300 Low-Carb Slow Cooker Recipes (45 page)

1/2 cup (120 ml) Carb Countdown dairy beverage

Guar or xanthan (optional)

5 scallions, sliced

Put the broth, cauliflower, and onion in your slow cooker. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 4 to 5 hours.

I use a hand blender to purée my soup right in the slow cooker, but you may transfer the cauliflower and onion, along with a cup of broth, into your blender or food processor instead. Either way, purée until completely smooth and then blend in the Ketatoes. If you have removed the cauliflower from the slow cooker to purée, pour the purée back in and whisk it into the remaining broth.

Stir in the cream and Carb Countdown. Thicken it a bit further with guar or xanthan if you feel it needs it. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir in the sliced scallions. Serve hot right away or chill and serve as vichyssoise.

Yield:
6 servings, each with: 190 calories, 11 g fat, 12 g protein, 13 g carbohydrate, 6 g dietary fiber, 7 g usable carbs.

German UnPotato Soup

This is worth the time you spend cutting things up! It's hearty and filling.

1 head cauliflower, chunked

2 stalks celery, sliced

1 medium onion, chopped

8 ounces (225 g) smoked sausage, sliced

1 tablespoon (28 ml) oil

4 cups (950 ml) beef broth

2 tablespoons (28 ml) vinegar

1 tablespoon (1.5 g) Splenda

1/4 teaspoon celery seed

1/2 teaspoon dry mustard

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 cups (140 g) bagged coleslaw mix

Place the cauliflower, celery, and onion in your slow cooker.

In a big, heavy skillet, brown the sausage a bit in the oil. Transfer the sausage to the slow cooker, too.

Pour 1 cup (235 ml) of the broth into the skillet and stir it around a bit to dissolve the flavorful bits. Pour it into the slow cooker.

In a bowl, combine the rest of the broth with the vinegar, Splenda, celery seed, dry mustard, and pepper. Pour over the vegetables and sausage. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 8 hours.

When the time's up, stir in the coleslaw mix and let it cook for another 20 to 30 minutes.

Yield:
4 servings, each with: 344 calories, 22 g fat, 20 g protein, 17 g carbohydrate, 2 g dietary fiber, 15 g usable carbs.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

If you've only ever thought of mushroom soup as gooey stuff that came in cans and was used in casseroles, you need to try this! It has a rich, earthy flavor. Even my mushroom-phobic husband liked it.

8 ounces (225 g) mushrooms, sliced

1/4 cup (40 g) chopped onion

2 tablespoons (28 g) butter

1 quart (950 ml) chicken broth

1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy cream

1/2 cup (115 g) light sour cream

Guar or xanthan (optional)

In a big, heavy skillet, sauté the mushrooms and onion in the butter until the mushrooms soften and change color. Transfer them to your slow cooker. Add the broth. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 5 to 6 hours.

When the time's up, scoop out the vegetables with a slotted spoon and put them in your blender or food processor. Add enough broth to help them process easily and purée them finely. Pour the puréed vegetables back into the slow cooker, scraping out every last bit with a rubber scraper. Now stir in the heavy cream and sour cream and add salt and pepper to taste. Thicken the sauce a bit with guar or xanthan if you think it needs it. Serve immediately.

Yield:
5 servings, each with: 176 calories, 15 g fat, 6 g protein, 5 g carbohydrate, 1 g dietary fiber, 4 usable carbs.

Chipotle Pumpkin Soup

This is so good! If you leave the diced chicken breast out of this, it would make a nice starter for Thanksgiving supper.

1 leek

2 tablespoons (28 g) butter

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 can (15 ounces, or 425 g) pumpkin purée

2 chipotle chiles canned in adobo—minced, plus a couple of teaspoons of the sauce

6 cups (1.4 L) chicken broth

1 teaspoon cumin

1 bay leaf

12 ounces (340 g) boneless, skinless chicken breast

1 cup (235 ml) heavy cream

2/3 cup (154 g) sour cream

Trim the top and root off your leek and then split it vertically. Wash well, making sure there's no dirt between the layers. Then slice it thin, across the curve.

In your big, heavy skillet, melt the butter over medium heat and sauté the leek until it's softened a bit. Transfer to the slow cooker.

