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I'm pleased to introduce Vicky and Rami, the very talented foodies and low-carb bloggers behind Tasteaholics, a food blog devoted to healthy low-carb lifestyle.
As I soon realised, we have a few things in common: Vicky and Rami are a couple working together and their focus is creating and sharing delicious keto and paleo / primal-friendly recipes. In this post, Vicky and Rami are sharing Greek Avgolemono Soup aka Chicken & Lemon Soup. Having Greek relatives, I have cooked a batch myself just yesterday and loved it. In fact, it has become one of the go-to meals in my house! :-)
Avgolemono is a Greek dish full of zest. Traditionally, it is cooked with chicken, lemon and orzo (a rice shaped pasta). Today, many people choose to cook it with rice because of how readily available it is. However, both options will result in a soup that is pretty high in carbs. When you’re on a ketogenic diet, you’ll find yourself getting more and more creative in the kitchen to keep eating the dishes you used to. That’s one of the great things about cooking- always trying new things!
Using a technique gaining popularity in the low carb, ketogenic community, we’re lowering that carb count to under 5 g per serving! The technique is called ricing a cauliflower, or grating it into rice-like pieces. A whole head of cauliflower has only 17 g of carbs. In comparison, half a cup of orzo can have 140 g of carbs! Sure to kick anyone out of ketosis for days.
Today we’re substituting the orzo in the traditional Greek recipe for half a head of riced cauliflower and teaching you how!
Hands-on Overall
Serving size about 1 1/2 cup/ 360 ml
Nutritional values (per serving, about 1 1/2 cup/ 360 ml)
Net carbs4 grams
Protein21.5 grams
Fat16.3 grams
Calories255 kcal
Calories from carbs 6%, protein 35%, fat 59%
Total carbs5.3 gramsFiber1.4 gramsSugars2.4 gramsSaturated fat6.9 gramsSodium385 mg(17% RDA)Magnesium40 mg(10% RDA)Potassium657 mg(33% EMR)
Ingredients (makes 8 servings)
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (30 ml)
- 1 medium yellow onion (110 g/ 3.9 oz)
- 4 chicken breasts, shredded (500 g/ 17.6 oz)
- 6 cups chicken broth (about 1.5 litre/ quart)
- 2 cups water (500 ml / 1/2 quart)
- 1/2 cup heavy cream (120 ml/ 4 fl oz)
- 2 lemons, juiced (60 ml/ 2 fl oz)
- 1/2 head of cauliflower, riced (420 g/ 14.8 oz)
- 3 large eggs
- sea salt, pepper, and dill to taste
- chopped parsley for garnish
Instructions
- To rice a head of cauliflower, first remove the leaves and chop into large florets. Grate each floret on the coarsest side of a box grater or pulse a few times in a food processor. Don’t over-process, the florets can turn into a pulp very quickly!
- To shred chicken breast, first cook the chicken all the way through on an oiled pan. Using two forks (or meat claws if you have) pull the meat apart until you have small pieces and lots of strips of chicken breast meat.
- In a large, oiled pot over medium heat, cook your onions until translucent and turning brown.
- Add your chicken broth, water, cream, shredded chicken and riced cauliflower.
- Add your herbs and the juice of 2 lemons. Do a taste test here, make sure the soup is salted enough and the lemon flavor comes through.
- Let this cook for about 8 minutes to allow the cauliflower to become tender.
- While the soup is cooking, beat 3 eggs together in a bowl. You first need to temper the eggs so they don’t cook unevenly and become stringy in the hot soup. To do this, while whisking the eggs with one hand, pour a ladle of the soup broth into the eggs slowly. This way, the eggs are brought to the right temperature gradually, instead of being shocked by the heat of the soup.
- When your egg bowl has 1-2 ladles full of soup broth in it, turn the flame under the pot off.
- In the same manner, pour your egg mixture into the soup slowly, stirring the soup while you pour.
- Do not turn the heat back on, instead, let the soup bring the eggs to its full temperature for about 2-3 minutes.
- Serve immediately with some fresh, chopped parsley and a sprinkle of pepper.
Ingredient nutritional breakdown (per serving, about 1 1/2 cup/ 360 ml)
| Net carbs | Protein | Fat | Calories |
|---|
| Olive oil, extra virgin |
| 0 g | 0 g | 3.4 g | 30 kcal |
| Onion, white, fresh |
| 1.1 g | 0.2 g | 0 g | 6 kcal |
| Chicken, breast (without skin, raw) |
| 0 g | 14.1 g | 1.6 g | 75 kcal |
| Chicken stock (broth), chicken only, homemade |
| 0 g | 3.6 g | 3.6 g | 47 kcal |
| Water, still |
| 0 g | 0 g | 0 g | 0 kcal |
| Cream, heavy whipping, pouring, full-fat (30-40% fat) |
| 0.4 g | 0.3 g | 5.7 g | 55 kcal |
| Lemon (juice), fresh |
| 0.8 g | 0 g | 0 g | 3 kcal |
| Cauliflower, fresh |
| 1.6 g | 1 g | 0.1 g | 13 kcal |
| Egg, whole, fresh, raw (free-range or organic eggs) |
| 0.1 g | 2.4 g | 1.8 g | 27 kcal |
| Salt, pink Himalayan rock salt |
| 0 g | 0 g | 0 g | 0 kcal |
| Pepper, black, spices |
| 0 g | 0 g | 0 g | 0 kcal |
| Dill, fresh |
| 0 g | 0 g | 0 g | 0 kcal |
| Parsley, fresh (spices) |
| 0 g | 0 g | 0 g | 0 kcal |
| Total per serving, about 1 1/2 cup/ 360 ml |
| 4 g | 21.5 g | 16.3 g | 255 kcal |
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