1001 Low-Carb Recipes: Hundreds of Delicious Recipes From Dinner to Dessert That Let You Live Your Low-Carb Lifestyle and Never Look Back (47 page)

This simple Mexican soup takes no more than 20 to 25 minutes to make!

1½ quarts (1.4 L) chicken broth

1 pound (455 g) boneless, skinless chicken breast

1 chipotle chile canned in adobo

1 black avocado

4 scallions, sliced

Salt and pepper

¾ cup (90 g) shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Pour the chicken broth into a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan, reserving ½ cup (120 ml), and place it over medium-high heat. While it’s heating, cut your chicken breast in thin strips or small cubes and then add it to the broth. Let the whole thing simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Put the reserved chicken broth in your blender with the chipotle and blend until the chipotle is puréed. Pour this mixture into the soup and stir.

Split the avocado in half, remove the seed, peel it, and cut it into ½-inch (1.3-cm) chunks. Add to the soup, along with the scallions, and salt and pepper to taste.

Ladle the soup into bowls and top each serving with shredded cheese.

Yield:
6 servings

Each with 26 g protein; 4 g carbohydrate; 2 g dietary fiber; 2 g usable carbs.

This is exotic and delicious.

3 tablespoons (42 g) butter

1 leek, thinly sliced (white part only)

8 ounces (225 g) sliced mushrooms

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 teaspoons Garam Masala

1 teaspoon pepper

¼ teaspoon cayenne

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 quart (960 ml) chicken broth

12 ounces (340 g) boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into thin strips

½ cup (120 ml) Carb Countdown dairy beverage

½ cup (120 ml) heavy cream

3 tablespoons (12 g) chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Melt the butter in a big, heavy skillet over medium heat and sauté the leek with the mushrooms until they both soften. Stir in the garlic, Garam Masala, pepper, cayenne, and nutmeg and sauté for another minute or two. Transfer to your slow cooker. Pour in the broth and add the chicken. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 6 to 7 hours.

When the time’s up, use a slotted spoon to scoop roughly two-thirds of the solids into your blender or food processor. Add 1 cup (240 ml) or so of the broth and purée until smooth. Stir the purée back into the rest of the soup. (You may want to rinse the blender or food processor out with a little broth to get all of the purée.) Stir in the Carb Countdown and cream. Re-cover the pot and let it cook for another 30 minutes. Serve it with cilantro on top or not. It’s nice either way.

Yield:
6 servings

Each with 18 g protein, 6 g carbohydrate, 1 g dietary fiber, 5 g usable carbs.

This is a curried soup that came out of the British Colonial times in India. It’s also wonderful made with broth made from a turkey carcass, or for that matter, from the remains of a leg of lamb.

2 quarts (1.9 L) chicken broth

2 cups (220 g) or more diced cooked chicken or diced boneless, skinless chicken breast

3 tablespoons (42 g) butter

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 medium onion, chopped

1 small carrot, shredded

2 ribs celery, diced

2 teaspoons to 1½ heaping tablespoons curry powder (I like it with lots of curry!)

1 bay leaf

½ tart apple, chopped fine

1 to 2 teaspoons salt or Vege-Sal

½ teaspoon pepper

½ teaspoon dried thyme

Zest of 1 fresh lemon, grated, or ½ to 1 teaspoon dehydrated lemon zest

1 cup (240 ml) heavy cream

Put the broth and diced chicken in a large stockpot and set the stockpot over low heat.

Melt the butter in a heavy skillet and add the garlic, onion, carrot, celery, and curry powder. Sauté until the vegetables are limp and add them to the stockpot.

Add the bay leaf, apple, salt, pepper, thyme, and lemon to the pot and simmer for 30 minutes. Just before serving, stir in the cream and remove the bay leaf.

Yield:
6 servings

Each with 8 grams of carbohydrates and 2 grams of fiber, for a total of 6 grams of usable carbs and 18 grams of protein.

You can have this light but filling soup done in half an hour!

1 quart (960 ml) chicken broth

1 pound (455 g) boneless, skinless chicken breast

1 tablespoon (15 ml) lemon juice

1 tablespoon (15 ml) lime juice

2 tablespoons (12 g) grated fresh ginger

½ cup (120 ml) coconut milk

8 scallions

2 teaspoons chili garlic paste

1 teaspoon fish sauce (nuoc mam or nam pla)

3 tablespoons (12 g) chopped fresh cilantro

In a big, heavy saucepan, start heating the chicken broth while you cut the chicken breast into small cubes or thin strips. Throw your cut-up chicken into the pot, along with the lemon juice, lime juice, and ginger. Let the whole thing simmer for 20 minutes.

Stir in the coconut milk and scallions and let it cook another 10 minutes or so.

Stir in the chili garlic paste and fish sauce. Ladle into bowls, top each serving with chopped cilantro, and serve.

