Melt the butter in a big soup pot over medium-low heat and add the garlic, onion, and celery. Sauté them together for 5 minutes or so until the onion is just starting to soften.

Add the thawed sliced okra and the cubes of chicken and continue to sauté until the chicken is white all over. Add the chicken broth, the can of diced tomatoes, parsley, thyme, bay leaf, cayenne, and pepper, bring the whole thing up to a simmer, turn the heat down, and simmer for an hour.

When the hour’s up, put the andouille links in a skillet over medium-high heat. Brown them all over—prick the casings all over with a fork as you do this. When the sausages are browned, remove them from the skillet to your cutting board and slice ½ inch (1.3 cm) thick. You can leave the slices round or cut each round in half, which is what I do—it depends on how big a bite of sausage you want! Add the sausage slices to the pot. Ladle a little of the broth into the skillet, stir it around to dissolve the nice brown crusty stuff, and pour it back into the pot.

Add the Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice to the soup and stir it up. Let the whole thing simmer for another 15 minutes or so. Now check—is the level of heat right? Or do you want it hotter? If so, stir in a little hot pepper sauce. Thicken the broth just a tad with guar or xanthan, remove bay leaf, and serve.

Now, you get to decide how you want to serve your gumbo. You can serve it as is, of course, and it will be nice as can be. But the traditional way to serve gumbo is ladled over rice, and you certainly may serve yours over cauli-rice. And here in my hometown of Bloomington, Indiana, there is a popular restaurant that serves its “gumbo of the day” Hoosier-style—over mashed potatoes. So you could have your gumbo over a scoop of Ultimate Fauxtatoes (page 209)!

Yield:
6 servings

Each with 31 g protein; 13 g carbohydrate; 2 g dietary fiber; 11 g usable carbs. Analysis does not include any cauli-rice or fauxtatoes you may serve with your gumbo.

UnPotato and Sausage Soup

Talk about comfort food! This is creamy and filling, with a good, rich potato flavor. Just the thing for a stormy winter night.

1 pound (455 g) Polish sausage

2 tablespoons (28 g) butter

¾ cup (120 g) chopped onion

4 cups (600 g) cauliflower, diced

½ cup (60 g) shredded carrot

1 small green pepper, diced

3 cups (720 ml) water, divided

1 teaspoon salt or Vege-Sal

½ teaspoon pepper

3 cups (720 ml) Carb Countdown dairy beverage

½ cup (25 g) Ketatoes mix

Guar or xanthan (optional)

Slice your sausage into rounds. Melt 1 tablespoon (14 g) of the butter in a big skillet over medium heat and start frying the sausage slices in it—you’re just browning them a little. You can skip this step if you’re in a hurry, but I think it adds a bit of flavor.

In a big, heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the rest of the butter and start sautéing the onion over medium-low heat.

When the onions are turning golden, throw in the cauliflower, carrot, and green pepper. Pour in 2 cups (480 ml) of the water. When the sausage slices are browned on both sides, add them to the pot. Pour the remaining 1 cup (240 ml) of water into the skillet and scrape the bottom with a spatula to get all the good brown flavor stuck to the skillet. Pour this into the saucepan, too. Add the salt and pepper. Bring everything to a simmer and let it cook for 30 minutes.

When the cauliflower is soft, stir in the Carb Countdown dairy beverage and then whisk in the Ketatoes mix. Thicken your soup a little more with guar or xanthan, if you like, and bring it back to a simmer. Serve.

Yield:
6 servings

Each with 25 g protein; 19 g carbohydrate; 8 g dietary fiber; 11 g usable carbs.

Italian Sausage Soup

It would take some serious multi-tasking, but this soup can be ready in 15 minutes.

1½ quarts (1.4 L) chicken broth

1-pound (455-g) bag frozen Italian vegetable blend

1 pound (455 g) Italian sausage, mild or hot, as you prefer

½ medium onion, chopped

1 teaspoon minced garlic or 2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 teaspoons Italian seasoning

3 eggs

5 tablespoons (31.3 g) grated or shredded Parmesan cheese

First, put the broth in a large saucepan, cover it, and place it over high heat. Next, put the Italian vegetable blend in a microwaveable casserole dish, add a couple of tablespoons (30 ml) of water, cover, and microwave on high for 12 minutes.

Okay, that stuff is under control. Now, in a heavy-bottomed soup pot, start browning the Italian sausage over medium-high heat. If the sausage is in links, slit the skins and squeeze it out, so you can crumble it; bulk sausage you can just plunk into the pot. As a bit of grease starts to cook out of the sausage, add the onion and the garlic (you can chop the onion while the sausage is browning) and let them sauté together.

When the sausage is cooked through, add the chicken broth, which should be hot by now. Stir and add the Italian seasoning. Let the mixture simmer while you crack the eggs into a glass measuring cup and beat them with a fork. Pour the eggs in, a little bit at a time—pour, then stir, pour some more, and then stir some more. This will make lovely egg shreds in your soup.

