Zuppa Toscana – Tuscan Soup with Stinging Nettle
Low Carb Zuppa Toscana is an amazingly delicious soup. Since I love all things foraged, I created this soup with stinging nettle instead of spinach or kale. But yes, you can use either of those if you can’t find nettle.
I highly recommend using sausage from pastured pork, grass-fed butter, and organic vegetables in the recipe. With the wild foraged stinging nettle, it will certainly be a nutrient dense meal.
Garnish this amazing soup with crumbled bacon and/or grated parmesan cheese. And if carbs aren’t an issue, serve with this same day sourdough bread. Your family and guests will rave!
Foraging Stinging Nettle
I realize that stinging nettle isn’t a plant that many people are eager to forage because, well, you know . . . it stings.
But there are definitely ways to prevent getting stung and cooking, dehydrating, and even chopping in the food processor all destroy the painful needles, making it safe to eat or use as an effective home remedy.
I go into detail regarding identifying, harvesting and using stinging nettle in my post How to Safely Forage and Use Stinging Nettle. Be sure to peruse that post if you are unfamiliar with foraging this plant.
Using Stinging Nettle
Stinging Nettle is a delicious, nutritional powerhouse that can be used to replace spinach or kale in recipes. And besides this soup with stinging nettle, I especially love it in spanakopita and nettle chips.
In addition, it has many properties that make it an effective herbal remedy. I love a cup of stinging nettle tea to ease seasonal allergies. Again, see my post on using nettle for lots more information.
 | Organic Nettle Leaf Tea Bags |
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Low Carb Zuppa Toscana with Stinging Nettle
Ingredients
- 1 lb mild Italian sausage preferably from pastured pork
- 1 large onion chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 quarts bone broth chicken or beef
- 6 cups cauliflower fresh or frozen, diced
- 3 – 4 cups fresh stinging nettle chopped (or 1/2 cup frozen) or use spinach or other wild greens
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- crumbled bacon for garnish
- grated parmesan cheese for garnish
Instructions
- Brown sausage with onion in butter in soup pot. Add garlic when sausage is almost browned. Remove from pot.
- Add broth, cauliflower, salt and pepper to pot, cover and bring to a boil. Lower to simmer until cauliflower is tender.
- Using an immersion blender, partially puree the cauliflower, being sure to leave some chunks.
- Return sausage to pot, add stinging nettle and red pepper flakes. Simmer for 15 minutes.
- Remove soup from heat and add heavy cream.
- Serve with crumbled bacon and/or grated parmesan cheese.
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[…] for other soups, like Low Carb Chicken "Noodle" soup. And did you know? You can also use it to make soup with stinging nettle! So many […]