This Easy Creamy Turkey & Kale Soup is a wonderful, quick, one-pot meal that is simple, delicious and comforting. It’s AIP, paleo and Whole30 compliant.
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Soups are my favorite quick weeknight meal because they’re hard to mess up and involve very few dishes! In this Turkey & Kale Soup, ground turkey is paired with acorn squash, curly kale, carrots, celery and creamy coconut milk for a warming and delicious soup that is AIP, paleo, and Whole30 compliant.
Here are the main ingredients in this easy Turkey & Kale Soup
- olive oil
- carrots, onions, garlic and celery – the base of the soup
- ground turkey
- green onions, fresh thyme, dried basil and dried oregano
- acorn squash – you can sub with another variety like honey-nut or butternut squash or sugar pie pumpkin
- curly kale – can substitute another leafy green like spinach, collard greens or swiss chard
- chicken bone broth or stock (ensure ingredients are AIP compliant)
- full fat, additive free coconut milk
To make this soup, heat a large pot over medium heat and add olive oil. Sauté carrots, onions, garlic and celery until onions are translucent. Add ground turkey, green onions, thyme, basil, oregano and sea salt and allow the turkey to brown. Next, add acorn squash, chicken bone broth, coconut milk and some water and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat and cover soup. Allow to simmer 20 – 30 minutes until squash is tender. Add kale and stir to wilt, another 3-4 minutes. Serve warm.
Turkey & Kale Soup FAQs
Can I make this soup coconut-free?
Coconut milk adds a delicious creaminess to this soup, especially as it mixes with the softened acorn squash. If you can’t tolerate coconut you could try subbing with more chicken bone broth or another AIP milk that you can tolerate (e.g. tigernut milk).
Can I substitute the acorn squash?
Yes, other forms of squash that would work well here are honeynut squash, delicata squash and sugar pumpkin. Butternut squash can work but won’t be as creamy.
Is there a substitute for the ground turkey?
You can use ground chicken here as a sub for the ground turkey or any other ground meat of your choice. Shredded turkey would also taste delicious in this soup!
Can I make this soup in the crockpot or Instant Pot?
Yes, you’ll just want to ensure you use the sauté function first to combine the turkey with the carrots, onions, garlic, celery, herbs and salt before adding the remaining ingredients.
If you try this Turkey & Kale Soup I would love if you gave it a star rating and short review. Be sure to snap a picture of the finished product and share it with me on Instagram by tagging @healmedelicious
Here are some other AIP Soups you might like:
- AIP Trinidadian Callaloo
- Gingery Roasted Winter Squash Soup
- Caribbean Beef Soup
- AIP Ginger-Garlic Pork Noodle Soup
Turkey & Kale Soup (AIP, paleo, Whole30)
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
This Creamy Turkey & Kale Soup is a wonderful, quick, one-pot meal that is simple, delicious and so comforting. It’s AIP, paleo and Whole30 compliant.
Ingredients
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 1 cup celery, diced
- 1 cup carrots, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1.5 tsp sea salt
- 3 tsp fresh thyme
- 1/4 cup green onions, sliced
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 cups acorn squash, peel and chopped into cubes
- 3 cups chicken bone broth
- 1 cup additive free, full fat coconut milk
- 1 cup water
- 4 cups chopped curly kale
Instructions
- In a large stock pot, heat olive oil on medium heat.
- Add onions, celery, carrots and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes stirring frequently (until onions are translucent)
- Add ground turkey and sea salt, thyme, green onions, basil and oregano. Sauté for 3 -5 minutes allowing the meat to brown and mix with the seasoning.
- Add acorn squash, broth, coconut milk and water. Taste for salt and adjust accordingly. Bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 – 30 minutes to allow squash to soften.
- Add kale and stir to wilt, another 3-4 minutes.
- Serve warm.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Category: Soups
Sooooo yummy. Thank you for this recipe!!! My son is on a leaky gut special diet and this one was loved by all. ♥️
This was amazing!! I used spinach and butternut squash, and cashew milk instead of coconut because that’s what I had on hand. This one is definitely a keeper!
Yay! Glad you enjoyed and good to know those subs were a hit!
We love this recipe! I’ve made it a dozen times now. We switch up the vegetables most of the time, it’s great with: sweet potatoes or butternut squash instead of acorn squash, and ground chicken or even chickpeas instead of turkey. We’re not fans of celery or green onions, so we always replace it with more carrots and sweet onions. Dried thyme is a great substitute, and a bit of chili flakes or paprika adds a little spice. Thank you!!
