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.
Ingredients
- 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 less if using salted broth
- 1 Tbsp ground black pepper
Instructions
- 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.
- Chop the potatoes into 1/2 inch dice and weigh out 4 1/2 lbs. Remove the kale ribs and weigh out 1 lbs.
- Brown the sausage over medium heat, stirring occasionally. This should take about 8 to 10 minutes.
- Add the prepared vegetables, seasoning, salt and broth or water.
- Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes until everything is heated through.
- Remove from heat and ladle the soup into prepared jars, 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. (Follow the instructions on your canner.)
- 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. *see notes
- Process jars for 75 minutes for pints and 90 minutes for quarts.
Notes
Ingredient Notes
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 from 5 pounds whole as purchased. Likewise, for 1 lb of stemmed kale, you'll need about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lbs with stems.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