Are you craving the flavors of pizza but trying to stick to a low-carb or keto diet? Look no further than this creamy and flavorful keto pizza soup! This recipe captures the essence of pizza in a comforting soup form, packed with your favorite toppings and nourishing ingredients. Whether you're a seasoned keto enthusiast or simply looking for a healthy and satisfying meal, this pizza soup is sure to become a family favorite.
Why You'll Love This Keto Pizza Soup
- Pizza Flavors: This soup is filled with your favorite pizza flavors and will satisfy any pizza craving.
- Healthy: There’s no need to feel any guilt after eating this soup. It’s low-carb, keto-friendly, and gluten-free.
- Easy to Prepare: Everything gets cooked in one pot (or slow cooker/Instant Pot), making preparation and cleanup a breeze.
- Make-Ahead: Pizza soup only gets better by the day, making it perfect for once-a-week meal prep.
Ingredients You'll Need
Here's a breakdown of the key ingredients in this keto pizza soup recipe:
- Italian Chicken Sausage: This is raw sausage, not smoked, cooked chicken sausage. Look for it in the meat section next to the other Italian sausage. Remove the casing before using it in the recipe. Pork sausage can be substituted if you’re not concerned about fat. You can purchase Italian pork sausage links (remove the casings or ground Italian pork sausage. Feel free to use any ground meat in place of it, if you aren’t a fan of sausage.
- Turkey Pepperoni: Using turkey pepperoni helps keep the saturated fat low, but you can use regular pepperoni if you prefer. Cut the slices into quarters to create bite-sized pieces for the soup.
- White Onion and Garlic Cloves: These add to the flavor of the soup.
- White Mushrooms: Mushrooms are a great low-carb veggie to bulk up this pizza soup recipe.
- Italian Seasoning: Use a high-quality store-bought Italian seasoning or swap in 1 teaspoon of dried basil and 1 teaspoon of dried oregano. Some people likes a bit more of the herb flavors so I also added 3x the Italian seasoning and garlic, but also added additional basil (~1 tsp), crushed fennel seed (~1/4 tsp), crushed red pepper flakes (~1/4 tsp).
- Chicken Broth: For best results, use a high-quality organic chicken broth.
- Diced Tomatoes, Tomato Sauce, and Tomato Paste: This trio creates a rich tomato broth. Some recipes call for pizza sauce, which you can swap for tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, but I only suggest this if you’re using a homemade low-carb pizza sauce recipe.
- Shredded Mozzarella Cheese: This adds a cheesy, melty goodness to the soup.
- Optional Add-Ins: Olive oil, sea salt and black pepper, parmesan cheese, fresh chopped basil or parsley, nutritional yeast.
- Optional Veggies: Any vegetable you like on pizza you can use in the pizza soup recipe. Our favorite pizza toppings are Bell peppers, black olives, green olives, banana peppers, red onion, portobello mushrooms, spinach, broccoli, and artichoke hearts.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Here are detailed instructions for making keto pizza soup on the stovetop, in a slow cooker, and in an Instant Pot:
Stovetop Instructions
- Brown the Meat: Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Place the chicken sausage in the pot and cook until almost cooked through, breaking up the sausage as it cooks. When the pink color in the sausage is just about gone, add the pepperoni and cook together until there is no pink left, about 3 minutes. Remove the sausage and pepperoni from the pan and place them into a bowl.
- Sauté the Vegetables: Add another tablespoon of olive oil to the same pot and saute the onion until translucent and fragrant, about 3 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes or until fragrant. Stir in the mushrooms and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.
- Combine Ingredients and Simmer: Stir the Italian seasoning, sausage, and pepperoni into the mushrooms, onion, and garlic. Pour in the chicken broth, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and paste. Bring the pizza soup to a boil, reduce it to a simmer, and cook for 45 minutes.
- Serve: Garnish with fresh chopped basil or parsley. we love to add a bit of shredded mozzarella cheese or whisp croutons to the top. That part is totally optional.
Slow Cooker Instructions
- Brown the Meat (Optional but Recommended): For best results, brown the sausage and pepperoni in a skillet before adding them to the slow cooker. This step enhances the flavor of the soup. If you have a browning slow cooker, you can brown the meat directly in the slow cooker.
- Combine Ingredients in Slow Cooker: Add the cooked sausage, pepperoni, onions, garlic, mushrooms, chicken broth, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste to the slow cooker. Stir the tomato paste into the pan with the sausage and pepperoni until it blends with the ingredients. This helps the tomato pasta cook evenly in the slow cooker instead of staying in a piece.
