Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana

Ingredients

1 tbsp ‏olive oil

1 lb ‏spicy italian ground sausage

1 medium sized ‏onion, chopped

5 cloves ‏garlic, minced

1.5 lbs ‏petite gold potatoes, halved

32 oz ‏chicken broth or stock

1/2 tsp ‏dried oregano

1/2 cup ‏coconut cream

1 bunch ‏Italian kale

to taste ‏salt and pepper

This rich and hearty Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana is comfort food at its best. It’s loaded with potatoes, sausage, onion, garlic, kale and a splash of cream. It is truly satisfying and irresistible – and that’s coming from someone who thought they could never like kale. What I’m learning now is a. Baby kale can be great in salad because it’s not as tough as normal kale and b. Italian kale is delicious and perfect cooked down in a thick soup as the ripples in its leaves turn it into a vehicle for the soup. Before you know it, you’ve completely forgotten that you’re even eating kale. So for all the kale-non-believers, this is the perfect introducing into all the hype over this superfood.

Also, because the recipe calls for ground sausage and it’s in the Instant Pot, there is really very minimal prep to get a weeks worth of food out of this one recipe. You’re basically just chopping up garlic and onion, and the rest happens in the magic of the Instant Pot. I have probably bought every kitchen gadget from the mini deep fryers to sous vide machines and I feel like these tools mostly come and go. There was definitely a month straight where I sous vide’d everything and then it slowly makes it way further and further back in the pantry. The Instant Pot though I feel like is pure magic, easy, fast, and food for a week – I wish this upon everyone. If you haven’t gotten one yet and you just happen to be on this recipe, I’ll put a few steps at the end on how to do this on a stovetop, if you’re planning on getting one, this is the one I have, you could have it in time for dinner tomorrow -^-^-

When doing some research about the origins of this dish I found that traditionally “classic zuppa Toscana normally is a soup made from kale, zucchini, cannellini beans, potatoes, celery, carrots, onion, tomato pulp, extra virgin olive oil, salt, powdered chili, toasted Tuscan bread, and rigatino (an Italian bacon)”. I thought, wow this is pretty far off from what I had made! This recipe is an adaptation of one a friend had sent me a year ago so I wondered how it went so off book and after a little more digging I found out another common zuppa Toscana and that was popularized by the one and only Olive Garden. I don’t remember this dish, probably because when I was going to Olive Garden, I was in high school, and had no money so I was just eating endless breadsticks and sharing a pasta dish with a friend. I can’t make any promises that this will taste anything like the OG zuppa Toscana, but I can say that it’s tasty as hell so let’s get this zuppa party started!

A few notes to prep before we start:

– Coconut cream takes at least 12 hours to solidify in the fridge so if you don’t already have a can in the fridge, plan to leave one and do this recipe later.

– I’ve seen recipes replace the Italian sausage with ground turkey to be a little bit healthier, but I personally love the flavor that the spicy sausage gives and thinks it’s the perfect kick. Also, I like to think that since I am not making this with heavy cream.. we can enjoy a little sausage, don’t you think?

– Potatoes can be a controversial topic between those that do the Whole30, we think potatoes are fine but you can substitute cauliflower florets if you’d like.

Prep:

Chill the can of coconut milk in the fridge overnight (or at least 12 hours). This allows the coconut cream to separate and solidify at the top – making it easy to scoop out when you’re ready to start.
Prepare your kale by folding the leaves in half over the stalk in the center; you will want the darker shinier part to be on the inside. Take a sharp knife and cut the stalk off as close to the leaves as possible. You are just trying to end up with leaves as the center part is tough to eat. If you don’t have a knife available you could even just rip it off, but cutting it off is actually a bit easier.
Chop your onions, halve the potatoes and mince the garlic. Set these aside for now.

Start by setting your Instant Pot to “Saute” and add the olive oil. When the pot is hot, add and brown the ground sausage until fully cooked (no pink left), roughly 3-5 minutes.
Add the garlic and onions and continue to saute to pull out the flavor, another 3-5 minutes.
Add potatoes, chicken stock or broth, oregano, salt and pepper. Mix everything around and be sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Close and lock the lid, turning the valve to “Sealing”.
Press the “Pressure Cook” button and set it for 10 minutes. Pressure should be set to High.
When the 10 minutes have passed, press the “Turn Off” button, cover the valve with a towel, and with a wooden or silicon spatula turn the valve onto releasing. I’ve found adding a towel (not a paper towel because it would just blow off) helps a lot to avoid getting liquid splattering around the kitchen.
Once the steam has completely stopped, carefully open the lid, add the coconut cream and kale to the pot. Turn it back to “Saute” and cook another 3-5 minutes. If there isn’t enough cream to fill half a cup, you can use the coconut milk to compensate.

Stovetop Instructions

In a medium to large pot, follow steps 1-3 above.
Cook for 20-25 minutes over medium heat.
Stir in the kale and let cook for another 2-3 minutes until the leaves are bright and tender.
Stir in the cream and simmer for at least 2 minutes or until ready to serve.