Monday, November 7, 2011

vegan Olive Garden® Zuppa Toscana

Knock-off Olive Garden soup
All-you-can-eat soup, salad and breadsticks! Sometimes you just crave the kind-of-delicious/guilty-pleasure ambiguously ethnic food of the Darden Group. Not willing to re-create a Bloomin' Onion®, my favorite food chain re-creation is the Zuppa Toscana from the Olive Garden. Made vegan with fresh kale, purple potatoes (they have the same antioxidants as blueberries!), and cannellini beans, this soup blows our favorite SchmItalian restaurant out of the water. Or the broth, so to speak. 


Vegan Soup with Purple Potatoes, Cannellini Beans, and Kale 

3 purple potatoes, cut in half lengthwise, and sliced thin
1 can rinsed cannellini beans
3 cups kale chopped into thin strips
1 carton Imagine No Chicken broth
.5 large purple onion, chopped
1.5 tsp dried rosemary
1.5 tsp red pepper flakes
drizzle of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt

 Saute potatoes, onions and kale in olive oil for 10 minutes. Crush rosemary and salt in a mortar and pestle. Add rosemary salt, garlic, and red pepper flake to pot. Pour the broth and add rinsed cannellini beans. Garnish with fresh cracked black pepper. When you're here, you're family®!