This Creamy Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup recipe is made with zesty sausage, seasonal veggies and kale, tender white beans, and a creamy, garlicky, paprika-sage broth. Easy to make vegan, if you use plant-based sausage, and naturally gluten-free.
Say hello to my new favorite soup of the season. ♡
It’s one of those recipes that was such a hit that it was *instantly* added to our regular rotation. And friends and family — meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans alike — have been giving it rave reviews around our dining table ever since.
It basically checks all of the boxes of everything I love in a cozy soup this time of year. It’s nice and hearty, featuring a vibrant blend of seasonal veggies and greens, plus a can of white beans tossed in for some extra protein. It’s easy to make with your favorite type of traditional or meatless Italian sausage, both of which options are absolutely delicious. It’s simmered with the most delicious creamy, savory, garlicky, herby and slightly-sweet broth, thanks to the use of coconut milk in place of cream. And it all comes together easily in just over a half hour — always a weeknight win!
I’m definitely going to recommend that you reserve half of the crumbled sausage to sprinkle on top of your soup just before serving, along with some pepitas or other chopped nuts for a bit of crunch. And if you happen to have a good loaf of crusty bread on hand, we can vouch that this cozy broth is absolutely perfect for dunking. So good!!
Sausage and Sweet Potato Soup Ingredients
Before we get to the full recipe below, here are a few notes about the ingredients you will need:
- Sausage: We love making this soup with vegan sausage (Beyond Sausage or Field Roast are our faves), which makes the soup vegetarian. But feel free to use any variety of meat-based or vegan sausage that you prefer.
- Veggies: Just a simple mix of onion, garlic, carrots and sweet potato. But feel free to toss in any other favorite soup veggies that you love too. (For example, celery, bell peppers, or even broccoli would be delicious here.)
- Vegetable broth: Either vegetable stock or chicken stock will work in this recipe.
- Seasonings: I love the smoky, earthy mix of smoked paprika and fresh sage in this soup. And as always, don’t forget to season the soup with as much sea salt and black pepper as needed too.
- Beans: I like tossing in a can of white beans for extra protein, but any type of beans or lentils will be great here.
- Coconut milk: I use one can of full-fat coconut milk to make this soup nice and creamy, and I really enjoy how the subtly sweet coconut flavor pairs with the seasonings. But if you aren’t a big fan of coconut milk, feel free to add in a bit of half and half or heavy cream to make the soup creamy.
- Greens: I’ve been making this soup with fresh kale, since it’s in season right now. But fresh baby spinach or collard greens would also be delicious options.
- Toppings: I recommend reserving half of the crumbled sausage to sprinkle on top of each serving, but toasted pepitas, microgreens, fried sage leaves or a sprinkle of Parmesan would be delicious toppings as well.
Optional Variations
Here are a few other ways that you can customize this creamy sweet potato and sausage soup recipe and make it your own…
- Make it gluten-free: This recipe is naturally gluten-free if made with certified GF sausage. (It’s always a good idea to double-check the label with sausage.)
- Make it vegan/vegetarian: As mentioned above, this soup is easy to make vegan/vegetarian by using plant-based sausage. We’re partial to Field Roast or Beyond Sausage in our house.
- Use andouille sausage: Zesty andouille sausage would also be fantastic in this soup in place of Italian sausage.
- Use cream: If you aren’t a big fan of coconut milk, you’re welcome to add in your desired amount of heavy cream or half and half to make the soup creamy.
- Make it spicy: Feel free to toss in some crushed red pepper flakes to amp up the heat.
- Add bacon: This soup would also be fantastic with some bacon bits sprinkled on top and/or stirred into the soup.
More Favorite Soup Recipes
Looking for more cozy soup recipes to try this season? Here are a few of my faves:
- Cozy Autumn Wild Rice Soup
- Ultimate Chili
- Potato Soup
- Favorite Gumbo
- Lemony Lentil Soup
- Sopa Azteca (Tortilla Soup)
Creamy Sweet Potato and Sausage Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 pound ground Italian sausage (or vegan sausage*)
- 1 large white onion, peeled and diced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 cups vegetable broth
- 5 leaves of fresh sage
- 2 carrots, thinly sliced
- 1 1/2 pounds sweet potato, diced
- 1 1/2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 (15-ounce) can white beans, rinsed and drained
- 1 (15-ounce) can full-fat coconut milk
- 2 large handfuls chopped fresh kale
- salt and freshly-cracked black pepper, to taste
- optional toppings: pepitas, microgreens, fried sage leaves, etc.
