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Let your Slow Cooker or Instant Pot do all the work for you in this flavorful soup packed with veggies, fresh herbs, sausage, and a flavorful broth with white wine! So easy with less than 15 minutes of prep time!
A cozy and hearty crockpot soup recipe loaded with veggies and flavor is exactly the meal to make to revitalize your spirits. Feeling run down? This soup will lift your spirits! Feeling all the nostalgia on a chilly night by the fire? This Instant Pot soup is here to make you happy. If you’re somewhere in between, this Sausage, Sweet Potato, and Kale Soup is here to tip the scale in your favor.
As a nutritionist, I love nothing more than nutritious Instant Pot soup recipes. Soups provide us with that feeling of fullness without being heavy, and are generally loaded with nutrients from vegetables and protein. My vegetable forward soups like my Creamy Carrot Ginger Soup with Coconut Milk and Instant Pot Broccoli Potato Soup are two of my most popular recipes! They are also reader favorites and family favorites for a reason.
This particular soup is loaded with veggies, fresh herbs, and additional flavor boosters in here like white wine and sausage. Effortless and packed with flavor, this is one of those Instant Pot recipes I can confidently recommend again and again.
I love adding mushrooms to soups like this—they soak up all the rich flavors and give it that extra earthy depth. This works perfectly to elevate this soup to a more sophisticated restaurant level. The best part? With a breezy 15-minute prep time and a hands-off approach using the Instant Pot or Slow Cooker, it fits right in with the kind of quick and easy meals that let us spend more time doing what we love!
How to make Sausage, Kale and Sweet Potato Soup
Here are the ingredients you will need:
- Cooking oil
- Yellow onion
- Sliced mushrooms
- Ground sausage (turkey or pork)
- Garlic cloves
- Sweet Potatoes
- Chicken broth
- White wine
- Apple cider vinegar
- Dried basil
- Chopped kale
- Fresh thyme
I love the hands off approach with the Instant Pot and Slow Cooker. We do start off by sauteeing the onion and mushrooms. We’ll then toss in the sausage and cook until mostly cooked through. At this point, let your appliance do the work!
We’ll toss in the remaining ingredients (with the exception of the kale) into your Instant Pot. Or if using the slow cooker, transfer the sausage, onion, and mushrooms to the slow cooker. Toss in remaining ingredients (no kale), and cover with the lid.
Once cook time is complete, add the kale and let sit for about 10 minutes before serving with fresh thyme.
Adaptations and Ingredient swaps:
- Tortellini version: I have another variation of this soup in the Slow Cooker that I also love: Slow Cooker Sausage and Tortellini Soup with Kale. It’s one of my most popular recipes, but I often get people to ask me how to adapt the recipe to certain dietary restrictions and that’s why I created this version.
- White wine: The wine provides a ton of flavor! It is probably my favorite ingredient. But, you can omit and just add in additional broth along with some white wine vinegar.
- Kale: I also have to talk a bit about the kale. You may know that I don’t love kale, but I love to mix up my nutrients and throw it in soup. Even if you’re a kale hater, TRY IT HERE!!! It’s yummy mixed in this soup. Fresh kale works best, and add it toward the end of cooking so it doesn’t get too mushy. Otherwise, you can omit altogether or use spinach it it’s place.
- Sweet Potatoes: the sweet potatoes can be replaced with regular white potatoes, or for a low carb and Keto variation use cauliflower.
- Sausage: It’s definitely okay to use turkey or pork sausage in this soup
- Parmesan cheese: You can top with parmesan cheese if that’s not restricted for you; my kids go nuts in the cheese department.
Serving, Storing and re-heating
- Serving: serve hot with additional fresh herbs, crushed red pepper for a spicy variation, and maybe even parmesan cheese! I love this soup with one of my favorite salads: Easy House Salad or a fall salad like my Apple Slaw with Toasted Pecan Vinaigrette.
- Storing: store in the fridge for up to 5 days. Please note, the kale and sweet potatoes will tend to get mushy after re-heating. I would not recommend freezing because of this!
- Re-heat: on the stove over medium low heat.
If you make this soup, I would love to have you leave a review below! Or feel free to tag me on Instagram @wholesomelicious with your creation!
Easy Crumbled Sausage, Kale & Sweet Potato Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb ground turkey or pork sausage
- 1 medium white onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 large sweet potatoes, skinned and chopped
- 10 oz sliced mushrooms
- 5 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup dry white wine*
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp dried basil
- 1 tsp sea salt, plus extra to taste
- 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
- 3 cups roughly chopped kale
- 2 tbsp freshly chopped thyme, optional
Instructions
- For the Instant Pot:
- Select the saute function on your instant pot. Let it heat up (about 2 minutes). Add olive oil to coat the pot, and toss in ground sausage. Cook until almost cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add onion and garlic. Cook for another 3-4 minutes.
- Add sweet potatoes, mushrooms, chicken broth, wine, vinegar, dried basil, salt, and pepper. Secure the lid.
- Select manual and cook at high pressure for 8 minutes. Select cancel and use a quick release.
- Open lid and add kale. Let cook with lid open for another 3-4 minutes, or until kale is softened but not wilted. Add additional salt if needed. Garnish with fresh thyme and serve.
- For the Slow Cooker:
- Heat up a large skillet to medium high heat. Coat your pan with olive oil and add sausage. Cook for 5 minutes, then add in onion and garlic and cook another 3-4 minutes.
- Place sausage mixture in your slow cooker. Add sweet potatoes, mushrooms, chicken broth, white wine, vinegar, basil, salt, and pepper.
- Set your slow cooker to low and cook for 4 hours.
- At the end of 4 hours, add kale and stir. Let cook for another 10-15 minutes, or until kale has softened.
- Serve hot with fresh thyme.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Best soup EVER!
A sweet potato. I learned that true yams are from Africa and not at all like sweet potatoes. We have used the names interchangeably for many years here in the States. Just finished making this. What a gem! So much flavor with just a few ingredients. Thanks for sharing!!
This is one of the best soups I’ve ever made. So flavorful and delicious.
This soup is so easy to throw together and tastes like 4-star restaurant quality (or at least the overpriced $10 quart of soup you shell out for at Whole Foods!) I used homemade veggie broth instead of chicken, threw in a couple of spears of chopped celery I needed to use up and a bay leaf, used fresh basil and added the fresh thyme right into the pot. My vegetarian husband remarked how good it smelled and looked a wee bit jealous while I was eating it and my 9 year old gave it a big thumbs up. Definitely going into regular rotation! Makes a nice large portion enough to freeze for later.
It was not as good as anticipated. I have made this from a much better recipe and could not find it, so tried this. It was ok
the soup was amazing in my instapot. I am watching my calories as well and would like to get nutritional info on the soup. thank you.
I just updated the recipe with the calories and nutrition facts. You can find them at the bottom of the recipe.
This soup is so tasty! My only suggestion: I use 3 cups of chicken broth and 2 cups water instead of the 5 cups broth. I’ve found that using only broth adds a too-strong flavor that dominates the soup. The water mellows out the chicken flavor and allows the vinegar, wine and sausage flavors to stand out.
We love this soup! I’m trying to keep an eye on my calorie intake right now. How much is a serving size? 1 cup? How many calories per serving? Thanks!
I chose to use shiitake mushrooms and they were absolutely perfect. Next time I make it, I am going to cut my sweet potato into larger chunks because it did get kind of mushy. This recipe is fantastic though and thank you for sharing. I cant wait to make this again!
AMAZING! Definitely making this again!!