon, which I have linked below.
- Mealthy CrispLid (buy from Amazon)
- Instant Pot Crisping Lid (buy from Amazon)
Nutrition
PIN this Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana Italian Soup!
Made this tonight with a couple of tweaks. Added a little celery, bit of diced green pepper. Used the multicolored mini potatoes cut in half. It was amazing! Would absolutely recommend!!!
Delicious! I was looking for a quick soup to throw together for a party. The food theme was soups so everyone brought a different kind of soup. Although there were a lot of delicious soups there, I received tons of compliments on this soup and recipe requests. So simple to put together. I used a package of ground Italian sausage (instead of sausage in the casing) as well as pre-chopped kale for juicing (it was the perfect size) which helped save even more time. I also used Yukon gold potatoes because it’s what I happened to have in the pantry and the better than boullion brand chicken base instead of chicken stock (love this stuff!). I am making it again 2 days later because we couldn’t get enough. I highly recommend using the heavy cream as well, totally worth the extra calories.
Thank you, Tina. I am glad you enjoyed the recipe. Jill
Fabulous!!!
Amazing soup! We all enjoyed it and my 1.5 year old ate a whole bowl!
I warmed the cream after reading reviews that the cream didn’t mix well and that worked perfectly.
Definitely adding this into our dinner meal rotation!
❤????
Wonderful news, Marie. I am glad this went over well with the family. Jill
Does this freeze well?
Andrea, potatoes don’t always freeze well. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Jill
I made this tonight and it tasted wonderful! My family asked if I could thicken it up a bit next time though. Have you ever done this and if so, how? Thanks!
I think adding some instant mashed potatoes would work well to thicken it a bit! Just my two cents! If you don’t like that, then maybe a slurry of cornstarch and water, added at the end? If it were me, I’d try the potatoes first.
Having issues for quantities for my little baby. Yogurt is on the top of my list to make but I have no idea as to how much milk to use.
Thinking about making this for a freezer meal for an upcoming trip. Can you freeze the soup after it’s cooked or would it be better to freeze the ingredients and then mix?
Thank you! Love your blog!
Wow, one of the best pressure cooker dishes I have had yet. Substituted pork with ground turkey and used coconut creamer as others suggested and it was easily gobbled up by the family. Thanks for sharing this great recipe.
Hi Dp~
Thanks for using my recipe. I am glad your family enjoyed their meal. Jill
Can this be doubled and still placed in the Instant Pot?
No
Made this soup recipe on Saturday before Easter Sunday. Hubs and I both loved it. He “ooohed” and “aaaahed” the whole time he was eating it…..even on his third bowl full. He said, “This is even better than Olive Garden’s Tuscana soup”. I will definitely be making this again.
Thanks for sharing this awesome recipe, Jill
Love this soup
After all the preparation it took me two hours to complete. Then I see the suggestion to prepare and freeze ingredients. This was perfect and not my husband and I enjoyed it so much! Thank you for posting!
the print button doesn’t work 🙁
This is a fantastic recipe and a family favorite. To lower the carb content, inswap out the potatoes for radishes, and my family is none the wiser. It even passed the coworker test. I also like to use turkey sausage. Sweet turkey sausage makes it more family friendly for my 3 and 6 year old.
Thank you for the idea, I will try using some sweet turkey sausage. Yum. 🙂 I have 5 kiddos. Only a couple of them like spicy stuff. I was thinking about browning some spicy sausage on the side and just add that to those who want it. I am planning on making some for my parents today. This will be the 2nd time I’ve made it. I know my father will prefer spicy lol. Hmm we’ll see. 🙂
I made this again today and subbed the potatoes for radishes. I’m pretty sure we’ll be using radishes in most recipes from now on. They tasted great and you really can’t tell the difference once they’re cooked! Thanks for this tip!
Marie, did you peel the radishes? Jill
Kendra, did you peel the radishes first? Sounds wonderful. Jill
I need your help if possible. I made this soup, used 1/2 & 1/2 for the cream and it turned out lovely. The second time, I decided to use evaporated milk because I had 12 cans on hand. The evap. Milk would not mix with the stock. No curdles, just would not blend. I thought the milk was possibly bad? It was in cans but was old. I tossed out the whole double recipe soup. So, yesterday I made the soup again using fresh cream that I had just purchased. I released the pressure and poured the cream in and again it would not blend with the soup. No curdles. Just wouldn’t blend together. When you stir, you can see part white and part yellow swirls. I checked it in the frig this morning and it is still separated. Do you know what I can do differently? This is the 2nd double batch of zuppa soup I have tossed. Thank you much.
The yellow in the soup is the fat from the sausage. It had nothing to do with the cream. You’re always going to see it because it’s impossible to get every bit of fat out before serving.
I have made this soup on the stove and felt it didn’t blend well also. It is so much better in the pressure cooker. I added the cream earlier in the process and seems to blend much better
It was the fat from the sausage. You tossed perfectly good soup!
Could I sub in baby spinach for the kale?
This looks amazing! Any idea the calorie count on this?
I made this soup today for lunch club at work and it was a HUGE HIT! I followed the recipe, but used spinach instead of kale. I’ll definitely make it again!
so…you mention keeping ingredients in the freezer so it’s easy to throw this soup together quickly. Can you explain that a little bit more? Which ingredients work well from frozen? I thought potatoes didn’t freeze well and I wouldn’t think kale would? Maybe I’m wrong. I’d love to know how you do this because that would be ideal!
Kelly, everything, but the potatoes.
Jill
Just stumbled on your site today because my daughter requested potatoes for dinner. I had cooked sausages and honey gold potatoes on hand. Browned them with Hemplers European bacon, removed them and added onions. At the end I added cream. We had it over white rice topped with bacon and sausage. Dinner in under an hour while chatting on the phone. It was delish! Can’t wait to try more recipes!