Creamy Italian Sausage Soup with Tortellini and Kale
Italian sausage soup with tortellini and kale is a satisfying and complete meal, with juicy Italian sausage, tender cheese tortellini, plenty of veggies, and a lightly creamy, tomatoey broth. Takes 30 minutes and can be made in only one pot!
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I don’t know about you, but I love a 30-minute one-pot dinner that’s flavorful, filling, and tastes like a million bucks. And a main-course soup? LOVE. THEM.
We tend to default to making this Greek lemon chicken orzo soup with kale and the coconut curry soup with chicken and kale (oh my gosh, do I really put kale in all my favorite soups? I guess so!) but I was looking for a new soup on the block to mix things up a bit.
Enter this Italian sausage soup with tortellini — and, yes, also kale.
About Italian Sausage Soup with Tortellini
Tortellini in a big bowl with sauce and toppings is delicious, but can sometimes feel overly heavy as a meal. This soup, on the other hand, embraces the tender, cheesy pasta in a bowl of creamy chicken-tomato broth, along with tomatoes, onions, carrots, kale, and Italian sausage.
While the broth is rich and delicious, this soup still manages to feel lighter than tortellini pasta on its own. But it’s absolutely also a full and filling meal. And clocking in at only 30 minutes with one pot, it’s a dinner winner in my book!
Why do you love kale in soup so much?
Yeah, about that. Hah.
I know kale is supposed to be a superfood and all, and that’s an awesome added bonus, but it isn’t what drove my decision to put it in basically all my favorite soups. To me, kale is the ultimate soup green because unlike spinach, it retains its shape and stays a little al dente instead of wilting into wispy nothingness.
Other heavier greens could work too, like mustard greens or collards, but kale tastes and looks great, is readily available and is a really easy go-to option.
How to make Italian Sausage and Tortellini Soup
Super simple, guys. Sauté the root veggies (onions and carrots), add the sausage and brown it.
Then you add chicken broth, tomato sauce, and herbs and cook your tortellini in it once it boils. The pasta soaks up some of the flavor from the broth to make it extra-delicous!
Then you add the cream and a cornstarch slurry to thicken the broth. Finally, add your kale. It may hold up over time in a hot broth but adding it at the end will keep it an appetizing bright green. That’s it!
Sop up all that broth with some homemade crusty bread or garlic bread (never a bad idea). It’s warm, cozy, and filling, but not too heavy.
What goes well with this soup?
Bread and a simple green salad are perfect companions to this Italian sausage soup with tortellini!
More main-dish soup recipes
If you love soups for dinner like I do, check out these other easy and hearty main-dish soups!
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Creamy Italian Sausage Soup with Tortellini, Tomatoes, and Kale
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion diced, about 1 cup
- 3 medium carrots diced, about 1 cup
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 lb Italian sausage casings removed, if necessary
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1 28-oz can diced tomatoes undrained
- 1 8-oz can tomato sauce
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 20 oz refrigerated cheese tortellini
- 3/4 cup heavy or double cream
- 4 tbsp cornstarch
- 8 cups kale thick stems removed and roughly chopped
Instructions
- Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a large dutch oven or heavy-bottomed pot. Sauté onions and carrots until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 30 seconds or until fragrant.
- Add sausage and red pepper flakes. Brown sausage, breaking it up into small pieces as it cooks with a spatula.
- Add chicken broth, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, oregano, and basil. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Add tortellini and cook for until tender, about 6-8 minutes.
- In a small bowl, combine cornstarch with 2-3 tablespoons of cold water and stir with a fork until it makes a smooth slurry (no lumps). Stir cream into soup, followed by cornstarch slurry, stirring constantly until incorporated.
- Bring soup back up to a simmer and cook for several minutes until thickened.
- Stir in kale and cook for 3 minutes, until wilted but still bright green.
- Serve immediately with crusty bread or a green salad, if desired.