Omygosh!! This soup is AMAZING! Delicious, hearty, healthy, and hits your soul just right on a cold wintery day! I love it…am making it again for my lunches for next week too! Like one of the other commenters said, she didn’t have squash so used sweet potatoes, and that’s what I did too….sooo good! This time I bought acorn squash (also called pepper squash, I just learned) and will add even more ground turkey to make it a full high-protein meal that fills me up for hours! It’s not Whole30 or Paleo, but I did want to use some fresh parmesan up so grated that and added a bit on top. OMYGOSH! Delicious, and thank you for this recipe! Going to look at your other soup recipes :).
I must say I am pleasantly surprised how good this soup turned out to be. I’m semi new to AIP eating and very new to kale. This is delicious! Thankyou so much for this recipe.
Had this for dinner tonight. Used spinach instead of kale, and leftover turkey instead of ground turkey. Very yummy!
I made this tonight using leftover Thanksgiving turkey made and homemade turkey broth. It was absolutely delicious!
5 stars. I made this recipe last night and followed it as instructed with a few minor adjustments based on what I had at home. For example, I did not have spring onions or fresh thyme, so I used dried thyme and omitted the spring onions all together. I also added one can of cannellini beans because I like the texture of them. Delicious! Everyone that ate it gave it rave reviews. So warm and comforting. Definitely will make again.
Like someone else in the comments, I searched for paleo turkey soup and found my way here….happily! This recipe tastes incredible and holds up under adaptations. At first I thought I’d just leave out the coconut milk and squash, but ended up trying to follow as closely as possible while adapting for the shortcomings in my pantry: Left out the basil (I didn’t realize I was out!) and substituted sweet potatoes for squash, spinach for kale, coconut cream and extra broth for coconut milk, and diced turkey wings for ground turkey. I’ll be better prepared next time. 🙂
All your recipes seem delicious. What would be helpful to me and perhaps to others, is if you knew and posted the nutritional values for calorie/carb/fat grams etc with your recipes. AIP tends to be very high in carbs (albeit good carbs), some of us I am confident still count carbs for the purpose of control of sugar levels. And to be fair, I haven’t read all your pages, there very well be nutritional information on other recipes.
Thank you.
Hi Wendy, I’ve chosen not to provide that info on my site as I am not a health or nutrition coach, but recommend that folks who want this info can plug in the recipes to a free online calculator like My Fitness Pal!
We LOVED this soup! I’m not a fan of using coconut milk in recipes like these because I can always taste it as coconut so I made cashew cream and that worked perfectly. I used leftover roasted turkey and just added it towards the end of the cooking time to heat it through. Filling, tasty, and perfect comfort food! Thank you so much!
I Googled “paleo turkey soup” and this came up. So glad it did! Not only is this a delicious recipe but I now have a new favorite AIP food blogger. Thank you!!!!
I was AIP way at the beginning, when most of the food bloggers seemed to suffer from intestinal discomfort and were afraid of savory, flavorful food. Everything was so bland! Thank goodness for cooks like Rachael Bryant from Meatified, and later Michelle from Unbound Wellness. And now you! Hurray for food that has robust taste and is easy on the stomach. I no longer do strict AIP, but I continue cooking paleo at home. This particular recipe is now on rotation.
I made this in the Instant Pot – actually, am still making it; just had a taste of the broth. Divine! Still have to wait 15 minutes. Longest 15 minutes ever! – I used the sauté function to sauté the veggies. Used cooked turkey because it’s the day after Thanksgiving, and sweet potato because that’s what I had in the pantry. After sautéing, I added the broth and set to the soup feature, but it was too hot and the soup was roiling too heavily, so put it back on sauté on low. Don’t know if it would be different if I had added coconut milk; I’m not a fan. Your Instant Pot might have the ability to lower the soup feature; mine doesn’t.
Looking forward to eating this soon and exploring many of your other recipes. I am originally from Venezuela and we are Caribbean too, so when I saw that you had a section on Caribbean cuisine, I thought, “Oh, too bad. Probably full of tomatoes.” And then I remembered you’re AIP. Yay! Will be trying your Caribbean dishes. Hope they’re as good as this soup.
Have a great holiday season and thanks again for sharing your recipes.
Made no substitions, just added more salt/spices to taste. This was delicious. We are not on any diet restrictions at home, just trying to eat less dairy. My neice is following AIP and sent me recipes from this site. So glad she did! Thank you Nicole for such richly satisfying meals 🙂
I googled a recipe for ground turkey and found this unique soup. Easy and very delicious! I substituted sweet potatoes because that’s what I had on hand and it was great. Love the flavor! Thank you!
This soup is really good and comforting. I didn’t have a squash so I used sweet potato. It was delicious. I also added a little heat with Cajun spices and crushed red pepper. Will make again!
New staple in my house right here! This recipe is so delicious, heartwarming and very flavourful. I made this for myself initially and my family ended up loving it so I made more. My kids loved this and asked me a few times to pack it in there thermos for school.
