Take the chill out of winter with this delicious Low-Carb Italian Sausage Soup recipe. This soup is pure comfort food, but can still be part of a low-carb, keto, Atkins, Whole-30, Paleo, diabetic, or Banting diet. 

Low-Carb Italian Sausage Soup in a bowl.

Disclaimer: Some of the links on this site are affiliate links which means we make a small commission from any sales to help keep the recipes coming! You do not pay any more. Thank you for your support!

Over the past several days, a cold spell has settled over North Carolina. Sure, it’s still warmer here than other parts of the country, but we’re not used to it. Here, cold weather and snow are met with panicked trips to the grocery store to be met with already emptied aisles. Today, school officials even closed school due to the cold weather. 

All of this chilly weather has put me in the mood to make soup. In addition to wanting to make soup, I wanted to try out the new Instant Pot that arrived under my tree on Christmas Eve. 

I have heard so many great things about Instant Pots that I couldn’t wait to get started with mine. I love that I can brown the meat directly in the pot. This means there are fewer dishes to clean. I also love how pressure cooking saves time in the cooking process, yet retains flavor. 

Using the Instant Pot for the first time was a little scary, but I was determined to get started and not allow my Instant Pot to sit in my kitchen unused. After the steam test, I started looking around the kitchen for potential things to try out in the pot.

Low-Carb Italian Sausage Soup

I managed to find a package of ground sausage meat, a can of tomato sauce, and a few veggies in the fridge. Using those ingredients and a few other things I keep around the kitchen, I made my first soup in the Instant Pot.

I was so impressed with how the soup turned out! The pressure cooking process retained more flavor than I get with my slow-cooker, yet the meat was still super tender. The soup was a hit with the family and everyone looked forward to more pots of it as I “tweaked” the recipe.

I love that this soup doesn’t have any dairy in it. I’m trying to put more dairy-free recipes in the blog because I know so many people are sensitive to it. Because it doesn’t have dairy (and fulfills all of the other requirements), this soup works for Whole-30 and Paleo eaters as well.

I know that some of my followers eat super low-carb. Because of this, I want to warn you that there is a large variance of the amount of carbs in tomato sauce. The nutritional values were calculated using Contadina tomato sauce and there were 20 grams of carbs in 15 ounces. Some brands contained more than that. 

If you are tightly counting carbs, and wanted to keep the carb quantity even lower, you could reduce the amount of tomato sauce to 7-8 ounces and omit the carrots. Another option is to replace the onions with 1 teaspoon of onion powder. 

Our low Carb Italian Sausage soup has a tomato scented broth with notes of basil and oregano. A bit of garlic and some red pepper flakes add interest and make it truly delectable. Bits of tender carrot and celery join the sweet sausage to make every spoonful a delight.

Our Low-Carb Italian Sausage Soup Recipe will be a hit with the whole family. Serve it with a salad and some of our Low-Carb Sour Cream Biscuits, or this keto garlic bread from Divalicious to make a complete meal. Enjoy!

-Annissa

PS: Love soup in the winter? Be sure to check out my leftover turkey/chicken soup, my Low-Carb “Potato” Leek Soup, this easy chicken soup recipe for colds from All Natural Ideas and this recipe for keto pot roast soup from Keto Cooking Wins.

Low-Carb Italian Sausage Soup

Low-Carb Italian Sausage Soup
4.86 from 7 votes
Print

Low-Carb Italian Sausage Soup-Instant Pot Recipe

Take the chill out of winter with this delicious Low-Carb Italian Sausage Soup recipe. This soup is pure comfort food, but can still be part of a low-carb, keto, Atkins, Whole-30, Paleo, diabetic, or Banting diet. 

Course Soup
Cuisine Italian, low-carb
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 6
Author Annissa Slusher

Ingredients

  • 1 pound ground Italian sausage
  • 4 ounces onion chopped
  • 2 stalks celery chopped
  • 2 ounces carrot diced
  • 15 ounces tomato sauce
  • 2 cloves garlic crushed
  • 32 ounces beef broth low-sodium and preferably organic
  • 1 tablespoon fresh basil (or 1 teaspoon dried)
  • 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper (freshly ground)
  • 1/2 - 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • Optional: additional basil chopped for garnish

Instructions

  1. Place the inner pot in your Instant Pot. Select the sauté function of your Instant Pot to preheat the pot. When the word "hot" appears in the display, add the sausage. Break the sausage up with a spoon. Brown the sausage, stirring occasionally. If desired, drain extra fat from the pot.

  2. Stir in the onion, celery, and carrot. Cook, stirring occasionally, until they begin to soften.

  3. Stir in the tomato sauce, garlic, beef broth, basil, oregano, red pepper flakes, black pepper, and 1/2 teaspoon of the sea salt. (omit salt if using regular broth instead of low-sodium). 

  4. Close and lock the lid. Set steam release in seal position. Select the Meat Stew setting. Use the +- buttons to adjust the time to 30 minutes.

  5. When the cycle is finished, release the pressure. I use the quick release method for this. Refer to your manual if you are unsure how to do this. 

  6. Taste and adjust seasoning. I add the second half teaspoon of salt at this stage, but you should add according to your tastes and needs. Sprinkle a bit of chopped basil on top of each bowl if desired.

Recipe Notes

Serving size: 1/6th of the recipe

Per serving: 

Calories: 294

Fat (g): 20

Carbs (g): 9

Fiber (g): 2

Protein (g): 20

Net carbs (g): 7

SaveSave