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Slow Cooker Creamy Tortellini and Sausage Soup combines cheese tortellini, sweet Italian sausage, spinach and other vegetables in a creamy broth.
All year round, we keep our slow cooker close by and ready to cook delicious meals like this Slow Cooker Creamy Tortellini and Sausage Soup.
A slow cooker is great for summertime cooking, because you don’t have to turn on the oven and heat up the kitchen! Plus, you can cook up a big batch of this creamy tortellini soup – then enjoy leftovers for a few days afterwards.
How do you make Slow Cooker Creamy Tortellini and Sausage Soup?
Start by cooking up some sweet Italian sausage in a skillet, breaking it up into bite-sized pieces as it browns. Place the cooked sausage in your slow cooker, but leave the rendered fat in the skillet.
Next, sauté diced onions, carrots, celery, and garlic in the sausage fat – cooking until lightly browned and almost tender. Deglaze the pan with some chicken stock, then pour everything into the slow cooker with the sausage. (By the way – if you happen to have a multi-cooker slow cooker like this, you can do these first two steps right in the cooker!)
Pour in more chicken stock, cream, cream cheese, canned diced tomatoes, dry cheese tortellini, baby spinach, and seasonings including salt and pepper, dried basil and oregano.
Then – let the slow cooker do the work, cooking your Creamy Tortellini and Sausage Soup until the tortellini is tender (this will take three to four hours on low).
Spoon into bowls for serving. Serve with some crusty Garlic Bread on the side.
Recipe Substitutions
This Slow Cooker Creamy Tortellini and Sausage Soup is versatile and can be adapted to suit your tastes and the ingredients you have on hand.
While we used sweet Italian sausage, you could swap in hot Italian sausage for a zestier flavor. Or swap in your favorite chicken sausage if you prefer. (We don’t recommend a sweeter breakfast sausage – stick with savory flavors.)
You can use vegetable stock in place of chicken stock.
You can swap in other greens for the spinach – just note that spinach cooks quickly, while other greens such as kale, Swiss chard, or collards require more time to cook. We’d suggest sautéing them with the onions, carrots, celery and garlic to cook them a bit before adding them to the slow cooker.
How do I reheat this Slow Cooker Creamy Tortellini and Sausage Soup?
Because the soup has cream in the broth, a gentle reheat is recommended so the cream doesn’t break.
You can reheat the portion that you plan to eat in the microwave, or in a saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently.
You may enjoy these other Slow Cooker recipes:
- Slow Cooker Mac & Cheese
- Slow Cooker Apple Crisp
- Slow Cooker Tex-Mex Chicken Stew
- Slow Cooker Italian Beef Subs
- Slow Cooker Honey-Garlic Baby Back Ribs
We love seeing what you made! Tag us on Instagram at @afamilyfeast or hashtag #afamilyfeast so we can see your creations!
Slow Cooker Creamy Tortellini and Sausage Soup
Ingredients
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 pounds sweet Italian sausage, removed from casing
2 cups sweet onion, half inch dice
1 1/2 cups carrots, half inch dice
1/2 cup celery, quarter inch dice
1 tablespoon fresh garlic, minced
1 1/2 quarts chicken or vegetable stock or broth
3 cups heavy cream
4 ounces cream cheese
1 14.5–ounce can diced tomatoes
3/4 pound dry cheese tortellini
4 ounces baby spinach
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dry oregano
Instructions
In a large sauté pan over medium high heat, add olive oil and once hot, add the sausage and break up into bite sized pieces as it browns.
After the sausage browns, about five minutes, remove the sausage to the slow cooker but leave the fat in the pan.
Keep the pan on medium high and add the onion, carrot, celery and garlic. Cook until slightly browned and almost tender, about 5-8 minutes.
Add a splash of the stock to deglaze the pan then add the pan contents to the slow cooker along with all other ingredients.
Cook 3-4 hours on low until the tortellini is tender.
Serve immediately.
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I followed the recipe and then put it in the instant pot for 20 minutes. It turned out perfect!
Thanks Shawna!
What substitution can I use in place of Cream Cheese ? Wondering how it would be using Buttermilk?
Hi Amanda – We’d suggest using some heavy cream as a substitute instead.
This is one of my family’s favorites! My girls like adding more cream cheese.
Thanks Tammy! (Everything is better with more cream cheese!) 🙂
Has anyone tried this in an instant pot?
Thanks!
Hi Stephanie – We haven’t but hopefully someone here will see your question and respond.
I made this recipe and my husband and I loved it. It was well flavored , filling, and enjoyable . My only suggestion would be to add a spicy sausage if you enjoy spicy because it’s a very savor dish with subtle sweetness but overall a delectable meal.
Thanks Grace!
I’d like to lighten this recipe up. Would fat free or low-fat half and half be an okay sub for heavy cream?
We’ve never tried it Lacy – it might work!
The instructions don’t mention when to add the spinach. Do you add it in at the end?
Hi Courtney – The spinach is added as part of ‘all other ingredients’ in the 4th step in the instructions.
Does this soup freeze well?
Hi Rachel – We tend to shy away from freezing recipes with cream in them – it tends to break/separate once it is frozen and thawed. I think the tortellini will also soften after thawing as well.
I’m not the biggest fan of dry tortellini. Could I use frozen or refrigerated instead? Any ideas on how to adjust the recipe or time for either of those??
Sure Courtney – you can swap those in. We don’t have a lot of experience cooking with the frozen tortellini, but for fresh – because they cook so quickly – I’d probably skip the entire slow cooker process and just make this in a pot on the stove, gently simmering the soup so the cream doesn’t separate while the tortellini cooks through.
Did you drain the tomatoes before adding to the soup ?
Hi Mary – No – draining isn’t necessary. The juice can go right into the soup.
Could I use orzo pasta instead? Who that change the cooking time in the crockpot? Recipe sounds amazing. Really want to try it, just not a fan or stated pasta.
Thanks, Janet
Sure Janet – you can swap in your favorite pasta. Since orzo takes up less volume than tortellini, it may seem like brothier soup but any pasta will work. Hope you enjoy the soup!