Instructions
- Brown the sausage. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Sauté the sausage, crumbling it with a wooden spoon as it cooks, until browned. Transfer the sausage with a slotted spoon to a clean plate and set aside.
- Sauté the onion and garlic. Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in the stockpot. Add the onion and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add the garlic and sauté for 1-2 minutes, stirring frequently, until fragrant.
- Simmer. Add the vegetable stock, sage, carrots, sweet potato, smoked paprika, beans, half of the cooked sausage and stir until combined. Cook until the soup reaches a simmer. Then reduce heat to medium-low to maintain the simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes or until the sweet potatoes are tender.
- Season. Add the coconut milk and fresh kale and stir for 1-2 minutes, or until the kale begins to soften. Remove and discard the sage. Taste and season the soup with salt and pepper as needed.
- Serve. Serve warm, garnished with a spoonful of the remaining crumbled sausage plus any of your desired toppings.
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
My husband made this and added extra smoked paprika bc it was a bit bland. He added more coconut milk to make it creamier. Didn’t include the kale- maybe that’s why. We don’t care for cooked greens texture. Regardless, always can count on your recipes to be reliably good. I really like the optional additions info — most other recipe sites don’t include that.
Absolutely delicious! I used honeynut squash instead of sweet potato, and it was perfect. Thank you for such a cozy fall/winter recipe!
So good. Did half with meat and the other half without to feed the vegetarian and both are so good. The coconut milk makes the difference.
I liked this recipe but I had to make a couple changes. A family member is allergic to everything in the onion family so onions and garlic are out. I didn’t have any Italian sausage so I used a homemade breakfast sausage.
It was great. I did like the coconut milk.
I have followed you for a long time and made several of your recipes, all very good. I have never posted a comment to a recipe ever. But this one was SO good I had to post a comment. This soup is delicious and easy to prepare! Used hot Italian pork sausage and the heat was perfect. Didn’t have vegetable broth so I subbed chicken broth otherwise made as instructed. My husband gave it a 9.5/10! Looking forward to the leftovers tonight!
We loved this!!!
Made this today. Absolutely delicious. I used baby kale 🥬, so easy, and a white bean combination.
EXCELLENT!! Used chicken Italian sausage and chicken broth otherwise followed the recipe. So good!!!
This soup recipe is so delicious and pretty quick, once all the chopping is done:). I didn’t have any sausage, so added an extra can of white beans. I do want to try it with the sausage, but the extra can of beans was perfect. No kale, so used spinach as recommended in the notes. One of my family members doesn’t care for coconut milk, so at the point where coconut milk and greens are added, I put some of the soup into another pot and added whole milk and spinach to hers. The smoked paprika flavor comes through beautifully. Agreed by all that it should be made again! I really appreciate the time you take to add notes about the ingredients and the optional variations, this additional information is very helpful for me to grow in the kitchen. Thank you, Ali, for another fantastic recipe!
This was fantastic and came together very quickly. Added a few red pepper flakes as recommended in the Optional Variations section. This recipe is going straight into regular rotation in cold weather.
This was WONDERFUL. Everyone went back for seconds and gave it two thumbs up.
Very good! I had some leftover cooked chicken sausage crumbles and roasted sweet potatoes and looked for a recipe that could use them up and found this. I ended up using about 12 oz of cooked spinach and feta chicken sausage; that I got at the local city market; and about three sweet potatoes worth of roasted sweet potatoes. I used shallots instead of onions since that’s what I had, but everything else I followed the recipe on. I made it in advance to eat for dinner tonight, I might add a little bit of red pepper to it but other than that it’s perfect. Going to whip up a batch of cornbread to accompany this