Yield:
3 to 4 servings

Assuming 4, each will have 32 g protein; 6 g carbohydrate; 2 g dietary fiber; 4 g usable carbs.

That’s soup made by Aztecs, not soup made from Aztecs!

3 quarts (2.8 L) chicken broth

2 cups (220 g) diced cooked chicken or boneless, skinless chicken breast

¼ cup (60 ml) olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

4 or 5 cloves garlic, crushed

2 or 3 ribs celery, diced

1 green pepper, diced

1 small carrot, shredded

1 small zucchini, diced

2 tablespoons (10.8 g) dried oregano

2 tablespoons (9 g) dried basil

2 teaspoons pepper

2 cans (14½ ounces, or 410 g each) diced tomatoes, including juice

1 package (10 ounces, or 280 g) frozen chopped spinach

At least 8 ounces (225 g) Mexican Queso Quesadilla or Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (These come canned.)

5 ripe black avocados

Heat the broth and the chicken in a large pot over low heat.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat and sauté the onion, garlic, celery, pepper, carrot, and zucchini together until they’re limp. Stir the oregano, basil, and pepper into the vegetables and sauté for another minute and add them to the soup, along with the tomatoes and spinach. Let the whole thing simmer for 30 minutes to 1 hour to let the flavors blend.

When you’re ready to serve the Sopa Azteca, put at least ¼ to ½ cup (30 to 60 g) of cheese (more won’t hurt) in the bottom of each bowl and anywhere from 1 to 3 chipotles, depending on how spicy you like your food. (If you don’t like spicy food at all, leave the chipotles out entirely.) Ladle the hot soup over the cheese and peppers.

Use a spoon to scoop chunks of half of a ripe avocado onto the top of each bowl of soup.

Yield:
10 servings

Each serving of soup alone has 21 grams of carbohydrates and 6 grams of fiber, for a total of 15 grams of usable carbs and 25 grams of protein. One-half cup (60 g) of shredded cheese adds only a gram or so of carbohydrates and 14 grams of protein. Each chipotle pepper adds no more than 1 gram or so of carbs, and half an avocado has about 6 grams of carbohydrates and 2.5 grams of fiber, for a total of 3.5 grams of usable carbs per serving.

The totals on this soup may sound like a lot when you add them all up, but don’t forget that this is a whole meal in a bowl: meat, vegetables, melted cheese, and lovely ripe avocado in each bite! You don’t need to serve another thing with it, although you could serve tortillas or quesadillas for the carb-eaters in the crowd.

Okay, so this isn’t quite as instant as those little packets you mix with boiling water. But it’s a lot tastier, a lot heartier, and a lot better for you.

¼ head cauliflower

1 quart (960 ml) or 2 cans (14.5 ounces, or 410 ml) chicken broth

10 to 12 ounces (280 to 340 g) boneless, skinless chicken breast

1 stalk celery

1 medium carrot

¼ medium onion

1 tablespoon (14 g) butter

1½ teaspoons poultry seasoning

Salt and pepper

Run the cauliflower through the shredding blade of your food processor. Put it in a microwaveable bowl, add a tablespoon of water, cover, and microwave on high for 5 minutes.

While that’s cooking, pour the broth into a large saucepan over high heat. Dice the chicken breast into small bits—about ½-inch (1 cm) cubes—and add it to the pot.

Take the shredding disc out of the food processor and put the S-blade in place. Cut the celery, carrot, and onion into a few big chunks and place in the food processor bowl. Pulse until vegetables are chopped to a medium-fine consistency.

Melt the butter in a medium-size heavy skillet over medium-high heat and add the vegetables and the poultry seasoning. Sauté, stirring frequently.

When the microwave goes “ding,” pull the cauliflower out of the microwave and add it to the soup. You can add the other veggies straight from the skillet or if you’d like them to be a little softer, put them in the bowl you cooked the cauliflower in, add 1 tablespoon (15 ml) of the broth from the soup, cover, and microwave for 3 to 4 minutes on high before adding them to the soup.

Either way, stir the vegetables into the soup, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Yield:
3 or 4 servings

Assuming 3 servings, each will have 6 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of fiber, for a total of 5 grams of usable carbs and 28 grams of protein.

If you’d prefer, you can make this with egg threads instead of the cauliflower rice, and it will be higher in protein. Just beat a couple of eggs in a measuring cup and pour the beaten egg over the simmering soup, stirring slowly with a fork.

Wild rice has more fiber and therefore fewer usable carbs than regular rice, either white or brown. And it adds a certain cachet to your soup!

2 quarts (1.9 L) chicken broth

2 carrots, thinly sliced

2 stalks celery, diced

½ cup (50 g) chopped onion

1 pound (455 g) boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into ½-inch (1.3-cm) cubes

¼ cup (40 g) wild rice

1 teaspoon poultry seasoning

Simply combine everything in your slow cooker, cover, set it to low, and let it cook for 6 to 7 hours.

Yield:
6 servings