Try making a cozy bowl of this Sausage, Potato, and Kale Soup recipe that is extremely similar to Zuppa Toscana Soup, which is rich in flavor, with a creamy broth and super delicious!
Updated August 26, 2026: I've refreshed this post with new tips, expanded FAQs, and helpful make-ahead instructions based on your questions and feedback. Same delicious recipe, even more helpful! Originally posted on November 4, 2013, and photos updated on October 24, 2022.
The first time I had Zuppa Toscana at Olive Garden, I sat there trying to taste my way backward through the bowl. Sausage, cream, potato, greens, a little heat at the back of the throat. It seemed like it ought to be complicated. Then one cold night in Florida when I did not feel like driving anywhere at all, I pulled out a regular saucepan and made it with seven things I already had in the kitchen. No onion to dice. No garlic to mince. No stockpot to wash.
I've been sharing modern comfort food here since 2013, and this soup has been on the blog nearly that whole time. It's been through three updates and a whole lot of cold weather in my own kitchen. I keep coming back to this version because it's the one I actually make on a weeknight, not the one I make when I have an afternoon. My family has never once asked where the onion went.
If you've been wanting that cozy restaurant soup without the restaurant trip or the pile of prep, this is the one. Let's get started!
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Why You'll Love This Sausage, Potato, and Kale Soup
- Seven ingredients, nothing to chop - There's no onion to dice or garlic to mince. You brown the sausage, add everything else, and put a lid on it.
- One saucepan, start to finish - The sausage browns in the same pan the soup cooks in, so all that rendered flavor stays right where you want it. No stockpot, no second dish.
- The greens actually taste like something - Instead of tossing the kale in at the last minute, it simmers the whole time, Southern-greens style. It goes soft and silky and gives its flavor to the broth.
- Sized for a real weeknight - This makes about four cups, which is two hearty bowls or four smaller ones. Enough for supper, not enough to eat the same soup for five days. It also doubles beautifully when you need it to.
Ingredients You'll Need
Here's everything you'll need to make this recipe.
- Ground Italian sausage - This is doing almost all the flavor work: fennel, black pepper, and a little sweetness are already built into the seasoning, which is exactly why you don't need to add onion and garlic separately. Mild or spicy both work, spicy gives you a warmer finish without any extra effort.
- Chicken broth - The backbone of the soup. Bone broth or chicken stock both work and will give you a slightly richer, rounder body if that's what you have on hand.
- Heavy cream - This is what turns a sausage-and-potato soup into that soup. Please don't swap it for milk or half-and-half here, the fat content is what keeps the broth from separating over a long simmer.
- Russet potato - Leave the skin on and cut it into rustic chunks. Russets break down slightly at the edges as they cook, which quietly thickens the broth for you. Yukon golds or baby reds hold their shape more if you'd rather have distinct cubes.
- Kale - Roughly chopped, stems and all if they're tender. Because it goes in early and simmers the whole time, you want a sturdy green here, kale can take it. Collard greens or a mixed greens blend work beautifully too, which surprises nobody who grew up in the South.
- Salt - Season at the end, not the beginning. Italian sausage and store-bought broth are both already salted, and the soup reduces as it simmers.
- Crushed red pepper - A quarter teaspoon gives you warmth, not heat. Leave it out entirely if you're using spicy sausage, or if you're feeding folks who'd rather not.
👉🏾 See the recipe card below for exact quantities and full instructions.
How to Make Sausage, Potato, and Kale Soup
Here's a quick overview of the process. Full step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
Step 1: Brown the Sausage
Get the saucepan good and hot before the sausage goes in medium-high, not medium. You want browning, not steaming, and a crowded lukewarm pan will give you gray crumbles instead of the crusty brown bits that flavor the whole pot. Break it up as it cooks so you get plenty of surface area.
Step 2: Drain, But Not Completely
Pour off most of the rendered fat and set the sausage aside, but don't wipe the pan out and don't chase every last bit. A tablespoon or so left behind carries all the fennel and pepper flavor into the broth. If you drain it bone-dry, the soup tastes noticeably thinner.
Step 3: Build the Broth
Broth, cream, potato, and kale all go in together. Give it a minute or two of stirring over the heat. You'll see the kale start to relax and lose its volume almost immediately. That's the signal it's ready for the long cook.
Step 4: Return the Sausage and Season
Add the sausage back in along with the salt and crushed red pepper, then bring it up to a low boil before you reduce the heat. Getting it to that low boil first matters: it's what starts the potato releasing starch, which is what gives the finished soup its body.
Step 5: Cover and Simmer
Lid on, heat low, 20 to 30 minutes. This is where the soup actually happens. Resist the urge to keep it at a hard boil to hurry it along. Cream will break if you push it too hot for too long. Stir every eight or ten minutes. You're done when the potato slides off a fork and the kale has gone soft and dark.
Lakita's Expert Tips
Here are my best tips for making this recipe turn out perfectly every time.
