Copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup

Thought I'd share this copycat Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana soup with you today since we've made it a few times and still love it. I've followed instructions from a few different sites, and have sort of mooshed them all together and added a few of my own tips to make it better. I hate dirtying more than one pan for soup, so I've turned this into a one-pot soup.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED:
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves/ 2 tsp minced garlic
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable/olive oil
1.25-1.5 pounds mild ground Italian sausage
2 cans (about 4 cups) chicken broth
4 cups hot water
3 large russet baking potatoes
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1 cup heavy whipping cream
3-4 cups kale, chopped (1 big bunch)
1/4 cup bacon bits (optional)

AND HERE'S WHAT YOU DO:

Heat a large soup pot over medium high heat and add oil. Dice your onion, and add to the pan. Saute with garlic, salt and pepper, until onions are soft and going brown. Don't burn them; you're caramelizing. Add a teeny bit of water, oil, or broth if you start to stick or burn. Saute for about 3-5 minutes.

Add ground sausage to the party, and brown it until it's all the way cooked. While this is cooking, wash and chop your potatoes. You want to slice them into discs about 1/4-1/3 inch thick, then either quarter or third those discs, depending on how large you want your potato chunks.

When the sausage is cooked, add the chicken broth, water, potatoes, and extra salt to the pot. It will be pretty full, but just mix it all together. Turn the heat up to high and bring it to a boil. Cover, and lower heat medium so it will boil for about 15-20 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through.

Meanwhile, wash and cut your kale. Slice the rib out of each kale leaf, then cut the leaf into ribbon strips or chunks. Most recipes call for 2 cups of kale for this amount of soup, but I say at least 3, and while your'e at it, you might as well use the whole bunch. Kale usually comes in bunches at the store, and I usually get nearly 4 cups out of it. Just go for it. It will wilt down, and it tastes savory and yummy. Plus, kale is good for you. In fact, most of the ingredient amounts have been increased in my version to make the soup a little bit more hearty and chunky.

When the potatoes are the consistency you desire (If they cook longer, they'll start to break down, and your soup will be a little more chowder-like than a thin soup, just FYI. So if that's what you're going for, let it cook a little longer.), mix in the cream and kale, and bacon bits if you desire, although I never add them. This soup is amazing without them. Allow the soup to simmer gently for 5 minutes or so to heat the cream and wilt the kale. You may need to turn down the heat to low.

You're ready to taste to see if you need more salt/pepper. Also, if you want it more spicy, you can use hot Italian sausage, or add red pepper flakes near the end.

This soup is a crazy hot temperature, so you might need to let it rest off the heat or in bowls for 5-10 minutes before eating. Either way, be SOUPER (haha) careful and blow, because it is the worst to burn your tastebuds before being able to enjoy it! It goes really well with rolls or bread and butter, and would probably be amazing in a bread bowl.


Plan on 30-50 minutes.

When each pot is separated into 8 heaping bowls, each bowl is about 500 calories, according to myfitnesspal. When I eat it for dinner, I eat one heaping bowl (I've never measured it, but it seems like a little bit more than the amount of soup I get in a can of Campbell's Chunky Soup). My guess is it's close to 2 1/2 cups. Also, it costs like, $12 for all this stuff.

Rachael Ray's Minestrone Soup w/Garlic Bread Croutons

Made this soup for lunch today and I'm so looking forward to eating leftovers for lunch this week :) For me, this is the perfect combination of broth, noodle, and vegetable that just gets my ooky sit in a blanket and fawn over all things amazing feelings going.

Plus, I love how easy broth based soups are to make. It's basically dice, saute, boil, eat. Rachael's recipe doesn't call for garbanzo beans, but to me, it's not minestrone without them.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound zucchini
2 ribs celery
1 carrot
1 onion
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper
34 ounces (4 cups) vegetable or chicken stock
15 ounces cannelinni beans (white beans), rinsed
15 ounces crushed tomatoes
15 ounces garbanzo beans
1/4 pound penne pasta
basil

Croutons:
2 tablespoons butter
1 clove garlic
4-6 slices of italian bread
1/2 cup grated parigiano-reggiano (or parmesan)
parsley

HERE'S WHAT YOU DO:

Chop your vegetables: Quarter the zucchini and carrot and dice; finely dice the onion; cut the celery into strips and dice; mince the garlic. Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a big pot. Add vegetables, salt and pepper, and bay leaf, then saute for 8 minutes or until vegetables are softening.

