Vegan Zuppa Toscana – a Bright Line Eating Recipe

The vegan zuppa toscana recipe on my YouTube channel is one of my more popular recipes. It gets so many compliments for being so close to the original while also being WFPB. Now that I am also following the Bright Line Eating lifestyle I decided to update the recipe to follow the weight loss food plan for Bright Line Eating which means I had to find some way to replace the potatoes without altering the taste or texture. Enter the humble turnip!

I hadn’t planned on making zuppa toscana, but as I was walking through the grocery store (which I do so rarely these days thanks to Covid-19) inspiration struck! I saw a huge bunch of lacinato kale with super green leaves that were just calling to me, and right next to the kale were some turnips! I pretty much already had everything else in my pantry, so I thought why not give it a try.

I bought the kale and turnips, went home, turned on my camera (in case it worked out), and got to cooking! You’ll notice the recipe below is a bit different than what I did in the video since I learned a few things in my first attempt, so you get the benefit of my mistakes. I made this in a pot since my last video I used an Instant Pot, but I definitely recommend the Instant Pot if you have one. It’s a LOT faster, and you don’t have any loss of liquid from evaporation which could potentially affect your ratios as far as BLE is concerned (I added a bit more broth at the end as I could see the line in the pot where the liquid started at).

BLE Zuppa Toscana

Course: Main Course

Ingredients

• 1 medium yellow onion diced

• 2 tsp garlic powder

• 1.5 Tbsp Italian seasoning

• 2 tsp smoked paprika

• 0.5 tsp red pepper flakes

• 2 medium turnips diced into bite sized pieces

• 7 cups vegetable stock

• 1 bunch kale

• 1 can full fat coconut milk

• 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast

• salt and pepper to taste

• 2 cans cannellini beans

Instructions

1. Sauté onion over medium heat until onions are soft and translucent.

2. Add spices and sauté another minute, taking care not to burn them.

3. Add the turnips, kale, and vegetable stock. Bring to a boil then simmer and cook until potatoes are tender, about 20-30 minutes.

4. Once the turnips are tender, add the coconut milk and stir until incorporated.

5. Add the nutritional yeast, salt and pepper to taste, and serve with cannellini beans.

Notes

Instant Pot version: after adding the turnips, kale, and vegetable stock, seal lid and cook on manual, high pressure for 3 minutes. Quick release. Then continue following the remaining steps.