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Thursday, February 28, 2019

Turkey Chowder With A Twist

You know those days when you have everything planned and then the plan starts to ravel? I had one of those yesterday. There was nothing bad about it and nothing disappointing happened, in fact a lot of unplanned really nice things were going on all around me and I got a lot of errands and running around done. Several stops occurred that I had no intentions of making, but, organically time and place ruled my route. And all of a sudden it was nearly 5 and I still had to drop fruit off at Mom's house. I pulled up to her house and notice My Beloved Sister was still there, as it was her afternoon to tend to Mom. When I walked in to deliver the oranges and grapes, I met them about to come out the door to grab a take out meal for Mom.

I rode with them and sat in the car talking to Mom while MBS bought her meal. Then we went back to Mom's and my sis had to go home. I stayed with Mom while she ate (mainly to monitor  the amount of food, or lack thereof, that she actually chewed and swallowed. Her usual m.o. is to just move it around the plate and pretend she is actually eating.
After a bit of nagging encouragement on my part, she managed to eat half of her vegetables and at least 3 bites of her salisbury steak. (Not much, but better than usual)

Anyway, by the time I left her house it was about 5:30. When I got back to my house I realized I had forgotten to buy a couple of critical ingredients for the planned dinner meal and I was not going to go back to the grocery store. So there was nothing to do but punt, and the turkey tetrazzini meal became a bowl of smoked turkey chowder with some rolls for the non-keto.

Though this meal (less the bread) was totally keto and we even had Son2 and DIL2 join us, the results were pretty amazing. Everyone liked it and for the first time in a long time my bowl had the same  exact food as everyone else.  It was good; really good.

I found the recipe at I Breathe, I'm Hungry  You can go there for her original recipe. The following is the very subtle change I made, because, well__ shallots. Do any of you really keep them unless you need them for a particular recipe? The Pig has them in a pack of two and sometimes I buy one for a recipe, but the remaining one generally dries and becomes shallot dust, which is what I found when I looked in my onion/garlic/shallot bin.
 
Turkey Chowder

5 slices bacon cooked crisp (chop and reserve about 1/4 of it for garnish
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1 1/2 quarts broth  (chicken would be good too)
1 head cauliflower, washed, drained and cut into small pieces
3 cups cooked turkey meat, shredded or chopped
1 tsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp liquid smoke
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup extra sharp white cheddar cheese, shredded
1 tsp xanthan gum
1 teaspoon thyme
1/4 cup grated yellow cheddar


Cook the bacon in the bottom of a dutch oven. Remove when crisp then add the onion and celery to the bacon drippings. Cook until wilted but not brown. Add the broth, then toss in the cauliflower, turkey, parsley,  salt and pepper, and the liquid smoke. Cook until the cauliflower is soft. Sir in the bacon except for the reserved bacon, whipping cream and the cheese. Stir until it is well blended and hot. Sir in the xanthan gum and the mixture will begin to thicken. Stir in the thyme, ladle into bowl and garnish with about a tablespoon of grated cheddar and a sprinkle of bacon bits. Yumlicious!

18 comments:

  1. Sounds yummy. Now if I only liked turkey. lolz

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    1. It was fantastic and would work equally well with chicken. I don't love turkey but find it perfectly fine. The bad thing is you have to do something will all the blooming leftovers. I am pretty sure this is going to be my go to "use it up" recipe because everyone loved it.

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  2. Sounds good to me too, except that I'd rather have it with chicken. Never heard of xanthan gum though...

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    1. Xanthan gum is a standard for keto. It is used as a thickening agent since flours, and starches are off the table, but I have use a bit of arrowroot starch on occasion. It does add more carbs so I can only use it on a very very low carb day.

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  3. How lovely that you were able to eat what everyone else was eating, too! I have some chicken in the freezer that needs something done with it...

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    1. It was really good Bless, and everyone here enjoyed it.

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  4. Bacon, cream, and cheese. Not matter what else you put in, it had to be good. Yum!

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  5. I have turkey. Liquid smoke....now that is something I have never bought. Seems I need to buy this to make this recipe work for me. Shallots. Yes, I hear you. At least you can buy packs of two. Last time I bought shallots, they were in a bag of six. I love hearing people's reaction over my weight loss of 27 pounds by eating bacon, butter, cream and cheese. Sometimes that is all they hear. A friend decided they were going keto, until they learned what vegetables they had to eat and ALL they could NOT eat. Their diet did not last 3 days. I think this recipe is a keeper.

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  6. This was really good and will become a regular, but with chicken most likely. I always have chicken but rarely have turkey.
    Have you tried mixing cream cheese, chopped pecans, chopped olives and a tad of mayonnaise mixed together and eaten on celery. It is delicious! I have been doing keto since last June, but I will admit I did not do it faithfully from Thanksgiving until January 2, and have gotten off it a couple of days since. Now I am fully involved again and plan to stick to it for a while.

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  7. That sounds fantastic. I love all of those ingredients. Do you use keto mayonnaise?

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    1. I don't. I got tired of making it myself. Then I bought keto mayo but stopped mainly because of the expense. Here I can find Dukes which has no sugars and with the exception of being made with soybean oil is keto compliant. I am willing to make the exception for mayo

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  8. Replies
    1. It really was good, Kylie, and even better tonight warmed up.

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  9. It sounds so yummy. Anything with cream, cheese and bacon can't go wrong. :)

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  10. Sounds delicious. Chowders are some of my favorites for soups.

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    1. I do not generally make chowders, but keto makes it really easy.

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