- Cut the potato smaller than you think. One-inch cubes cook in about 20 minutes. If you go bigger, you'll be simmering closer to 35 and the kale will overcook waiting on them.
- Watch for the potato edges to blur. When the sharp corners of the cubes start looking soft and slightly fuzzy, that's starch releasing into the broth. That's the moment the soup thickens, and it's a better cue than the clock.
- If the broth looks thin at the end, press three or four potato chunks against the side of the pan with the back of a spoon and stir them in. It thickens in about a minute, no cornstarch needed.
- If it's too thick, splash in warm broth an ounce at a time. Adding cold liquid to a hot cream soup can make it look grainy.
- Never let it boil hard once the cream is in. A hard boil is the single most common reason a cream soup separates. Low and covered is the whole technique.
- Taste for salt only at the very end. Between the sausage and the broth, you may need less than you'd expect, sometimes none at all.
- Let it sit five minutes off the heat before serving. The broth tightens up and the flavor settles. It's noticeably better at minute five than at minute zero.
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Variations & Substitutions
This recipe is flexible, here are some easy ways to make it your own.
- Make it without potatoes. For a lighter or lower-carb bowl, swap the potato for about the same volume of cauliflower florets and cut the simmer to 10 to 12 minutes, cauliflower goes soft much faster. You'll lose some of the natural thickening, so expect a brothier soup.
- Add white beans. A drained can of cannellini beans stirred in during the last five minutes makes it heartier and nudges it toward the traditional Tuscan version.
- Swap the greens. Collard greens are a natural here and hold up to the long simmer even better than kale. Mustard greens bring a peppery edge. If you already love Collard Greens with Ham Hocks, you'll know exactly what to expect.
- Turn up the heat. Use spicy Italian sausage and keep the crushed red pepper. If you like your comfort food with some fire, you'll probably also want Easy White Chicken Chili.
- Add onion and garlic if you want them. I leave them out on purpose so this stays a no-chopping recipe, but if you'd like that deeper savory base, sauté a small diced onion and two cloves of garlic in the sausage drippings before the liquid goes in.
- Go lighter. Ground turkey sausage in place of pork cuts the richness noticeably while keeping the seasoning.
- Slow cooker version. Brown the sausage first (don't skip it, it's the flavor), then add everything except the cream to a slow cooker on LOW for 4 to 5 hours and stir the cream in during the last 20 minutes.
- Lean into the Portuguese version. Add a half teaspoon of smoked paprika with the salt and you're closer to Caldo Verde, the Portuguese kale and sausage soup this dish shares a family tree with.
Make-Ahead & Storage
Make-Ahead
You can brown the sausage up to two days ahead and keep it covered in the refrigerator, which turns this into a genuine 30-minute weeknight soup. You can also cube the potato a day ahead as long as you keep it submerged in cold water in the fridge, otherwise it'll go brown and gray on you. Chop the kale the morning of and store it dry in a bag with a paper towel, it wilts fast once it's cut.
Storage & Reheating
Store leftover soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. The potato will keep absorbing broth as it sits, so it'll be thicker on day two, that's normal, and a splash of broth brings it right back.
To reheat, warm it gently in a small saucepan over low heat for about 5 to 7 minutes, stirring now and then. Do not let it boil. A cream-based soup that gets pushed back to a hard boil will look curdled even though it's perfectly safe to eat. The microwave works in a pinch at 50% power in one-minute bursts, stirring between each.
I don't recommend freezing this one. Both of the things that make it good work against it in the freezer: heavy cream separates when it thaws, and russet potatoes go mealy and grainy. If you want a freezer option, make the soup without the cream, freeze the base flat in a bag for up to 3 months, then thaw, reheat, and stir the cream in fresh.
What to Serve with Sausage, Potato, and Kale Soup
Here are some of my favorite ways to serve this dish.
- A skillet of cornbread for dragging through the broth. Sweet Potato Cornbread is my pick when I want something a little sweet against the spice of the sausage.
- Crusty bread and good butter - nothing fancy, just something with enough structure to hold up to a thick soup.
- A simple green salad with a sharp vinaigrette. The soup is rich, and something bright alongside it makes the whole plate feel balanced.
- Grated Parmesan and crumbled bacon on top of the bowl itself. Two minutes of effort and it tastes like you meant it.
- A second soup for the week - if you're the sort who cooks once and eats well for days, I'd put Italian Sausage and Bean Soup or Crockpot Beef Stew on the list right beside this one.
Frequently asked questions
It's the same idea in a simpler form. Zuppa Toscana is built on sausage, potatoes, kale, and cream, and so is this. The restaurant version usually adds onion, garlic, and bacon and gets made in a big pot. Mine strips it down to seven ingredients in one saucepan, and leans on Italian sausage seasoning to carry the flavor that the aromatics would otherwise provide. If you're chasing that specific restaurant taste, add the onion, garlic, and bacon and you'll be right on top of it.
