Name: Hearty Tuscan Soup
Prep time: 8 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 28 min
Cuisine: Tuscan
Ingredients: 2 Tbsp avocado oil; 1 medium yellow onion, diced; 1/2 cup chopped mushrooms; 4 large garlic cloves, minced; 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes; 1 lb ground beef; 1 Tbsp Italian seasoning; 1 1/2 tsp salt, divided; 1/4 tsp black pepper; 8 cups chicken broth; 8 oz (1/2 lb) shell pasta (large sized shells work great here!); 3 cups chopped kale; 1 cup grass-fed heavy cream; 8 oz ricotta (optional, makes it creamier, but it’s still great without it!)

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Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe· 5 from 4 reviews

This one-pot Hearty Tuscan Soup is filling, delicious, warming, comforting, and everything else that you want a soup to be! It is loaded with nutrients from the broth, onion, garlic, kale, mushrooms, and ground beef. It also has delicious and cozy shell noodles with heavy cream and ricotta cheese to make it creamy, but you can also make it dairy-free by omitting the cream and ricotta! It’s still incredible without it.

Nutritional benefits of this recipe

Broth is rich in glutamine, collagen, and gelatin and is a superfood for the gut, immune system, skin, hair, nails, and more.
Garlic and onion are naturally antimicrobial and antibacterial and are a great defense for the immune system.
Ground beef is rich in iron, protein, vitamin b12, and more. It makes this soup satiating and filling.
For the healthiest noodles, I recommend buying Italian imported noodles that are organic. The regulations for wheat are much more strict in Italy, so the quality is much better. Nowadays, you can find imported noodles from Italy in most grocery stores.
For the healthiest dairy, I always recommend buying grass-fed. Better yet, if you can support a local farm that has grass-fed cows and dairy products, then do that!

Ingredients for Hearty Tuscan Soup

Avocado oil for cooking

Onion – you can use sweet onion, yellow onion, or shallots

Garlic

Sun-dried tomatoes – I used my homemade version!

Mushrooms

Ground beef – Turkey would also be delicious in this!

Broth

Pasta shells – I recommend shells because the ground beef in this soup easy get stuck in the shell opening, which means the ground beef doesn’t fall to the bottom of the soup and you get a flavorful bite with every pasta piece! I used a medium sized shell, as pictured.

Spices – Italian seasoning, salt, and black pepper

Heavy cream – For a lighter soup, you can sub with milk or half and half. You can omit if dairy-free, it’s still delicious.

Ricotta – This is an optional addition to make the soup more creamy. It’s still delicious without it!

Method for Hearty Tuscan Soup

Prep the onion, mushrooms, garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes as instructed.
Preheat a pot that is at least 5 quarts to medium high heat with the avocado oil. Once preheated, add the diced onion and mushrooms and cook for about 5 minutes until the onions are translucent and fragrant. Stir occasionally.
Add the minced garlic and the diced sun-dried tomatoes and cook another minute.
Add the ground beef, 1 Tbsp italian seasoning, 1 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp black pepper and cook about 5-8 minutes until cooked through, stirring and breaking it up to combine everything.
Once the beef is cooked through, add the broth and another 1/2 tsp salt and turn the heat to high to bring the broth to a boil. Chop the kale up while you wait for it to boil.
Once boiling, add the pasta shells and chopped kale and cook about 8-10 minutes until the noodles are cooked through (cooking time may depend on the brand).
After the noodles are cooked through, add the heavy cream and ricotta (if using) and stir well to combine. Taste test, add salt if desired, and enjoy!
Please be sure to leave a comment and rating if you try this recipe! I would love to hear what you think.

Modifications

For a lighter soup, you can sub the heavy cream for half and half or for milk. If I were to do milk instead, I would use 2 cups milk and decrease the broth to 7 cups. For half and half, I would stick to 8 cups broth and do 1 cup half and half.
To make it dairy free, you can simply omit the cream and ricotta! It’ll be less hearty and not creamy, but will still be delicious!
Make the recipe gluten-free by using a gluten-free pasta.
If you have fresh sage on hand, then feel free to add some to the soup! I would finely chop it up and add it at the same time that you add the heavy cream and ricotta. It would be delicious.

Other recipes you’ll love

Tuscan Chicken Pasta Bowls

Homemade Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Easy Veggie Chicken Noodle Soup

I hope you love this Hearty Tuscan Soup! Please be sure to leave a comment and rating if you try it out. I would love to know what you think, and your support helps my website so much!!