Dairy-Free Zuppa Toscana Soup

This soup, you guys. It is quite possibly my new favorite meal of all time...it is that good! I worked at The Olive Garden in my former life (otherwise known as my 20's ;-)) so I have always been hesitant to try to replicate their delicious soup because I knew that I would be disappointed if it was gross. I hate to admit this, but I used to eat this stuff A LOT. I'm actually lucky that I didn't gain hundreds of pounds from all of the Olive Garden soups and fettuccini alfredo that I ate in my younger years. Anyway, I have been getting bored with my cooking lately because I am in a rut of rotating the same 10 or so meals every few weeks, so I decided to mix things up with this soup and THANK YOU JESUS it was amazing! And EASY!

I'm going to keep this post quick and to the point, because no words will prepare you for the deliciousness that you will experience on your first bite. ;-)

A few final notes:

1.) My husband is VERY wary of coconut flavor in places that it shouldn't be (i.e.: this soup) but there is not even the tiniest hint of coconut flavor or essence in this. If there was, I wouldn't be recommending it to you!
2.) For my broth, I used 2 cartons of sodium-free chicken bone broth, and then added one tablespoon of chicken bouillon to make up the flavor. It worked fabulously, but feel free to use what you have and salt and pepper as needed!
3.) Yes, normally Zuppa Toscana soup would include bacon, but I don't eat pork and I didn't think that turkey bacon would taste right in this recipe so I left it out. If you eat pork, by all means add it to your soup--I'm sure it will only make things better! Oh, and on that note, I used chicken Italian sausage and it was delish! :-)
4.) I personally LOVE the red pepper in this recipe, but my kids run and hide from the slightest hint of spice so I left it out of the pot and just added it to my own bowl. Win-Win.
5.) I took only one photo of the soup. It smelled so good that eating it was more important than photographing it, haha. Sorry, but not sorry. ;-)