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!
Awesome recipe. Tried it for the first time tonight. My husband doesn’t like heat or too much spice so I used mild Italian sausage and added 3 chicken Italian spicy sausage, plus a 1/2 of Italian season. I also followed someone’s advice about thickening it a bit. Since I have an 8 qt Instant Pot, I did make a double batch. I also mixed kale with spinach and he is none the wiser. I’ll definitely be adding this to the menu. Thank you again.
I’ve found that using evaporated milk instead of cream helps save a ton of calories, too. I’ve done side-by-side comparisons of the 2 with my family and they couldn’t tell the difference!
I meant, I made. 2 different batches of soup and compared them!
I’ve never been to Olive Garden, but so many people are posting this recipe, I have to try it. lol I see you mention I can sub spinach for the kale. Since it gets added later and is just stirred in until wilted, would thawed frozen spinach work too? Fresh is so expensive this time of year.
UPDATE: I found a big bunch of fresh spinach in the grocery store, so I made this. The only other difference I made was subbed bacon bits for bacon. I know it would have been better with bacon and will be sure to have that on hand next time. Can this be frozen? I’d love to put a couple of containers away for a future treat.
Hii! Loved this recipe, thanks!! So this time i plan to make and take to a friends reunion….it’ll be a 2.5 drive. What can i do so everyone enjoys this soup to its full effect? Add kale once i get there and reheat? Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance!!
I would cook the soup once you get there. It is such a short cook time. Just have everything prepped. Jill
Hi, I tried this yesterday in a 3 qt and it turned out pretty good! To be honest, I’ve never had this soup at the Olive Garden but I know people rave about it. The heavy cream blended nicely. I didn’t have much oil to drain. I guess the sausage didn’t have much. I left it on Warm for about an hour before adding the kale, then the cream.
I had bacon bits I keep on hand for salad, so I didn’t actually cook the bacon in the pot, so I didn’t have that grease to saute the onions – I used a really good olive oil instead. I am wondering if this is the reason I had to add a little bit of Kosher salt. Thoughts?
Also, I used Russet potatoes and wondering if it’s normal for the skin to fall off after cooking? I had skin floating in the soup so I fished them out before serving. Was that wrong?
Totally normal!
Thank you MoMo!
This was so yummy!! My 16 year old daughter even asked me to make it again!
I wonder if I can use full fat unsweetened coconut milk to make this whole 30 compliant???
I am about to do just this and can tell you how it turns out! Good luck on your January whole 30!
Kelly — I’ve made this with full fat coconut milk and it was just as scrumptious!
I did and it turned out great.
Made your soup yesterday and loved it. Thank you!!!
Wow!!
Thought I had made a huge error when I used chorizo instead…but it still turned out amazing with my 2 teenage boys clearing their bowls and asking for more!
Tried this recipe tonight using my Instant Pot for the first time. My mom LOVED it. Chose this recipe because it seemed easy enough to follow, simple ingredients and my mom happens to be a fan of Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana soup. 🙂 Wish I could attach a photo!
Wonderful, Liz. Jill
How do I cook it if it double the recipe?
Thank you for sharing this recipe! My family loved it and it was very easy to follow your directions. I read a few reviews about the soup being yellow. I just skimmed off the oil leftover from the sausage and then added the cream. It turned out beautiful. Thanks again!
Glad you enjoyed. Jill
Hi! We loooove this recipe. If I make half the amount, how does the timing change?
The cook time is the same. Jill
I’m an IP Newbie and made this soup for my first IP meal (after the water test and one hard boiled egg). I used a mystery meat sausage from the farmer’s market (it was spicy!) and light cream. It turned out very nicely! I’m sure any kind of sausage you like would be good in it.
Absolutely delicious. So easy to make too. I followed the recipe exactly and it took me about an hour from start to finish and tasted amazing. Thank you!
So glad you enjoyed. Jill
D Lish! Taste as close as you can get to the real deal (best copy cat recipe for the soup I have tried)
When people are saying to use radish, do they mean the red salad radishes?
I had this style of soup at a local family restraunt. It was the best soup I have
ever tasted! I just bought an instant pot and am eager to try this receipe.
Hi Jeryl. The regular red radishes. They lose their bitterness and become a lovely shade of pink. The taste is like a young turnip, kind of, very pleasant. Jill
Trying the soup,the recipe looks so easy. My husband is a great cook. Our daughter turned us on to the pressure cooker,and now these recipes. Thank you so much!
I had made this soup before from a similar recipe and was glad to see IP instructions. I used chicken, artichoke and mozzarella sausage because I find many types of saysage too spicy. I used spinach and half and half and it was great, even with the potatoes falling apart in the bottom of the pot. Next time I’ll chop them into bigger chunks!
Mine took a long time to release pressure. I let it go on NPR for 12 mins, then quick released. It spewed like a volcano for a long time, maybe 15 mins, then settled down. I’m wondering if this is due to the large amt of thin liquid in the pot. I’m new to the IP and everything else I have made has been thicker, like ribs, chicken thighs and stews.
This soup is amazing. I make it regularly, as in once a month at least. It’s frequently requested in my house, and when my sister comes to visit I like to make it, because where she lives now has no Olive Garden restaurants and I don’t feel like spending the money to actually go out! 🙂 Thank you so much for the recipe!!
Glad you are enjoying the soup. Jill