- Cook: Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.
- Serve: Garnish with fresh chopped basil or parsley. we love to add a bit of shredded mozzarella cheese or whisp croutons to the top. That part is totally optional.
Instant Pot Instructions
- Sauté the Meat and Vegetables: Turn the Instant Pot on sauté mode, spray the bottom of the pan and cook the meat until browned, breaking it up as you go. Drain off any grease. Add the mushrooms, garlic, zucchini, spinach, bell pepper, spices, tomatoes, and tomato paste. Stir and cook for 1 minute on the residual heat.
- Pressure Cook: Pour in the chicken broth and stir. Put the lid on, turn the valve to sealing, and select Manual or Pressure Cook for 15 minutes. It will take about 15 minutes to come to pressure and begin counting down.
- Release Pressure: Once the cook time is over, let the pressure manually release for 5-10 minutes, then manually release the remaining pressure.
- Stir in Cream and Cheese: Stir in cream cheese and heavy cream.
- Serve: Serve with shredded mozzarella or parmesan.
Alternative Instant Pot Instructions
- Add Ingredients to Pressure Cooker: Add the cooked Italian sausage, pepperoni, the diced tomatoes in juice, chicken broth, sliced mushrooms, diced red pepper, garlic salt, Italian seasoning, and black olives to the pressure cooker.
- Cook: Cook on MANUAL ( or PRESSURE COOK) for 1 minute.
- Release Pressure: Do a natural release for 3 minutes and then do a quick release of the remaining pressure.
- Stir in Cheese: Slowly stir in the cheese, I usually do this in a few small batches and make sure to fully mix the cheese before adding in more. If you dump all of the cheese in at one time it sometimes doesn't fully break down, or even worse it sinks and sticks to the bottom of the pot.
- Add Cream (Optional): Once the cheese is melted, stir in the optional heavy whipping cream.
- Serve: Enjoy!
Tips and Variations
- Customize Your Toppings: Feel free to add your favorite pizza toppings to this soup. Some popular options include onions, black olives, bell peppers, banana peppers, red onion, portobello mushrooms, spinach, broccoli, and artichoke hearts.
- Spice Level: Adjust the amount of Italian seasoning, garlic, and red pepper flakes to suit your taste.
- Add a Creamy Texture: For a creamier soup, stir in some heavy cream or cream cheese at the end of cooking. Whipping cream can be used. Since the soup is already so hot, it works perfectly fine to mix the cold whipping cream in even if the pot is off. Making this a creamy pizza soup is totally optional! It's delicious either way.
- Thicken the Broth: To thicken the broth, add one teaspoon of xantham gum to a cup of the beef broth, whisk well, then add to the pot.
- Make it Vegetarian: Omit the sausage and pepperoni for a vegetarian version. You can add extra vegetables or plant-based protein substitutes.
- Adjust Seasoning: If I can’t I adjust final seasoning to taste. I love this as a base recipe but I add to it to make it bit chunky with the Roma tomatoes, peppers and onions.
Serving and Storing
- Serving Suggestions: This pizza soup is delicious on its own, but you can also serve it with a side salad or some low-carb bread or crackers. Any small pasta would go great with this pizza soup recipe. This easy pizza soup recipe is a meal on its own. But if you want to enjoy it as a soup and salad combo, this Gluten-free Caesar Salad made with delicious gluten-free caesar salad dressing is delicious.
- Storage: This pizza soup recipe stores and reheats excellently, so it’s perfect for weekly meal prep and freezer cooking.
- For the Week: After the pizza soup cools, spoon it into large or small airtight containers. Individual containers work best if you’re planning on taking this for lunches.
- For the Freezer: After the pizza soup cools, spoon it into 1-2 cup airtight containers, so it’s easier to reheat for individual lunches or dinners. You can also use 1-cup silicone trays like Souper Cubes to freeze soup into portions. You can freeze pizza soup, but you are going to want to freeze it before you add the cheese or whipping cream. It will last in the freezer for up to 3 months. When you are ready to serve it, thaw and warm then add the cheese and whipping cream.
Nutritional Information
As with any recipe, carb counts, calorie counts, and nutritional information can vary greatly. As a result, your nutritional content depends on which products you choose to use when cooking this dish. The auto-calculation is just an automated estimate and should NOT be used for specific dietary needs. If eating low carb, make sure to read labels. Marinara can drastically change the carb count.
Read also: Easy Low-Carb Cheese Crackers
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