Bringing back another childhood staple, a Whole30 Zuppa Toscana copycat rendition of Olive Garden’s delicious soup. The only thing that I am missing is the endless breadsticks and salad!
Growing up in Celina, Texas, my friends and I would always drive up to Frisco (the closest city to us) so that we could dine at Olive Garden together and carb load on *all the yummy things*. In fact, when I ran Cross Country back in the day, Olive Garden was our day before meal of choice when we went to big meets out of town. Our Coach would take us to Olive Garden so we could feast before we’d run our little hearts out the next day. We loved it.
Being the soup lover that I am, I loved getting the Zuppa Toscana as my appetizer, even as a child. I loved it’s rich, creamy broth with the chunky potato and sausage filling. It’s one of those soups that really, in fact, is a true full meal.
Here in this Whole30 Zuppa Toscana recipe, I’ve recreated one of my childhood favorites while also keeping it Dairy-Free and Gluten-free. It’s still simple to make and just as satisfying as my teen years. The flavor from the ground sausage really does all the talking along with the rich and creamy texture of the soup (by thickening it with Arrowroot flour + using dairy-free creamer!)
I think this is going to be a total crowd-pleaser and I hope you guys enjoy it as much as me and my family!
For other soups and stews, check out this recipe round-up.
Whole30 Zuppa Toscana

Ingredients
- 2 strips bacon, diced medium
- 1 cup yellow onion, finely diced
- 1 lb hot Italian sausage (if you buy it in the links, you can remove from casing) (chicken or turkey sausage is okay to use, also!)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp arrowroot flour
- 32 oz. carton of chicken broth
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 2 cups peeled russet potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
- 4 cups chopped lacinato kale, ripped from stem (or one bunch)
- 1 cup Nut Pods Original Dairy-Free Creamer
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 2 tbsp lemon juice (or the juice of 1 lemon)
Instructions
- Heat a large pot or dutch oven over medium heat. Add bacon pieces and cook, stirring occasionally, until bacon is just crispy. Using a slotted spoon, transfer cooked bacon to a paper towel-lined plate and set aside. While reserving the bacon fat in the the pot.
- Add onion, garlic, salt, pepper and sausage into the pot. Cook, breaking up meat with back of spoon, until cooked through, or no longer pink. About 4-5 minutes.
- Add arrowroot into the sausage mixture and stir until well incorporated into the meat mixture. While stirring, slowly pour in chicken broth. Bring the soup to a boil.
- Reduce heat to simmer, add the italian seasoning, chopped kale and potatoes. Cook, covered, until potatoes are tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
- When the potatoes are tender, remove the lid from the pot and stir in the creamer, nutritional yeast, and lemon. Cook for 5 more minutes, simmering uncovered, just to mend the flavors and the cream.
- Serve in bowls topped with the cooked bacon bits. Enjoy!
36 Comments
Julie Angelina Smith
January 15, 2021 at 3:56 amMy Mom and I are doing Jan Whole30 and are absolutely using your plans you share. Fortunately for us, we became a fan of your dishes before we started Whole30 and we’d even cooking new Alex dishes each weekend together. I really think the fact that we were already making your recipes before most of the time saved us from any of the Whole30 headaches- it has been and easy and delicious journey for us.
My Mum’s made this about 4 times now. And me, once. We don’t all have the same threshold for spicy food, so my Mum experimented with 100% spicy sausage, then 25/75, only to keep 50 spicy/ 50 non spicy. It was delicious each time!
I made it with 25%spicy sausage and 75%ground turkey. Good’- and my children 1 and 3 ate some too.
I like that once we made about 3 of your recipes we had a good stock of the ingredients to try other dishes.
Kelly
January 12, 2021 at 11:37 pmAll of your recipes are good, but this one is OUTSTANDING. Minimal effort, high payoff. Required very little chopping and dirtied only a few dishes. This will be in regular rotation at the Smith house.
Monique
January 12, 2021 at 8:14 pmThis soup is SO. GOOD. Made it for my roommates and they LOVED it!!! We can’t stop eating it lol it’s the perfect comfort food! And we had leftovers for days – the flavors just meld even better the next day! Thank you so much, Alex!!!
Lauren
January 10, 2021 at 11:03 pm10/10 again.. over and over! While I don’t have the waiter at my table asking “would you like cheese on that?”, this is way better than the restaurant version. It’s light yet creamy, the potatoes are cooked perfectly, the amount of lemon.. it’s all perfection. We ate it next day for lunch and it was even better. Will make this recipe for years and years to come.
Erika
January 10, 2021 at 9:33 amWhat can I sub the hot Italian sausage for if I can’t find one that’s compatible?
Sonja
January 7, 2021 at 2:30 amI made this! It’s delicious! A friend sent the recipe. Where is the cookbook for these recipes? Making it this weekend for friends!
