This recipe is one of our favorite soups that I just created from my brain the first time I made it because I had sausage defrosting and needed to cook it.

Very coincidentally, it’s similar to Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana Soup (which I’ve never had or even heard of until I was writing this recipe post). So, it’s definitely not a copycat or a dupe for that.

They’re similar in that both have sausage, potato, and greens. But, ours uses spinach and theirs uses baby kale. From what I can tell, that one also uses bacon and this doesn’t. And theirs doesn’t have corn. So, similar, but not the same.

Any brand of mild, ground sausage will work in this recipe. Personally, we use the Appleton Farms premium pork sausage from ALDI because it’s budget-friendly and delicious, but you can use any mild sausage. 

We love spicy Italian sausage, but the flavors of that would overpower the rest of this recipe.
Also, don’t use breakfast sausage in this, even if that’s all you have on hand. It would change the flavor too much.

We use white potatoes in this because the skin on white potatoes is really thin and basically melts into the creamy soup without changing the texture of it at all. So that means you can save time and not worry about peeling the potatoes.

If you can’t find white potatoes, you can use Russet potatoes instead. Just make sure to peel them first because the skin won’t melt away and will instead, float in your soup and not really give you the mouthfeel you’re looking for.

The half and half in this recipe acts as both a thickener and a way to make the soup creamier.

If you need to keep this recipe dairy free, you can remove some of the soup and add it to a tablespoon of flour. Stir them together to make a slurry, then stir that back into the soup to thicken it.

I prefer to use half and half in soups because I prefer a creamy potato soup. You don’t get that from a slurry.

If you don’t have half and half, you can use heavy cream or whole milk instead. Both will give the soup a creamy texture. They’ll make the soup a little more rich than it is as written. 

We highly recommend you keep the diced green chilis in this recipe. They add an amazing flavor and a bit of heat, which is why you only need to add a little bit of salt to this and no other seasoning.

If you skip the chilis and don’t add in a ton of additional seasoning, you’ll end up with a really bland recipe.

Let the soup cool down to room temperature. Then, pack it in an airtight container and keep it in the fridge for three to four days.

If you’re not going to eat the soup in that time, you can freeze it for up to three months. We love doing that because it’s a great way to make a hot dinner on busy weeknights. Just pull it from the freezer, reheat it, and dinner is done.

You can reheat any leftover soup in the microwave. Just heat it on high for 90 seconds. You could also reheat it in a covered, large pot on the stove top for about five minutes until it’s heated through.