Creamy Tortellini Soup

This delicious soup came from the Damn Delicious blog. I made a few alterations to make it a little friendlier to my dietary needs. I'll go ahead and leave the original recipes for my milk and cheese lovers, and include my alterations in parentheses. 

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 pound Italian sausage, casing removed
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 medium sweet onion, diced
• 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 4 cups chicken stock (reduced sodium)
• 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (9-ounce) package refrigerated three cheese tortellini (I used a tomato and oregano tortellini from Aldi, it was good, but I think the cheese is probably better!)
• 1/2 bunch kale, stems removed and leaves chopped
• 1/3 cup heavy cream (I like to use oatmilk or oatmilk creamer when I can find it)
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Instructions:

1. Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add Italian sausage and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the sausage as it cooks; drain excess fat.
2. Stir in garlic, onion and Italian seasoning. Cook, stirring frequently, until onions have become translucent, about 2-3 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
3. Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute.
4. Gradually whisk in chicken stock and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced and slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.
5. Stir in tortellini; cover and cook until tender, about 5-7 minutes.
6. Stir in kale until wilted, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in heavy cream and basil until heated through, about 1 minute; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
7. Serve immediately.

Instant Pot Instructions: 

1. Set Instant Pot to saute setting.
2. Drizzle olive oil into the pot and add Italian sausage and cook until browned, making sure to crumble the sausage as it cooks; drain excess fat (if using a milk substitute, you may want to leave a little grease in the bottom, since you're losing fat from the heavy cream).
3. Stir in garlic, onion and Italian seasoning. Cook, stirring frequently, until onions have become translucent; season with salt and pepper, to taste. (I did not add any salt to this recipe. I think it would be fine to leave the salting to the individual taster. I also did not need to add pepper, as I used hot sausage)
4. Stir in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute.
5. Gradually whisk in chicken stock and tomato sauce. 
6. Select manual setting; adjust pressure to high, set time for 5 minutes. When finished cooking, do a natural pressure release for 10 minutes, then a controlled quick release.
7. When the pin drops open the lid. 
8. Stir in tortellini, kale, heavy cream (or milk substitute), and basil until heated through. (You could add the cream and tortellini first, and then the kale and basil after about 5-8 minutes, once your tortellini has had time to cook.)
9. Serve immediately (season with salt and pepper, to taste).