So delicious! Not to hard to put together, I prepped everything first. This will be easy to eat a few days in a row. Don’t know how well it would freeze, but I might not get the chance to do that. Highly recommend, good filing meal even if not on W30.
Fantastic! We grew acorn squash where I was raised and despite how often I have enjoyed it throughout my life I have never once peeled it! What a pleasure to find a new way to prepare something familiar! I used this recipe as a way to use some turkey breasts gifted to us from the farm where we source our animal proteins and I am so glad I did. This will land in our regular rotation, I am sure of it! Thank you, Nicole!
Most large broth cartons are 32oz. Is there a reason why 3 cups of broth and 1 cup of water is used? Vs. 4 cups (32 oz) of chicken broth? Making it now and it smells lovely.
Hi Thao, you can feel free to sub the water for the broth if you’d like.
Best soup I’ve ever had. Tastes to me like chicken and dumplings. This soup gives me hope that I can survive what I’m facing. That May sound dramatic but it’s true.
I love this soup!! I didn’t have ground turkey so used cooked chicken as well due to very bad RA in hands used sweet potatoes as it’s easier to peel & cut up. Thanks!!! You mentioned using instant pot but also could do in slow cooker, but didn’t say how long or what needed different. Pls let me know. Slow cooker my go to as standing doing prep plus actually cooking is extremely hard for me. Thanks again. This is my go to soup definitely!!!
Hi Liz, we’re so glad you like it, thank you so much for leaving your review! We haven’t tried this in a slow cooker but would recommend sautéing the aromatics and ground turkey/your meat of choice first before putting them in the slow cooker. Do let us know the outcome and what you try!
I searched Pinterest for a ground Turkey soup recipe and came across this one. I just happened to have all the ingredients and pulled it together for a quick weeknight meal. It was super simple and everyone loved it, including my kids! It was surprising very filling and the coconut milk have it such a good flavor! Will definitely be making it again!
I cannot get over how good and satisfying this soup is. So silky and flavorful! Only substitution was the meat – I used Uli’s rosemary chicken sausage (all natural whole30 compliant brand local to Seattle). This will definitely be a winter go-to. Thank you for this delicious recipe!
We’re so glad you liked it! Thank you for leaving a review.
So good!!
Delicious! Such a yummy soup.
I love tHis recipe! It tasted delicious! Definitely one my top 5! Trying the patties next! Great job Nicole keep up the good work!
So glad to hear that Lorenna, thank you for leaving a review
This was incredible! I also took the advice of Sarah and threw it in my Ninja Foodi for 15 min. It was divine! I subbed sweet potato and used dried thyme. Came out like a dream!
Thanks for sharing! Does it keep long?
This looks so good! What a great way to use up leftover turkey from Thanksgiving!
I made this recipe as instructed. It was amazing. I was concerned about the coconut milk but didn’t notice it at all. Is there a place that shows the nutritional facts? I’d like to see them.
Thanks Janice, so glad you enjoyed. I don’t provide that info on this site as I’m not a nutritionist but you can plug it into one of the free nutrition calculators online.
This soup is delicious! My husband, who is not AIP, said it was “restaurant worthy”, meaning he would expect this flavor and quality of soup from a restaurant. Definitely making this again!
PS: I used spinach instead of kale.
Very delicious soup!!!
This was such a delicious soup. The only thing I struggled with was cutting and peeling the acorn squash, but it paid off in the end.
I made this with leftover turkey from Thanksgiving and it was comforting and wonderful – would fix whatever ails you. I’m making another batch for a new mom this week. Thanks, Nicole!
Aww that’s lovely Amanda thanks so much for taking the time to write a review
I made this for dinner tonight and it was absolutely delicious!
This was really excellent and quick for a chilly night. The coconut milk makes it creamy, but not overwhelmingly coconut-y. Hearty and satisfying.
Made this tonight. Did two substitutions (spinach for the kale, and butternut squash for the acorn squash), so next time will try it with her original recipe. But it was so quick and delicious. Threw it in my Instant Pot for 15 minutes on high after sautéing the onions and meat, and it worked great.
Thanks for this, i was just wondering if i could make in my IP so will try it out tonight! 🙂
Yes! Check out the faq section of this post ☺️
Sarah, I also substituted with spinach and butternut squash using my Instant Pot after reading your review. It turned out delicious! My husband loved the soup which was thick and savory. For us, it only had 3 servings, so next time, I’ll double it. Great recipe @healmedelicious! Thank you.
I made this recipe for tonight’s dinner with butternut squash. It is delicious and easy to make.
Thank you for another great recipe!
Does it taste like coconut?
Not in my opinion but if you don’t like coconut, omit it! I detail sub options in the post