One of my No-Carb Chicken Vegetable Soup Recipes (from my other blog)

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Just one of many chicken soup recipes

This one is a no-carb Chicken vegetable soup

I have been perfecting on a recipe that has no carbs but is dense with vegetables

The people at my table want hearty dense soups, yet I cannot take the carbs

rice corn and potato laden soups make me fall asleep almost before i leave the table

see my pictures on facebook...I should learn how to upload pictures here...sigh...

This is entry is for Linda who smelled it from my thermos on retreat, and asked me...

therefore, let not your hearts be troubled that one of the main ingredients next to chicken is cauliflower--yes, it has a consistency in coup like that of rice...and is so flavorful.

Anyone who has mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes, in order to save on their carb counts has been pleasantly surprised too. Bing the cook, I feared that my thermos reeked...but Linda did not think so. I also took a steaming pot to the mid-winter ladies soup and bread night...no one ran away form that either. I have changed it over the years, and finally settled on something, to leave out the small amount of garlic powder I either added to the stock phase, or rubbed the chicken with before boiling it and the root vegetables into the stock. Oh, and once i had my very picky brother over for supper, and he loved it and wanted My sister in law to get the recipe, and she cooked it...that is the final word right there, my brother is not a health food junkie like me. Nor is he gratuitous with compliments to cook or other wise, so be brave!

Cut your root vegetables:

For the stock: 2 onions roughly chopped,

two carrots scrubbed and with the skins on in one or two inch chunks

sorry no celery in this stock...but basil and herbs!

all this will be strained out, so make it rough.

Cut these vegetables and set aside:

Finely chopped carrot--about 7 or a cup chopped

I peel then cut each carrot into 14in think pennies, then chop them in the hand chopper to appx little 14/in cubes--if you can picture that...why, it releases the sweetness better, but without the black skins..and because beating on the pampered chef chopper is fun

Dice about 4- 5 medium onion--about two cups diced (do not use the p-chef chopper on that--do it the old fashioned way or the flavor of the onion will not be good...yes, it will it will be released into the soup and then disappear if chopped too finely.

wash these vegetables: they will NOT got into the stock---they are added later or the consistency and flavor will not survive the heat and reduction of the stock phase.

Zuchinni--the wimpy store sized, not any obese bouva shenklels* from your garden!

(*Pa Dutch meaning "boy's legs")

Relax, you will cut the zucchini into rounds and then quarter the rounds later...closer to the end. Why, because the zucchini will release that clear gel like healing plasma when cut--you want that to go directly into the broth. (When it is time , you can half the zukes lengthwise, lay the half flat on the cutting board, and half it again, then make 1/4 inch slices--there are many ways to slice a zucchini...and now i can spell it right, since i have used that word too many times! )

wash and remove the leaves and core-stump of a large head of cauliflower, but leave the head intact...don't bother to chop that yet, because it will smell as it sits --bag the whole thing and put it back in the fridge--with the zucchini There i spelled it again!)--I think it may make the soup more flavorful to loosely chop that later and put it right into the soup as well, because the 'fragrance" can be plunged and infused into the broth rather than the kitchen or refrigerator...

Wash and skin the parts of chicken you like for soup

(you need bones and some dark meat, but not fat!)

(I totally cheat by making most all my soups out of two or three chickens worth of thighs--sometimes even boneless as well...and two or three breasts...then i reserve the cleaner larger hunks of white meat for chicken salad another day... just a tip. I use boneless things for my Oriental soups and Indian curried soups too--because i am THAT lazy,my the poulterers at market even chunk them for me for stews and stir fries and homemade chicken nuggets! Si i lean on them for culinary support.)

Here is the rub_ I personally use a unique ingredient--my home packed seasoned salt from my herb garden--more on that later in another blog entry. I lie of that rare ingredient, You can use organic poultry seasoning as a rub, with just hint of garlic salt or granules--it's not that hard to do. I once heard Jaques P`epin (Jack Pappan) say that any bacteria on chicken that can survive cooking deserves to kill you, my chicken soup is started as soon as I get home form market--where they skin skin it for me--when i do a rub, i just throw the loose herbs etc into the bag it comes home in, and rub it in there--then dump it into my pot. I am a freak about disinfecting anything that touched raw meat, so that method is as time saver. The meat from the grocery packs will need washed skinned and patted dry f9or a rub...sorry. (If I gift you a bottle of my herb salt next Christmas. then you will be free of the rub...you can just dump in a scant 1/4 cup of my herb salt--sifted or not.

Disinfect you hands and your surfaces now...that the chicken and the stock/root vegetables are in the pot, if you used a rib, and a table spoon or two of salt, you can add a tsp of thyme, sage, two tbsp of dried basil--or better yet, and pack of fresh basil chopped--about 1/4 cup of form your garden...then fill the fragrant pot with water to within an inch of the top--like a8-10 quart size...now here is a lazy cook tip--I boil my stock in my pasta pot, and when it is time to remove the chicken, bones and rough cut veggies and carrots with ugly blackened skins--i strain it like noodles into my heave bottomed soup pot...then let the chicken cool for picking and chopping or pulling...yes it makes a few more dishes, but they can be washed up and put back away before dinner..okay, now boring that brew to a rolling boil and back it off so you can go do something else for about an hour (no lees that 45 minutes ,but not so long that the pot boils dry... whatever fits your schedule.

So the stock is boiled and fragrant and making you hungry, the solids are cooling to be picked off the bones, the stock in in a pot...time to add these a good sized bag of frozen cut green beans--oh yeah, fresh ones are better--but I am lazy...and i like the color of the frozen ones...Cut and add the zucchinis then roughly cut the head cauliflower into what quarters, then cut up the blobby pieces into quarters again--like those brooms in the the magicians apprentice, but don't worry about their size--they will eventually break up into rice sized pieces even the stubby stumps.

Pick and dice the cooled chicken, and put that back into the pot (if it is too dense--keep out the white meat for a cold salad tomorrow...this soup will be thick enough.

Bring it all back up to a boil, than back it off like you did the stock, let that simmer for as little as a half hour, or as long as you need to, when the cauliflower is breaking down when it is stirred, turn it off. Let that sit until you are ready to serve it, it will stay hot for hours.

As any soup...it is just a good of not better when re-heated the next day...my family LOVES it!