Low Carb Gumbo Style Soup
We were watching an old episode of a food show the other night and they were at a greasy spoon making shrimp and grits, which is One of my husband’s favorites. This naturally led to us discussing what to make for dinner the following night. We decided on gumbo. You’d think my husband was a southern boy, but he was born and raised in Berkeley, CA!
Anyway, I decided to lighten up the recipe since traditional gumbo is a bit contradictory to my goal of losing 15 pounds. Life is just like that. Always getting in the way of your goals. I love a roux, but I also would love to fit into my pre-baby pants so that I don’t have to spend money on new ones.
So here we go. If you have a gumbo craving, but can’t afford the calorie bomb for whatever reason, give this a try.
Low Carb Gumbo Style Soup
Ingredients
- 1 medium yellow onion diced
- 4 large stalks celery sliced
- 2 cans (14oz) diced tomatoes
- 2 chicken breasts (1 lb raw)
- 1 lb andouille sausage sliced
- 1 tablespoon Garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon Cajun seasoning
- 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper (hot)
- 1/2 tablespoon white pepper powder
- 3 cups chopped cabbage
- 64 oz water Give or take
- Salt to taste
Slice up your andouille sausage and put it in the pot with the chopped onion and sliced celery. Saute on medium heat until the onion just starts to become translucent. Cut your chicken breast into bite sized chunks and add them to the pot. Stir in with the sausage, onion, and celery and saute for about five minutes. Add all of your spices, canned tomatoes, water, and salt. Leave it slightly less salty than you prefer since some water will evaporate.
Bring the pot to a barely-there-light-simmer and let it cook about two hours. It is edible in only 45 minutes, but tastes better with longer cooking. Finely chop your cabbage and add it to the pot during the last 20 minutes. If you prefer your cabbage softer, add it at the start of the second hour. I like it to have some chew.
This recipe should make four huge servings.
We do NOT serve it over rice, as part of the low carb shtick. That is why we added the cabbage. Cabbage is my rice and pasta replacement when I’m avoiding starch.
Cabbage and cauliflower are closely related and cauliflower rice is pretty popular. You could skip the cabbage and pour the gumbo soup over riced cauliflower.
Clearly, this isn’t quite gumbo without the roux and rice, but you get most of the flavors. My husband actually enjoys this soup as much as he enjoys his greasy starchy shrimp N’ grits.
Try these:
Tomato Cauliflower Soup with Thai Basil
Chicken Tomato Soup with Spinach & Orzo