The vegetables should be done by now, so pull them out of the microwave, drain, and dump them into the soup. Stir, let the whole thing simmer for just another minute, and serve with 1 tablespoon (6.3 g) of Parmesan cheese on each serving.

Yield:
5 servings

Each with 11 grams of carbohydrates and 2 grams of fiber, for a total of 9 grams of usable carbs and 26 grams of protein.

Hot-and-Sour Soup

Really authentic Hot-and-Sour Soup uses Chinese mushrooms, but this is mighty good with any variety—especially when you have a cold!

2 quarts (1.9 L) chicken broth

1 piece of fresh ginger about the size of a walnut, peeled and thinly sliced

½ pound (225 g) lean pork (I use boneless loin.)

3 tablespoons (45 ml) soy sauce

1 to 1½ teaspoons pepper

½ cup (120 ml) white vinegar

2 cans (6½ ounces, or 170 g each) mushrooms

1 cake (about 10 ounces, or 280 g) firm tofu

1 can (8 ounces, or 225 g) bamboo shoots

5 eggs

Put the broth in a soup pot and set it over medium heat. Add the ginger to the broth and let it simmer for a few minutes.

While the broth simmers, slice the pork into small cubes or strips. (I like strips.) Stir the pork, soy sauce, pepper, vinegar, and mushrooms (you don’t need to drain them) into the broth. Let it simmer for 10 minutes or so until the pork is cooked through.

Cut the tofu into small cubes. If you like, you can also cut the canned bamboo shoots into thinner strips. (I like them better that way, but sometimes I don’t feel like doing the extra work.) Stir the tofu and bamboo shoots into the soup and let it simmer another few minutes. Taste the soup; it won’t be very hot—spicy-hot, that is, not temperature-hot—so if you like it hotter, add more pepper and some hot pepper sauce. If you like, you can also add a little extra vinegar.

Beat the eggs in a bowl and then pour them in a thin stream over the surface of the soup. Stir them in, and you’ll get a billion little shreds of cooked egg in your soup. Who needs noodles?

Yield:
6 servings

Each with 10 grams of carbohydrates and 2 grams of fiber, for a total of 8 grams of usable carbs and 25 grams of protein.

This is good served with a few finely sliced scallions on top (include some of the green part) and a few drops of toasted sesame oil. Since I like my soup hotter than my husband does, I use hot toasted sesame oil rather than putting hot sauce in the whole batch.

Stir-Fry Soup

The name says it all—a traditional stir-fry turned into a hearty soup. This works equally well with chicken or pork, so take your pick or use whatever is cluttering up the freezer.

2 quarts (1.9 L) chicken broth

1 pound (455 g) boneless pork loin or boneless, skinless chicken breast

1 medium onion

3 tablespoons (45 ml) oil

1-pound (455-g) bag frozen stir-fry vegetables, thawed

1½ tablespoons (23 ml) soy sauce

1½ tablespoons (23 ml) dry sherry

1½ tablespoons (12 g) grated ginger

1½ teaspoons minced garlic

1½ teaspoons toasted sesame oil

Pour the chicken broth into a large microwaveable bowl or pitcher. Put it in the microwave and heat it for 10 minutes on high.

Slice the pork or chicken as thin as possible. (This is easier if the meat is partly frozen.) Thinly slice the onion as well. Heat the oil in the bottom of a large soup pot and add the meat, onion, and stir-fry vegetables. Stir-fry everything over highest heat while the broth is warming in the microwave.

By the time the microwave goes “ding,” the pork or chicken should not be pink any more.

Pour in the broth, add the soy sauce, sherry, ginger, garlic, and sesame oil, cover, and let the whole thing simmer for 4 to 5 minutes before serving.

Yield:
6 servings

Each with 9 grams of carbohydrates and 2 grams of fiber, for a total of 7 grams of usable carbs and 19 grams of protein.

Chinese Soup with Bok Choy and Mushrooms

1 quart (960 ml) chicken broth

2 tablespoons (16 g) grated ginger

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 cup (100 g) sliced mushrooms

8 ounces (225 g) boneless pork loin, cut in thin ½-inch (1.3-cm) strips

1½ cups (115 g) bok choy, sliced thin, leaves and stems both

1 egg

In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the chicken broth, ginger, and soy sauce. Let them simmer together for 5 minutes.

Now add the mushrooms and pork. Let the soup simmer for another 15 minutes.

Stir in the bok choy and let the soup simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes.

Beat the egg. Now pour it in a thin stream over the surface of the simmering soup, let it sit for 10 seconds, and then stir with the tines of a fork. Serve.

Yield:
4 servings

Each with 17 g protein; 3 g carbohydrate; 1 g dietary fiber; 2 g usable carbs.

Easy Tomato-Beef Soup