Dearest family. You HAVE to make this. It's easy and absolutely delicious.
Ingredients:
- 1 lb Italian sausage
- (I used 5th Street Grill Italian Turkey Sausage from Costco and it smelled and tasted exactly like Olive Garden's soup.)
- 2 large russet baking potatoes
- 1 large onion
- 1/2 cup bacon bits
- 2 garlic cloves
- 2 cups kale
- (I used swiss chard 'cause that's what I got in my basket)
- 2 (1.4 oz) cans chicken broth
- 4 cups water
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- Slice sausage into thin slices.
- Add sausage to a small pot and allow it to brown on low while you complete next few steps. (Stir occasionally to brown all sides.)
- In another large soup pot combine chicken broth and water and turn burner on medium.
- Wash (don't peel) the two potatoes and cut both in half longwise. Then slice the potatoes into half circles about 1/4 inch thick.
- Dice the large onion (yes all of it - trust me).
- Add the potatoes, onion, and garlic to chicken broth and water pot.
- Boil the potatoes until you can stick a fork through them easily.
- Add the browned sausage and bacon bits to the soup.
- Salt and pepper to taste (I didn't need to add any salt, but did add a healthy amount of pepper.)
- Simmer for another 10 minutes.
- Turn heat to low.
- Add kale and whipping cream.
- Warm all the way through and serve.
As a side note, we found that it tasted AMAZING with buttered french bread. Yeah . . . we ate a lot of french bread. We'll find out today if it tastes as good as a left over. Next task, figure out the olive garden salad dressing.