Add the garlic, pumpkin purée, chopped chipotles, broth, cumin, and bay leaf to the slow cooker and turn it on to low. Cover the pot. Now go wash the hot pepper off your hands! Let it cook for at least 4 hours, and a couple more won't hurt.

Dice the chicken into 1/4-inch (6 mm) cubes—this is easier if the chicken is half-frozen. Stir this into the soup along with the heavy cream. Re-cover and let it cook another 45 minutes to an hour.

You can thicken it just a little with guar or xanthan at this point, if you like, but don't make it any thicker than cream, okay?

Serve with a couple of tablespoons (30 g) of sour cream floating in the middle of each bowlful.

Yield:
6 servings, each with: 369 calories, 27 g fat, 21 g protein, 12 g carbohydrate, 3 g dietary fiber, 9 g usable carbs.

Not-Pea Soup

I love split pea soup, always have! But despite authorities asserting that legumes are good carbs, they make me gain weight. So I came up with this soup, which is remarkably like split pea, except for the carb count.

1 onion

1 carrot

2 celery ribs

4 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon thyme

2 bay leaves

2 pounds (900 g) ham hocks or shanks

3 pounds (1.4 kg) frozen green beans, thawed

8 cups (1.9 L) water

1 tablespoon ham bouillion concentrate (Better Than Bouillon makes one.)

Guar or xanthan

1/2 teaspoon pepper or to taste

Salt or Vege-Sal, to taste

Hot sauce—optional

Peel your onion and whack it into chunks. Do the same for your carrot. Throw them both in your food processor with the
S
-blade in place and pulse until they're chopped pretty fine. Dump this in your slow cooker. Put the food processor bowl back on the stand and put the blade back in place. Whack your celery into chunks, including any fresh leaves, and throw it in the food processor; chop that pretty fine, too. (You could do the celery with the onion and carrot, but it's so much softer that it's likely to be pretty pulverized by the time the carrot is chopped.) Dump that in the slow cooker, too. Crush in the garlic and add the thyme and bay leaves.

Throw your hocks or shanks (shanks are meatier) on top of the seasoning vegetables. Dump in all of the green beans. Add the water, cover, and set to low. Let it cook for a good 6 to 8 hours until the green beans are soft and have changed color—they should look like canned green beans, sort of dull green.

Use a slotted spoon to fish out the hocks or shanks and put them on a plate. Let them cool to the point where you can handle them.

In the meantime, use a stick blender to purée the soup until it's smooth. Now blend in the ham bouillon concentrate.

Use your guar or xanthan shaker and the stick blender to thicken up the soup to your taste. Salt and pepper to taste, too. I like a few dashes of Louisiana-style hot sauce—Tabasco, Frank's, or the like—in this, too, but go with your own taste.

Yield:
8 servings, each with: 370 calories, 22 g fat, 29 g protein, 16 g carbohydrate, 6 g dietary fiber, 10 g usable carbs.

Chicken and Vegetable Soup with Thai Spices

This soup is light, fragrant, and wonderful.

2 tablespoons (28 ml) oil

2 carrots, thinly sliced

4 stalks celery, thinly sliced

2 cups (140 g) sliced mushrooms

1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 1/2 pounds (680 g) boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1/2-inch (13 mm) cubes

2 quarts (1.9 L) chicken broth

2 cups (248 g) frozen cross-cut green beans

1 tablespoon (8 g) grated ginger root

9 teaspoons (45 g) chili paste

1 tablespoon (15 ml) lemon juice

1 tablespoon (15 ml) lime juice

1/8 teaspoon anise seed, ground

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

1 tablespoon (15 ml) fish sauce

Fresh cilantro

Heat the oil in a big, heavy skillet over medium-high heat and sauté the carrots, celery, mushrooms, and onion until the onion is starting to get translucent. Transfer
them to your slow cooker, adding the garlic. Now add the chicken to the skillet and sauté just until it's sealed on the outside. Transfer it to the slow cooker, too.

Pour in the broth and add the green beans, ginger, chili paste, lemon juice, lime juice, anise seed, cardamom, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, and fish sauce. Stir, cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 6 to 8 hours.