You can. Cauliflower florets are the closest swap for texture and cook much faster, about 10 to 12 minutes instead of 20 to 30. Just know the potato is doing quiet work here: as it simmers, it releases starch that thickens the broth. Without it, you'll get a thinner, brothier soup. A can of drained white beans, partially mashed, is a good way to get some of that body back.
Double every ingredient straight across and move to a Dutch oven or a large pot. A medium saucepan won't have the room, and crowding it will keep the sausage from browning properly. Brown the sausage in two batches so it sears instead of steams. The simmer time stays about the same since the potato pieces are the same size. A bigger pot just takes a few extra minutes to come up to a low boil.
Two reasons, and they're both structural. Heavy cream separates when it's frozen and thawed, so the broth turns grainy. And russet potatoes go mealy in the freezer, the texture never fully comes back. If you want soup in the freezer, make the base without cream, freeze it flat for up to 3 months, then reheat and stir the cream in fresh at the end. That works beautifully.
It got too hot. Cream breaks under a hard boil, especially over a long cook or during reheating. Keep it at a low simmer with the lid on, and reheat leftovers over low heat rather than blasting it. It's still perfectly safe to eat, pull it off the heat, let it settle a few minutes, and stir gently. It usually comes back together at least partway.
Not at all, I never do. Russet skin softens completely over a 20 to 30 minute simmer and adds a rustic look and a little texture. If you'd rather peel it, go right ahead, nothing else about the recipe changes.
You can, but add it at the very end. Spinach cooks down in about a minute and will disappear entirely if it simmers for half an hour. Kale is used here specifically because it can take the long cook and come out silky instead of dissolved. If you want something with real substance, collard greens are the better swap.
Ground Italian sausage, mild or spicy, is what this recipe is built around. The fennel and pepper in the seasoning are doing the aromatic work. Smoked sausage or kielbasa will taste good but noticeably different, more smoky than herby, and since it's precooked, you'll want to brown it briefly just for color. Ground turkey Italian sausage lightens it up if you prefer.
About four cups total, which is two generous dinner-sized bowls or four smaller starter bowls. It was written for a small household on purpose, no giant pot, no eating the same soup all week. Double it in a Dutch oven when you need to feed a crowd.
Yes, and this is how I usually run it. Brown the sausage up to two days ahead and keep it in the fridge, and cube the potato the day before as long as you store it covered in cold water. With those two things done, the soup comes together in about 30 minutes start to finish on the night you want it.
If you make this soup, would you leave a star rating on the recipe card below? It genuinely helps other folks find it, and I read every single one.
📖 Recipe
Sausage, Potato, and Kale Soup Recipe
Equipment
- 1 medium size saucepan
Ingredients
- ½ pound ground Italian sausage, mild or spicy
- 2 ¾ cups chicken broth
- ¼ cup heavy cream
- 1 medium russet potato, with the skin on cut into 1-inch cubes
- 2 cups kale, roughly chopped
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper
Instructions
- Begin the sausage, potato, and kale soup recipe by cooking the ½ pound Italian sausage in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat until it has browned, about 4 to 5 minutes.
- Once finished drain off as much of the fat residue as you can, there will be some left and that's fine. Remove the sausage from the pan, place it into a small bowl, and set aside.
- To the same saucepan used to cook the sausage, still over medium-high heat, add the 2 ¾ cups chicken broth, ¼ cup heavy cream, 1 cubed russet potato, and 2 cups fresh kale. Stir to combine and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, just enough time for the kale to begin to break down.
- Add in the cooked Italian sausage, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper. Stir to combine. Allow it to come to a low boil. Reduce the heat to low and cover the saucepan with a lid.
- Allow the soup to cook for about 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. The potato should be fork tender and the kale cooked down (reduced in volume). Serve warm and enjoy!
Notes
- Drain off as much of the oil from the cooked Italian sausage as you can, but it may still end up in the soup. It's perfectly okay and adds a little additional flavor to the broth.
- I prefer not to peel the potato, but if you would like to then you may.
- For this recipe, I used mild Italian sausage. However, you may swap it for spicy if you prefer.
- The addition of red pepper flakes is optional, feel free to omit it if you prefer less heat.
- This recipe makes 4 cups, about two hefty dinner portions but it can also be divided into four smaller portions or saved for later.
Did You Make This Recipe?
If you give this sausage, potato, and kale soup a try, I'd love to know what you think! Leave a comment below, share a photo on Instagram and tag @SimplyLaKita, or save it on Pinterest for later. Star ratings mean more than you know, they're how other home cooks decide whether a recipe is worth their evening. And if you changed something up or found a swap that worked, tell me about it in the comments. I read every one, and half the best ideas on this blog started as somebody's comment.
More cozy bowls to try: Homemade Tomato Soup and Easy Skillet Sausage and Potatoes.
Roxy Sirghi says
Yum! Love me a good zuppa Toscana style soup 🙂
admin says
Thank you Roxy...So do I!