A hearty Whole 30 Zuppa Toscana soup recipe made with coconut milk to make it dairy-free, plus we swapped potatoes for cauliflower to also make it low carb and keto-friendly.
Our dairy-free Zuppa Toscana Olive Garden copycat recipe is LOADED with vegetables and protein plus making it at home means it's easy to customize to your personal preferences! It's a WHOLE LOTTA YUM!
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Dairy Free Zuppa Toscana
For some reason in the past couple of years, I haven't been able to tolerate dairy as much as I could before, but thankfully I do love coconut milk even more than heavy whipping cream, so swapping the traditional cream and making a Whole 30 Zuppa Toscana soup with coconut milk was a no brainer.
Having health considerations and dietary restrictions means that we don't eat out as much as we used to but we do enjoy experimenting with lighter and better-tasting copycat recipes at home, especially healthy Olive Garden copycat recipes!
Zuppa Toscana has literally become my personal favorite soup recipe, we enjoy it so much we also have an Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana soup recipe and a crock-pot Zuppa Toscana too. These are more true to the copycat Olive Garden recipe, but you could easily adapt them to make them Whole30 friendly.
Why You'll Love This!
- It's much lighter than the original copycat recipe and isn't laden with high-fat dairy products, which means you can feel better about eating a healthy Whole 30 Zuppa Toscana without dairy.
- It's packed with veggies your whole family will enjoy.
- Being a dairy free Zuppa Toscana without potatoes not only makes it Whole30 and paleo, but it's low carb and keto too.
- The soup is so easy to customize to your preferences!
Ingredient Notes
Add an intro sentence about the ingredients.
- bacon (about 4-5 slices of bacon), cooked and crumbled
- Italian sausage (mild or spicy Italian sausage)
- large onion, chopped
- minced garlic cloves
- salt
- black pepper
- cauliflower, cut into bite-size pieces
- chopped kale
- chicken broth
- coconut milk
- cayenne pepper (optional and to taste)
** Please see the recipe card at the bottom of the post for the exact quantities **
Variations
Recipe Variations- While we made this a keto low carb Zuppa Toscana recipe without potatoes, you can definitely swap the cauliflower for Yukon gold potatoes or sweet potatoes.
Step by Step Instructions
The process for making Whole 30 Zuppa Toscana soup is super simple, just prep your ingredients before you start cooking, saute the meats and some of the veggies, simmer the rest and add kale and coconut milk at the end to finish.
Saute Meat and Veggies
In a Dutch oven or large pot heat the soup pot to medium. Add the Italian sausage and cook it. Remove the cooked sausage from the pot and set it aside, leaving 1 tablespoon of sausage grease in the pot. Cook the crumbled bacon in the same manner, remove the cooked bacon from the pot and leave about 2 tablespoon of grease in the pot.
Saute the onions in the grease until they're soft, which will take about 4-5 minutes.
Add the minced garlic and cook it for 1 minute. Add the chicken broth, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and cauliflower to the pot, turn the heat up to medium-high to bring it to a boil...(simmer soup)
Garnish the dairy-free Zuppa Toscana soup with more bacon if desired, add red pepper flakes for a spicier soup. Enjoy!
Simmer Soup
Turn the heat down to medium-low to simmer the cauliflower until it's fork-tender which will take about 10+ minutes.
Turn the pot down to low and add the coconut milk, chopped kale, bacon, and cooked sausage. Heat the soup until it's warm and the kale just turns bright green. Add more salt and pepper to taste.
Recipe Tips
- Cook the cauliflower until it's JUST cooked through so that it doesn't get soggy while needing to simmer the remaining ingredients.
- Read the labels of the sausage and bacon, in particular, to make sure they're Whole30 and keto compliant and don't add extra sugar.
- Zuppa Toscana soup is so easy to adapt for various health restrictions and tastes. Don't like kale? Use spinach instead. Eating Whole30 but not necessarily low carb? Use diced potato cubes or sweet potatoes instead of cauliflower. Want a richer taste? Use coconut cream if you're trying to keep it dairy-free or use 1 cup heavy whipping in place of coconut milk if you're low carb yet still consume dairy products.
Common Questions
Being a soup that basically has all 4 food groups in it, you can just eat it as a one pot meal with no extra sides. However, just like the Olive Garden soup, salad, breadsticks combo, serving it with a side salad and bread is popular at home too.
Yes! You can freeze Zuppa Toscana to enjoy it later. Soup freezes well for up to 3 months in a freezer-safe container. Some dairy products don't hold up in the freezer and get grainy, but our dairy-free version solves this issue and can go straight in the freezer. To freeze soup with dairy like heavy whipping cream, we recommend not adding it to the recipe and waiting until you go to eat it to stir it in at the end of cooking.
Surprise surprise (or no surprise), but Zuppa Toscana soup is the most popular soup served at Olive Garden. It's also the most popular Olive Garden copycat soup recipe on the internet too.
More Healthy Soup Recipes
- Cuban chicken soup recipe
- Paleo butternut squash soup
- Low carb egg drop soup
- keto chicken noodle soup with zoodles
We hope you enjoy our Whole30 Zuppa Toscana soup recipe!
Come connect with us on Instagram! Be sure to tag us (wholelotta.yum) when you make a recipe. You can also find us on Facebook, and Pinterest.
Whole 30 Zuppa Toscana Soup (Keto, Low Carb)
A hearty Whole 30 Zuppa Toscana soup recipe made with coconut milk to make it dairy-free, plus we swapped potatoes for cauliflower to also make it low carb and keto friendly.
Our dairy free Zuppa Toscana is LOADED with vegetables and protein plus making it at home means it's easy to customize to your personal preferences!
Ingredients
- ½ lb bacon (about 4-5 slices bacon), cooked and crumbled
- 1 lb Italian sausage (mild or spicy Italian sausage)
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 tablespoon minced garlic cloves
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 large head cauliflower, cut into bite size pieces
- 4 C chopped kale
- 5 cups chicken broth
- 1 (13.8 oz) can coconut milk
- ⅛-1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional and to taste)
Instructions
- In a Dutch oven or large pot heat the soup pot to medium. Add the Italian sausage and cook it. Remove the cooked sausage from the pot and set it aside, leaving 1 tablespoon of sausage grease in the pot. Cook the crumbled bacon in the same manner, remove the cooked bacon from the pot and leave about 2 tablespoon of grease in the pot.
- Saute the onions in the grease until they're soft, which will take about 4-5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and cook it for 1 minute.
- Add the chicken broth, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and cauliflower to the pot, turn the heat up to medium high to bring it to a boil, then turn the heat down to medium low to simmer the cauliflower until it's fork tender which will take about 10+ minutes.
- Turn the pot down to low and add the coconut milk, chopped kale, bacon, and cooked sausage. Heat the soup until it's warm and the kale just turns bright green. Add more salt and pepper to taste.
- Garnish the dairy-free Zuppa Toscana soup with more bacon if desired, add red pepper flakes for a spicier soup. Enjoy!
Notes
Cook the cauliflower until it's JUST cooked through so that it doesn't get soggy while needing to simmer the remaining ingredients.
Read the labels of the sausage and bacon, in particular, to make sure they're Whole30 and keto compliant and don't add extra sugar.
Zuppa Toscana soup is so easy to adapt for various health restrictions and tastes. Don't like kale? Use spinach instead. Eating Whole30 but not necessarily low carb? Use diced potato cubes or sweet potatoes instead of cauliflower. Want a richer taste? Use coconut cream if you're trying to keep it dairy free or use 1 cup heavy whipping in place of coconut milk if you're low carb yet still consume dairy products.
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