Copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup (Vegan!)

This Copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup is a vegan, gluten-free copycat version of the Olive Garden Restaurant classic! Italian spiced vegan ground “beef”, soft and buttery potatoes, and vibrant kale in a creamy dairy-free broth. This warming, comforting soup is so easy to make and it’s incredibly flavorful, no one will know it’s vegan!

One of the most memorable dishes at the Olive Garden that I remember growing up, other than the breadsticks and salad dressing of course 😉, was their creamy Zuppa Toscana soup. I’m not sure why it has taken me so long to develop this copycat soup recipe, but we’re here now, and it’s a GOOD one. Let’s just say I made this for my meat loving father-in-law and he liked it so much he asked for the recipe… so you know it’s a winner of a recipe!

History of Zuppa Toscana Soup

Zuppa Toscana translates from Italian to “tuscan soup”. Traditionally this soup is made from kale, potatoes and onion, but also commonly includes zucchini, cannellini beans, celery, carrots and tomato pulp. It’s classically made with a powdered chili and extra virgin olive oil broth and served with toasted Tuscan bread and Italian bacon.*

Of course in America- we creamed it up and added more meat 🤣. My version of zuppa toscana soup is kind of in the middle of the two. I include a vegan Italian “sausage” crumble, potatoes and kale in a creamy dairy-free soup broth consisting of vegetable broth, nutritional yeast, plant milk, tapioca flour (as a thickener), salt and pepper. The rest of the flavor comes from the homemade Italian sausage crumble, which I go into more detail about below. The main thing to note about making this copycat soup at home is that this wonderfully flavorful vegan soup recipe is really quite simple to make.

The Ingredients

Vegan Italian Sausage Crumble. This might be the key ingredient in this soup to make it taste “meaty”, and Italian, and hardy. I should do a whole blog post just on this vegan Italian sausage crumble because it would be a great meatless replacement for sausage in so many recipes! The plant-based ground “beef” I used is from Abbot’s Butcher. It’s my current favorite beef replacement. It tastes great and is made with clean, plant-based ingredients you can recognize with no fillers or heavy oils and additives.

To make the vegan Italian sausage, you’re going to combine the thawed plant-based ground “beef” with garlic, thyme, parsley, fennel seeds, rosemary, oregano, basil, onion powder, and red pepper flakes. Stir everything together and place in an airtight container in the fridge to marinate overnight so the flavors come together. When you’re ready to make this soup, just cook in a skillet as you normally would ground beef or Italian sausage!

Kale. I used lacinato kale in this soup, but you can use curly kale as well. For some reason I feel like the lacinato (dinosaur 🦖) kale gives me more tuscan vibes, lol. You will need 2 cups worth of kale, stems removed.

Potatoes. For that soft, buttery, silky smooth texture and flavor I used gold potatoes. You will need 4 cups of peeled and chopped gold potatoes, about 3 large potatoes.

Onion. My go-to onion is usually sweet yellow onion, which I used in this recipe. You will need 2 cups of chopped sweet yellow onion.

Garlic. This recipe calls for 3 cloves of garlic, diced.

Vegetable broth. You will need 32 ounces of vegetable stock/broth. I like Bonafide Organic Vegetable Broth.

Plant milk. I used soy milk, but you could also use another plant milk of choice. My recommendation would be soy, oat, cashew, or coconut as they are “creamier”, but you can certainly use almond or your other favorite plant-based milk.

Nutritional yeast. Boosts the cheesy flavor, adds some great B vitamins and plant-based protein.

Tapioca flour. Used as a thickener so the soup isn’t super watery. You could also use regular gluten-free flour, but I like to use tapioca flour because it’s also grain-free.

Salt & pepper. To taste.

I know that most Zuppa Toscana soup recipes call for bacon… there aren’t a lot of plant-based bacon options that are also gluten free at this time, so I chose to omit it. But if you’d like to add your favorite cooked plant-based bacon on top feel free to do so.

How To Make This Soup

First, make the Italian sausage crumble the day before. It will probably still work if you didn’t marinate it overnight, but I like to really get that Italian sausage flavor in the plant-based ground. Cook the ground sausage in a skillet over medium heat with a little bit of olive oil until browned and cooked through. Set aside.

Prepare the produce. Peel and chop the potatoes, chop the kale, onion and garlic.

Heat a large dutch oven or soup pot over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to the pot and then add the diced onion. Sprinkle with salt and allow the onion to cook until it starts to soften, then add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.

Next, sprinkle the tapioca flour over onion and garlic in pot, and stir to combine, until all the flour is absorbed. 

Pour in vegetable stock, stirring as you pour.  Add the plant milk and then add the potatoes and bring to a boil. The liquid should cover the potatoes. If not, try a smaller pot. Gently boil the potatoes about 15 minutes, or until potatoes are fork-tender. Lower the heat to medium-low.

Add in the cooked “sausage”, nutritional yeast and kale.  Stir and cook over low heat 5-10 minutes until kale is wilted.

Season with salt and pepper and serve!

Let me know what you think about this cozy, healthy copycat Olive Garden recipe down below in the comments section, as well as giving it a five ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐ rating ️ so that others can discover a healthier alternative to make at home! Tag me on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest if you make it!

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* source: Wikipedia.com