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A delicious and comforting low carb potato soup packing awesome nutrition and ready in 45 mins! Great for cold or rainy days.
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Why Low Carb Potato Soup?
A low carb potato soup is kind of an oxymoron, but stick with me here.
Gestational Diabetes Diet
Technically, there are no foods you HAVE to avoid, but there are foods that are advised for you to avoid. These are foods that are high carb and high glycemic, meaning they’ll definitely raise your blood sugar quickly and significantly – also known as a “spike.”
Potato is one of these foods. BUT you can significantly reduce your risk of spiking by portioning them and adding protein and fat to your meal because protein and fat are blood sugar stabilizers.
Visit the Gestational Diabetes Diet page to learn more.
Of course, if you’ve done some testing and figured out that your body just doesn’t respond well to potatoes, you can swap the them for cauliflower and make this a cauliflower soup.
So the reason this recipe works is because the potatoes are portioned and there’s a decent ratio of protein to fat to carbs. See the nutrition label for more.
Recipe Modifications
1 – This is really a vegetable soup or a healthy potato soup made with cauliflower and leeks. Each veggie has equal portions and can be tasted with every bite. So, if you alter any portion, just know that those flavors will be either more or less prominent. As of now, the potato has a slight edge as the prominent flavor. You can take away half of the potatoes and still have a noticeable potato flavor.
However much you take away from one vegetable, add the same amount of another. For example, if you remove one cup of potatoes, add one cup of leeks or one cup of cauliflower and you won’t have to alter any other part of the recipe.
You can replace all of the potatoes with cauliflower and that’ll really lower the carb count here, but then you’d have to call it cauliflower soup. 🙂
2 – This recipe is rather thick; almost like a really loose mashed potato. For a thinner consistency add more broth until it’s how you like it. You’ll likely have to add more salt to balance the flavor to your liking.
3 – For a vegetarian version, leave out the bacon and swap the bacon grease for 2 Tbsps butter and 2 Tbsps oil. The butter gives it flavor and the oil prevents the butter from burning.
4 – This whole soup can easily be cooked in an Instantpot or slow cooker, then blended at the end with a high power blender or Vitamix.
Nutrition Highlights
This soup gives you natural doses of Vitamin B-6 and magnesium, both of which help ease nausea, and the B-6 helps to prevent miscarriage and preterm labor. There’s also an exceptional amount of Vitamin C thanks to the cauliflower.
The information above is found in Lily Nichols’ book Real Food for Pregnancy.
The cheese is super important to this recipe because it balances the protein to carb ratio and is the bulk of the calcium.
Low Carb Potato Soup
Ingredients
Prep
- 3 cups Potatoes, chopped
- 3 cups Leeks, sliced
- 3 cups Cauliflower, chopped
- 1 large Garlic Clove
Cook
- 3 slices Bacon or Butter if not using bacon/grease (optional)
- 1 t Salt
- .25 t Ground Thyme
- .25 t Black Pepper
- 1.5 cup Broth, any
- .5 cup Heavy Cream or Half & Half
- 1.25 cups Sharp Cheddar Cheese, shredded
- Bacon, crumbled
- Chives (optional garnish)
Instructions
Prep
- Peel and cut the potatoes into 1-2 inch pieces. (2 medium sized potatoes is about 3 cups chopped) Set aside.
- Cut the leeks where the white portion turns green. Cut off the roots at the end. Slice the white part in half, lengthwise.
- Rinse the white parts thoroughly under running water, running your finger over the laps to allow the water to rinse through.
- Slice the leek whites by 1/2 inch. (1 large leek is about 1 cup) Set aside.
- Rinse and chop the cauliflower. Measure 3 cups and set aside.
- Cut the garlic into 4’s.
Cook
- Heat a large pot on medium heat and fry the bacon. Set the bacon aside to drain.
- If not using bacon, heat the large pot on medium low heat and add the 2 Tbsps of butter and 2 Tbsps of oil. (Butter gives flavor and oil prevents the butter from burning).
- Add the potatoes and cauliflower and saute for 10 mins with the pot covered. Stir every 3-4 mins.
- Stir in the leeks, garlic, salt, pepper and thyme and saute for 5 mins.
- Add 1.5 cups of broth to deglaze the pot. Stir and cover. Cook for another 5 mins.
- Add 1/2 cup of cream. Cover and cook for 5 mins.
- Transfer to a high power blender and blend. Add more broth to reach desired consistency. Salt to taste.
- Garnish with bacon, cheddar cheese and chives.
Notes
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Elena Rivas says
Having diabetes is a pain especially if you don’t know how to cook healthy meals . THANK YOU FOR HELPING THE MANY PEOPLE LIKE ME LIVE A HEALTHIER AND HAPPY LIFE.
The Gestational Diabetic Chef says
You’re so kind, Elena. Thank you!
Lamzalo.com says
This might be a really dumb question but can you freeze it? Either that or I could just cut the recipe in half
The Gestational Diabetic Chef says
Hey! Sorry about the late reply on this. Yes, you can freeze it, and when you defrost and reheat it, you’ll likely have to blend it again (if you see separation). Or just half it and you’re set. 🙂