Crockpot Zuppa Toscana

Okay y’all, I told you one of my new year’s resolutions was to try at least 2 new recipes per month and today is the very first one!  After I saw someone on Instagram post a boomerang story showing a huge pot of Zuppa Toscana (which I had never heard of) it looked SO good I instantly googled it to see what was in it.  Turns out there are several different variations of Zuppa Toscana, and for me I really wanted to make it something I can put in the crockpot.  I hopped on Pinterest, searched for some recipes, found a couple that sounded good & easy, and then made my own tweaks.  So the recipe I’m sharing today is my own variation of Crockpot Zuppa Toscana.  And you know what?  I made it on a snowy January day, and it was the perfect cozy soup.

My primary switches were using chicken sausage and turkey bacon instead of traditional pork sausage and bacon.  I just don’t eat much pork and so when possible I like to use chicken or turkey instead.

Crockpot Zuppa Toscana

Ingredients:

• 1 pack chicken sausage (I used Boar’s Head Robust Italian Chicken Sausage – it’s precooked) but you could also use any kind of ground sausage you prefer
• 1 pound yellow potatoes
• 1 pack turkey bacon (6-8 slices)
• Oregano
• Minced Garlic
• Salt
• Crushed red pepper
• 4 cups chicken broth
• One 13.5oz can of full fat coconut milk (you can also instead use 1 cup heavy cream but our store was out. I would have preferred the heavy cream but this is a good alternative if you can’t find it or if you are dairy-free. the coconut milk does have a slight coconut flavor so if you don’t like coconut, you probably won’t like it as much)
• 3 cups of shredded kale

Directions:

• preheat oven and bake the turkey bacon for 30 minutes on 425 degrees (or until desired crispiness level)
• cut up potatoes into 1/4 inch pieces
• sliced chicken sausage and lightly brown them in a frying pan with a little olive oil
• when bacon is done, remove and chop up into pieces once it’s cooled
• add all ingredients into the crockpot and cook on low for 6 hours, or high for approximately 3 hours.
• after the time is up, add the coconut milk and the kale and stir all together, let it cook for 15 more minutes on high

And that’s about it!  Let me know if you make it!  We will definitely be making it again.

xo,

Bess