Thickening soups, etc, without starch?

[Jennifer Z]

I am trying to do a better job of dealing with insulin resistance. I found some information on Glycemic Load Diet (takes the Glycemic Index and adjusts it for reasonable serving sizes, which eliminates the nonsense that carrots are "bad" for you). I realized that I rely on starches a LOT to thicken things and help with texture. I need to find some new methods.


I was thinking that bone broth soups would be good, but does anybody know how the body responds to it (does it cause a big insulin response?) I would guess that it would be a good solution, but am not sure. Any ideas?

[LemonPie]

Do beans count as starches? Beans mashed with a potato masher or run through a food processor thicken nicely. The soup tends to settle a bit and needs to be stirred up before it's served, but that doesn't bug me

[Jennifer Z]

Beans do and don't count. You can eat them in moderation because there is enough good stuff and the carbs aren't as available, but can't have a lot.

[LaughingHyena]

When I do soups I usually take out some of the veg and purée them in the blender. Then add the purée back to thicken the soup. Most of the veg we use for this are quite starchy though, maybe cut down till you get used the thinner soup?

[nathansmum]

I know when we were strictly on the GAPs diet (which is essentially a no-starch diet) that navy beans, dried split peas and lentils were the only allowed legumes so wonder if they'd work for you?

[cristeen]

I use pureed veggies sometimes, pumpkin in pumpkin soup, tomatoes (combination of stewed and sun dried) in tomato soup, onions in onion soup, etc. But I've also learned to adjust my expectations of thickness. The uber-thickness that we've come to expect from soups like Campbells is not natural, and I've learned to be perfectly content with a thinner cream based soup. Things like mushrooms when pureed turn the soup pot a muddy grey color that is quite unappetizing, so I don't puree it and deal with it being a little thinner. If you use real cream in your soup instead of milk, then you get a lot of the mouth-feel you're missing from the thickener from the fat in the cream.

As for the question of bone broths - there's nothing in a bone broth to trigger a glycemic response, unless you've added it. Bones and water alone will not do it.

[Ellp]

How about some dairy products? Eg. a block of cream cheese or some yoghurt (not too much or it'll be too tangy), some melted cheese?

Is Tapioca and arrowroot considered starches and work the same way?

Maybe add some cooked and pureed squash?

[noobmom]

For clear-type soups (not chowders or the like), if you start with a good homemade broth you will not need to thicken it to get a nice mouthfeel. I rarely find the need to thicken soups, but maybe like cristeen, I'm just accustomed to the thinner consistency. You can thicken by pureeing a potato or bread/crackers, but that's just replacing one starch with another.

However, I don't think you'll find much of a way around thickening things like a traditional gravy. Instead you'd probably have to substitute a pan-gravy (au jus), where you just deglaze the pan with some liquid and add a pat of a butter.

[velochic]

I would look to long cooking times that reduce the sauces/broths/etc. Rather than add, take away. That is, if you have a long cooking time, you can condense the liquids and make them thicker.

Another way is to temper eggs to add to the sauces. Take a bit of cooking liquid, combine with a beaten egg to bring up slowly up to temperature, then slowly add tempered mixture back into the pot, taking care to not end up with the egg scrambled. The egg will give more body without much added flavor or any starch.

[reeseccup]

I've read that okra is used as a gumbo thickener (I can't stand okra so I've never tried it), so that may be worth a shot.

[Ruthla]

If the point is to reduce carbs/glycemic load, then gums are an option. These are primarily fiber, so they don't "count" as carbs nutritionally, although they are technically carbs (chains of carbon-based molecules- it's just that these are chains our bodies can't digest or use the energy from.) There's xanthan gum, guar gum, and probably a few others I can't think of the names of right now. Personally I've only used xanthan gum.

You can use xanthan gum pretty much anywhere you'd use flour for thickening a gravy or soup. You need to dissolve it REALLY WELL in cold liquid before adding it to a hot liquid, and then stir thoroughly while it's thickening. If you don't do it right, you get clumpy "gummy" spots floating in a thinner liquid, rather than a smooth thick liquid all around. It works best (smoothest results) when combined with a starchy thickener, so you can use less of the starch.

Eggs (or at least egg yolks) can also be used to thicken sauces. This basically involves cooking the eggs in the liquid so it all thickens up together. I've never done it (except for egg drop soup), so I'm not sure of the exact technique. I'm not sure if it works with whole eggs or just yolks, but I'm pretty sure it involves mixing with a cold liquid first and then adding to the larger mix of hot liquid and stirring while it thickens. I'd suggest searching for "low carb recipes" online and you'll probably find a bunch of recipes that explain these techniques better than I can.

Egg drop soup is made by having broth (I use chicken and/or turkey, whichever I have on hand) heating up, then stir in some beaten eggs and gently stir while the eggs cook. For this recipe you DON'T want a smooth texture, you want pieces of cooked egg floating in a thin broth, but the end result is definitely a thicker soup than plain old chicken broth. IME, egg drop soup is a nice comfort food, and a perfect replacement for chicken soup with rice or noodles. I generally use 2 eggs per pint of soup.

Oh, back to your question about bone broths- they are an EXCELLENT source of minerals, protein, and fats, and are extremely low in carbs (even when cooked with veggies.) They're very satisfying and leave you (well, they leave me anyway) less likely to seek out starches to feel full.