Vegan Zuppa Toscana

This recipe is a veganized version of Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana, courtesy of Dominic Geracia at NerdEats.net. Dominic has a great passion for food and is moving towards a vegan diet, so he thought he would use vegan alternatives and see if they passed the test. And according to him, they did! We were also big fans of this soup in our non-vegan days and cannot wait to try Dominic’s creation…it looks absolutely delicious!

Ingredients:

1 medium onion, chopped
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 and 1/2 vegetable bouillon cubes, whisked into 6 cups of hot water
1 tube of Gimme Lean ground “sausage” (This is not available in Canada – I used Tofurky Italian Sausages and they were great!)
3 small russet potatoes
1 tbsp garlic, chopped
1 cup of milk substitute (I had rice milk on hand so I used that)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (more or less depending on your spice preference)
1/2 tbsp italian seasoning (I used this because I didn’t have the Gimme Lean italian flavor)
2 tbsp Earth Balance
2 cups of sliced kale
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Chop up the onion and add it to a large pan with a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Add a pinch of salt to help the onions sweat their natural liquids and become transparent. While the onions are sweating, combine one cup of hot water with the vegetable bouillon cubes and whisk until the liquid is clear.

After the onions have successfully sweated out their juices and are transparent, stir in the crushed red pepper flakes, garlic, and italian seasoning. Next, stir in the tube of “sausage.” It was a bit tough to break up, so you might want to use a whisk or potato masher to make even pieces. Then, add in your one cup of hot water with the bouillon, as well as an additional 5 cups of water. Make sure to scrape all of the little bits off of the bottom of the pan as well, there is some good flavor in there!

Next, slice up the potatoes into half inch medallions. If you’re not going to be using them within the next 15 minutes, soak them in salt water to prevent them from browning. Add in the rice milk (or another milk substitute). Bring soup to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Carefully drop the potatoes into the broth (don’t get splashed with hot liquid like I did). Simmer the soup for about a half hour, or until the potatoes are fork-tender.

Drop in the Earth Balance (or other butter substitute), as well as the chopped kale. The kale will only take a few minutes to cook, around three minutes. Look at that color! I served this with a toasted mult-grain bun for some dippage action!

Thanks for sharing, Dominic!

~The Vegan Project