Add broth, tomatoes, and beans and bring to a boil.

Add pasta and simmer over medium heat until al dente. Add basil and keep on low. Add 1 cup of water if you want it to be more soupy.

While the soup is simmering, melt the butter in a small pan over medium-low heat. Add 1 clove garlic and swirl for 30 seconds. Toast the bread slices under the broiler for a minute on each side. Remove and lower oven to 450 degrees. Brush toast on one side with butter, and top with cheese and parsley. Return to oven until cheese is melted.

After I used all the butter, I scooped the leftover garlic into my pot of soup. No need to waste it :) Adjust seasoning to your liking.

Serve with croutons in shallow bowls.

smell in fridge, ruined soup, shred, new calling, and church

I haven't posted yet this week, so I thought I'd share what's been going on. Nothing super fantastic. Mostly normal stuff.

• The smell in our freezer/fridge is going away--Oh wait. I don't think I told you about that. Basically, one day there suddenly came a horrible stench from our freezer mostly, and filled our fridge, ruining 90% of its contents. We threw away at least $50 worth of food, if not closer to $100. Basically, anything not sealed tighter than Superman could open tasted like... nasty. When we cleaned everything out there wasn't even anything super old or rotting that had obviously caused the smell. It's a mystery. We spent a week or so with a mostly empty fridge, trying a new remedy each day. Lysol, bleach, baking soda, vinegar, vanilla... just a few. For now, we have a freezer that just smells like off vinegar, and we're sealing all our food, like, triple. 

• Speaking of bad food. I recently had one of the worst food foibles of my life. Remember this delicious butternut squash soup? Yeah, the one that takes an hour to roast the squash? Well, lucky me, I used cream that had gone sour and ruined the whole batch. Needless to say, Wendy's never tasted so blah after that. 

• What else is going on... I started Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. This evening will be day 6. It was incredibly hard the first 2 days, and now it's getting better. But it's still really difficult. 20 minutes of intense workout, at home, where I don't have to drive anywhere, or wear appealing clothing, and I'm allowed to pant and grunt as much as I need to because no one can hear. I make Trevor stay in another room while I exercise--best idea ever. 

• I'm now officially the Relief Society accompanist. Who'd have guessed? ;) I was expecting it, and hoping for it, actually. When I was set apart, it was said that I could use my calling as a means of healing some of the old hurts I have, and using the spirit of music to move forward with my spiritual goals. I totally 100% agree. I always feel like the pianist is the luckiest person in the room. I love playing prelude music, and I feel like I'm getting the long end of the stick by being able to sit and enjoy it. I don't even know if other people listen that much. 

• I bore my testimony in church and completely ruined it. Five seconds after getting up to the mic I became one of those ladies who talks like a mouse and pauses for unknown amounts of time. After that my goal changed from bearing testimony to just saying a few sentences that would actually make sense to the congregation and sitting back down as quickly as possible. I even snorted uncontrollably as I was heading back down. Oh gosh. And I have to show my face there again.
• I'm speaking in church this Sunday. I don't know what came over the bishopric to make them think I'll be any different than last time, but okay. I just need to steer clear of anything that invites the spirit, then I won't cry. Sounds like a terrific plan.
• Lastly, this hasn't happened yet, but I'm looking forward to it a bushelfull. My sister-in-law and my niece are coming for a visit tomorrow! We are going to have loads of fun :)

Not Just Ordinary Rice

I wanted to quickly write about this awesome rice I made a few days ago. I'd made it before, but somewhat differently based on a recipe. I lost the recipe, and just worked with what I had around and what I remembered. Unfortunately, all that remained in my head was rice, chicken broth, and balsamic vinegar.

Not quite so unfortunate after all. It proved to be a delicious combination, that was simple and perfect for our fish.

2 cups chicken broth
1 cup rice
1 tablespoon (ish) balsamic vinegar

Boil chicken broth (if you don't have 2 cups, use as much as you can and substitute water for the remaining). Add rice, and turn heat to low. Add balsamic vinegar. Stir. Cover for 15-20 minutes or until your rice is done! Perfectly flavored rice that compliments most anything. (This served me and Trevor.)

I've heard of people putting spices in it, like tarragon or basil. Bet it's good too.

I like it because I don't feel the need to put gallons of butter or salt or anything. And apparently healthy is good, at least that's what I'm told.