This healthy Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana is the perfect mix of the authentic Italian recipe and the Olive Garden’s favourite Tuscan soup recipe. Featuring more veggies and less cream, it’s lighter yet just as hearty, nutritious and full of flavor. Great soup for the whole family!
WHAT’S SO GOOD ABOUT THIS ZUPPA TOSCANA?
Have you ever heard of Zuppa Toscana before? The term literally means Tuscan Soup and is a traditional Italian soup recipe normally made with cannellini beans, carrots, celery, kale, zucchini, and bacon, and finished off with crusty Italian bread, that is often stirred into the soup and left overnight to thicken up.
Then, there is the Olive Garden version (popular U.S. restaurant chain), which features Italian sausage and heavy cream that makes it a bit more decadent and perhaps more caloric. Both are equally delicious and we wanted to create a healthy hybrid version for this Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana recipe.
You can easily turn this soup into a gluten-free or lower-carb meal by omitting the crusty bread when serving the soup. White potatoes can be replaced with sweet potatoes and/or diced zucchini.
HOW TO MAKE INSTANT POT ZUPPA TOSCANA
We are using dried Cannelinin (white) beans in this recipe, which are pre-soaked in plenty of water for 8-12 hours. Make sure to rinse the soaked beans really well before adding to the soup.
You can use a variety of vegetables in this soup but we’re going with the classic celery, carrots, potatoes and adding roughly chopped kale for extra nutrients and lovely green color.
Our little Italian twist is adding pork sausage to the soup. Not only does it hearty flavor to this Tuscan soup, but it’s also high in protein making it a satiating meal. You can use regular or hot Italian sausage, of course.
The best thing about making this Zuppa Toscana Instant Pot recipe is that it’s pretty much a dump and cook kind of dish. We do like to saute the onions, carrots and celery with bacon first and once all other ingredients are added, pop the lid in and pressure cook on HIGH for 12 minutes with 10-minute natural pressure release. See the full list of ingredients and instructions in the recipe card below.
Once cooked, finish the soup by stirring in some cream and lemon juice to taste. Serve with crusty bread or enjoy as is for a gluten-free, bread-free version.
MORE ITALIAN INSTANT POT RECIPES
- Instant Pot Italian Fish (From Frozen)
- Italian-Inspired Mac & Cheese In Instant Pot
- Instant Pot Italian Pork & Bean Stew
- Italian Chicken Drumsticks In Instant Pot
- Instant Pot Italian Tomato Meatballs
Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana (Tuscan Soup)
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 40 mins
- Yield: 6 1x
- Category: Soup
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Italian
- Diet: Low Calorie
Description
This lighter, healthier Instant Pot Zuppa Toscana is the perfect mix of the authentic Italian recipe and the Olive Garden’s favourite Tuscan soup recipe. It’s hearty, nutritious and full of flavour with less cream and more vegetables.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 oz / 120g of bacon, diced
1 large carrot, diced
2 celery sticks, diced
1 medium onion, diced
2 large white potatoes, peeled and diced into cubes
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
2 Italian pork sausages, meat squeezed out into small chunks
3–4 large kale leaves, stems removed and leaves roughly chopped
3 cups dried white beans such as Cannellini beans (soaked, should yeild 3 cups)
1 teaspoon mixed Italian herbs or dried rosemary
2 cups tomato passata or tinned chopped tomatoes
4 cups / 1 litre water
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon chilli powder or flakes
To finish off
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons lemon juice
To serve: toasted Italian bread or sourdough broken into pieces
Instructions
- Prepare the ingredients before you start cooking.
- Turn the Instant Pot on and press the Sauté function key.
- Once hot, add the oil, bacon, carrots, celery and onion to the pot and sauté for 3-4 minutes, until softened.
- Add the rest of the ingredients, except for the cream, and stir through. Press the Keep Warm/Cancel button to stop the Sauteeing process.
- Place and lock the lid and set the Instant Pot to Manual/Pressure Cook, HIGH pressure and adjust the time to 12 minutes. After 3 beeps, the Instant Pot will start building up the pressure (will take 10 minutes) and cooking will commence.
- Once the timer goes off, allow the Instant Pot to release the pressure naturally for about 10 minutes. Then, use the quick release method to let off the rest of the steam (carefully move the steam release valve on the top to Venting). Don’t open the lid until the silver valve button on the lid has popped back down and the Instant Pot is easy to open.
- To finish the soup, stir in the heavy cream and lemon juice and check for salt.
- Serve in bowls topped with pieces of toasted or crusty Italian bread or sourdough. You can also add some grated Parmesan cheese.
Notes
- Make sure to presoak the beans overnight. Canned beans can also be used.
- You can make it ahead of time and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or freeze it for a couple of months. If freezing the soup, don’t add the cream until it’s been defrosted and reheated. Add the crusty bread when serving the hot soup.
- For a gluten-free version, omit the bread when serving the soup.
Keywords: Tuscan, Olive Garden, Beans, Soup, Italian, Sausage, Pork
SAVE THIS ZUPPA TOSCANA RECIPE TO PINTEREST
Love this recipe. Easily my favorite soup recipe. One question though… if I use canned beans instead of dry, do I put them in at the same time I would have put in the dry ones? Or should I put in the canned beans at the end or something?
★★★★★
Add the canned beans at the same time you would of with dry beans but make sure to drain the liquid from the can.
Thanks, Justin 🙂
Absolutely delicious! Used light cream because I had it on hand…
★★★★★
Used canned cannellini beans and light cream because I had. Absolutely delicious!!
★★★★★
Really people? I just printed out your recipe for zuppa toscana. It ended up being four pages, most of it pictures. I didn’t want to print a whole cookbook, just the one recipe. I guess next time I will copy and paste the part that I actually need. It does look like a good recipe though.
Have you never printed a recipe before? It happens if you’re not careful or don’t use the printed version if it’s available, and is it always. That was kind of a mean Reply and I’m just browsing for a recipe .
“3 cups dried white beans such as Cannellini beans (soaked, should yeild 3 cups) ”
3 cups dried beans will yield more like 6 cups – so how many beans do you need here?
Also, Margi, your comment/reply about printing was incorrect. Using the print button still leaves all the images on the page. I copied and pasted into a Word doc to get rid of them.
I made this once, and thought it needed more dept. I added some Costco pesto sauce and this time I’ll add some tomato paste and/or sun dried tomatoes, maybe more herbs. Just my humble opinion.
No browning the sausage?
Nope 🙂
I was under the impression that if one uses an instant pot, that pre-soaking was not necessary. Am I wrong? JM
Generally, presoaking will help you cook faster. While you can cook without soaking, this will increase the cook time. This recipe is designed for presoaking (Manual, HIGH pressure and adjust the time to 12 minutes with naturally for 10 minutes). Generally speaking, 1 pound dried beans need 6- 8 cups water in your Instant Pot, Cook on high pressure for 30 minutes for just cooked beans that hold their shape and have a bit of chew. Once beans have finished cooking, drain off the cooking liquid and use as directed in recipes.