Canning Sausage Potato and Kale Soup (Copycat Zuppa Toscana)

Canning sausage potato and kale soup means you have a delicious comfort food meal in a jar ready to go at a moment’s notice.  This particular recipe is similar to Olive Garden’s “Zuppa Toscana” and even better when served with a splash of cream.

Home canned soups are an easy way to store ready-to-heat and eat meals right on your pantry shelf.  This particular recipe is exceptionally comforting, especially when served with a splash of cream for extra richness.

This simple recipe for sausage, potato and kale soup is a copycat recipe that’s very similar to Olive Garden’s “Zuppa Toscana,” especially when served with cream and breadsticks.

It can’t be thickened before canning, but you can thicken it to serve if you choose.

It’s also absolutely delicious as is; just heat and eat right out of the jar.

Ingredients for Zuppa Toscana

The ingredients for canning sausage potato and kale soup are quite simple, and the recipe’s name pretty much sums up the ingredient list.

To make a canner batch of 7 quarts (or 14 pints), you’ll need the following:

• 3 lbs (1.4 kg) ground sausage (seasoned or plain)
• 4 1/2 lbs (2 kg) peeled and cubed potatoes (1/2 inch cubes)*
• 1 lbs (450 g) de-stemmed and chopped kale*
• 10 cups chicken broth, vegetable broth, or water
• 1 to 2 tbsp canning salt
• 1 Tbsp ground black pepper

You can use seasoned sausage (like Italian sausage or chorizo) for this recipe, or unseasoned ground pork.  The salt in this recipe is designed to account for seasoned prepared sausage with salt added.  If using unseasoned sausage, you’ll likely need a bit more salt for flavor, and you might also want to add some dry spices like garlic and paprika. 

(Adjust to your tastes.  You’re always allowed to add more or less salt to pressure caning recipes, and you’re able to use a reasonable amount of any dry seasoning as well.)

The quantity of potato and kale in this recipe is weighed once prepared.  To make about 4 1/2 lbs of peeled potatoes, you’ll need about 5 pounds as purchased.  Likewise, for 1 lbs of stemmed kale, you’ll need about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lbs with stems.

Once canned, this soup can be served as is, or you can add 1/2 cup heavy cream or half and half per quart.  For a thickened soup, you can also add a cornstarch slurry made with 1 tbsp of cornstarch per quart. 

Keep in mind that cream and cornstarch cannot be added before canning.  They’re optional, and if you choose to use them, they can only be added at serving.

Canning Sausage, Potato & Kale Soup

This is a hot pack canning recipe, and all the ingredients will need to be simmered together before adding to canning jars.

Prepare a pressure canner, along with jars, lids, and rings.  For most canners, this means adding 2 to 3 inches of water and bringing it up to around just simmering (around 180 degrees F).  Follow the instructions on your particular brand of pressure canner.

Once the canner is prepared, you can start making the soup.

Start by preparing your potatoes.  You’ll need about 5 lbs of potatoes as purchased to make 4 1/2 lbs of peeled and diced potatoes (1/2 inch dice).

Next, prepare the kale.

Kale stems can be added, but they tend to get tough during canning.  I’d recommend just using the leaves and removing the potentially tough and stringy stems.  (You can also make this recipe using chard, and in that case, go ahead and leave in the stems.)

It takes about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lbs of kale as purchased to make 1 lbs of kale leaves (trimmed).

Once your vegetables are prepared, it’s time to brown the sausage.  Raw meat tends to lead to poor-quality home-canned soups, and it’s always recommended that you pre-brown the meat.

Brown the sausage over medium heat.  This should take about 10 minutes. 

Stir occasionally to encourage even browning, but try to leave some small chunks, and don’t break it up too much.

Once the sausage is browned, add in the vegetables, seasonings, salt, and the broth or water.  Personally, I like to use homemade chicken broth, but vegetable broth or pork stock also work well.

Some people use half stock and half water, or all water.  Using broth will result in a richer stock.  If using broth with added salt, be sure to reduce the salt in the recipe accordingly.

Bring the mixture to a simmer on the stove and cook for about 5 minutes until all the ingredients are heated through.

Remove the pot from the heat and ladle into prepared jars (pints or quarts), leaving 1” headspace.

Once filled, de-bubble jars, adjust headspace, and then cap the jars with 2-part canning lids and seal with rings to finger tight.

Load the jars into the canner on your canning trivet and add the lid.  Turn the heat up to high.

Allow the canner to vent steam for 10 minutes, then seal the canner and bring it up to pressure.

This soup is canned at 10 pounds of pressure at sea level, but you’ll need to adjust for altitude if you’re about 1,000 feet in elevation.

Process times are 75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts.

Altitude Adjustments

The canning time for this soup remains the same regardless of altitude.  Pint jars are processed for 75 minutes, and quart jars are processed for 90 minutes.

Pressure, however, changes based on elevation and the type of canner you’re using.

Altitude adjustments for canning sausage potato and kale soup are as follows:

For dial gauge pressure canners:

• 0 to 2,000 feet in elevation – 11 lbs pressure
• 2,001 to 4,000 feet in elevation – 12 lbs pressure
• 4,001 to 6,000 feet in elevation – 13 lbs pressure
• 6,001 to 8,000 feet in elevation – 14 lbs pressure

For weighted gauge pressure canners:

• 0 to 1,000 feet in elevation – 10 lbs pressure
• Above 1,000 feet – 15 lbs pressure

Note that in general, the USDA suggests canning times of 60 minutes for soup pints, and 75 minutes for quarts, but those recipes have much more liquid in the jars.  Their chicken soup recipe, for example, has the jars only half filled with solids.

This recipe uses the times for meat and other dense, full jar recipes developed by the USDA.  Be sure to use the full 75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts for this recipe, rather than the generic soup processing instructions.

Once the canning time is complete, turn off the heat and allow the canner to cool to room temperature naturally.

Once completely cool, remove the jars and place them on a towel on the counter.

Even when the canner is cool, the jars may still be a bit hot, so make sure you let them finish cooling completely on the counter.

Once all the way cool, check seals and store any unsealed jars in the refrigerator for immediate use.

Properly pressure-canned and sealed jars of sausage, potato, and kale soup will maintain peak quality on the pantry shelf for 12 to 18 months.

After that point, the jars are still fine to eat provided they’re still sealed…but the quality will start to degrade.

Refrigerate after opening.

Serving Sausage, Potato & Kale Soup

To serve, empty the contents of a quart jar into a saucepan and gently heat over medium-low heat.  This should take about 10 minutes for everything to fully heat through.

If you’d like, you can thicken the soup with a cornstarch slurry made with 1 tbsp of cornstarch per quart.  You can also add about 1/2 cup of heavy cream or half and half per quart.

A sprinkling of fresh herbs is really amazing too, and it’s best served with toast or breadsticks.

All of these things are optional, and it’s also perfectly fine as a simple heat-and-eat meal in a jar.

Soup Canning Recipes

Looking for more soup canning recipes?

• Canning Carrot Soup
• Canning Split Pea Soup
• Canning Beef Stew
• Canning Chicken Soup

This canning recipe for Sausage, Potato, and Kale soup is adapted from Angi Schneider’s cookbook, Pressure Canning for Beginners and Beyond.  Lovely pictures in this post by Chez LaRae.

Pressure Canning Recipes

Keep that pressure canner running with these pressure-canning recipes:

• Canning Chicken
• Canning Beef Broth
• Canning Boston Baked Beans
• Canning Thai Red Curry Duck