Alex
January 7, 2021 at 2:13 pmHi Sonja, So glad you loved the recipe. This particular recipe is just here on my blog; but I do have a cookbook with more delicious recipes inside as well!
https://thedefineddish.com/thedefineddishcookbook/
Courtney Hesterly
January 7, 2021 at 1:13 amThe perfect comfort food!
Kiah
January 6, 2021 at 12:32 pmThis is delicious. I didn’t add any creamer, or nutritional yeast and used regular flour (as I’m not on whole 30). But it is so yum!
Delicious flavor.
Lisa
January 5, 2021 at 7:27 pmSoooo good! Mine probably isn’t properly Whole 30 because I had to work with what I had or could find so my creamer was non-dairy, but just coffee mate regular and I had to use corn starch for arrowroot powder, but taste wise, I don’t think it changed it and it was amazing!!! (I also prefer sweet sausage but that’s just my super sensitivity to spice)
Hannah
January 5, 2021 at 4:23 amI’ve made this so many times that I owe it a review at this point! Probably my favorite soup ever. It is so soooo delicious, easy, and fast enough for a weeknight. I don’t follow Whole30 so I use heavy cream, Parmesan cheese, and cornstarch and it is just perfection.
Laura
January 5, 2021 at 12:22 amI love Zuppa Toscana and have tried many different recipes! This is my favorite by far! You never fail, Alex! 👏
Rachel
January 4, 2021 at 8:46 pmHi there—just wondering if you think frozen kale would work? There seems to be a run on fresh kale right now at my grocery store. New year, new me, maybe? 😂 Love this recipe SO much.
Alex
January 5, 2021 at 2:41 amAbsolutely!
Ana
January 3, 2021 at 9:22 pmCould you make this in an instant pot?
Alex
January 4, 2021 at 1:51 pmI am sure you can! I haven’t done it yet so im not positive on timing. You’ll still want to brown the sausage on saute function, then add the broth/potatoes and cook on Manual high preessure for 10-15 mins or so. Then stir in nutpods at the end.
Hannah
January 3, 2021 at 12:56 amThis was SO good! I didn’t have nut pods on hand so I used a mixture of 75% coconut milk and 25% almond milk. The flavor and texture were still amazing! Dreaming about leftovers tomorrow. I have not been disappointed by a recipe of yours yet! Thank you for making Whole30 so delicious!
Alex
January 3, 2021 at 2:12 pmThank you!!
Christine McMillan
January 3, 2021 at 12:18 amWhich Nut Pods original did you use? We bought Almond and Coconut Original , and Original Oat?
Alex
January 3, 2021 at 2:20 pmTo keep it Whole30– I use thee Almond/Coconut original.
Lindsey
December 30, 2020 at 5:58 pmWhere do you get whole 30 compliant Italian sausage and bacon?
Alex
December 30, 2020 at 8:58 pmWholefoods for both! their counter has compliant sausage. And both Pederson Farms and Applegate have a “no sugar” bacon.
Janet Wilson
December 17, 2020 at 2:18 amJust made his for the first time and it is delicious! Well done once again, Alex. Your recipes never disappoint.
Alex
December 17, 2020 at 1:10 pmThank you, Janet!
Hillary
December 4, 2020 at 3:33 amMade a mistake. Used Silk Heavy Whipping Cream and now my soup smells like an Italian Sugar Cookie. There’s no sugar in it, it just imparted a very sweet coconut smell. Beware!
Heather
December 3, 2020 at 1:09 amLove this soup! It was super easy to make and filling. I’m definitely going to add it to the meal rotation.
Laura
November 29, 2020 at 12:12 amThis recipe is the best. I’ve made it at least 10 times during quarantine! It never fails.
Alex
November 29, 2020 at 1:34 pmIt’s the perfect comfort food.
Meghan
November 24, 2020 at 3:09 amTo make it not whole 30 – just sub heavy cream and parm for the nutpods and nutritional yeast?
Alex
November 24, 2020 at 1:14 pmyep!! you got it! 🙂
Brianna
November 14, 2020 at 3:59 pmLove this soup so much! Can it be made ahead of time and frozen though? Trying to do some meal prep.
Alex
November 30, 2020 at 4:23 pmSince it has milk/coconut milk in it, it’s not ideal for freezing; however, I find it still tastes pretty dang good.
Mollie
November 9, 2020 at 2:04 pmThis is a repeat recipe for me…so good!!!
Alex
November 9, 2020 at 2:19 pmIt is for us, too!! glad you love it!!
Valerie
October 27, 2020 at 5:50 pmCan you sub a different non dairy creamer? Coconut or almond without altering taste
Alex
October 27, 2020 at 7:08 pmBoth of those would alter the taste a bit. I love the nutpods because it’s the most neutral in flavor. You can certainly use either of those and they still work, but the coconut will add a coconut flavor and the almond just doesn’t have much texture to it.