Slow Cooker Zuppa Toscana

From my understanding, this is a favorite, signature Olive Garden soup.  We have never tried it before at Olive Garden but one of  our friends stated they made this exact recipe, and loved it, so we thought we would give it a try.  Hoping for another warm soup on a cold January night!  Of course, I saw the "note",  goes with "nice crusty bread",  and I was all in!

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground Hot Italian sausage
• 1 bag Simply Potatoes, diced potatoes and onions
• 2 large cloves garlic minced
• 32 oz. chicken stock
• 1/2 bunch kale, stemmed and torn into bite sized pieces
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 Tbs flour
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Pinch of red pepper flakes, optional

Instructions

1. Heat large saute pan over medium high heat and brown sausage
2. Add minced garlic and stir to combine
3. Drain off the grease and then add sausage and garlic to the bottom of slow cooker
4. Add bag of diced potatoes and onion, cover with chicken stock and water (if necessary) to completely cover potatoes and sausage.
5. Cover and cook on LOW for 5-6 hours or HIGH for 3-4 (potatoes should be soft)
6. BEFORE SERVING:
7. Whisk together heavy cream and flour until well mixed.  Pour into slow cooker, add kale and stir to combine.
8. Cover and cook on HIGH for 30 minutes until soup has thickened slightly.
9. Taste, season according to you taste and serve.

Notes:  

**if desired, top soup with slices of crumbled peppered bacon

**goes great with a nice crusty bread

Tupps Tidbits:  I did not use the bag of Simply Potatoes.  I peeled and cut up 20 oz. of potatoes, and diced some onion.

Where did we find this?  www.thechunkychef.com

We changed this recipe by using turkey sausage & Italian seasoning, maybe that is why were were only able to choke down about a bowl before we threw the rest in the trash! It did NOT warm up the tummy or fill it!   NOT A KEEPER in our house!!