I want a soup which has the flavor of a baked potato with sour cream and
chives, but which doesn't have the fat of sour cream or the carbs of
potatoes. I'm using two ideas as background information for this experiment:

1. The Vegetarian Epicure books use a potato-peel broth as their standard
stock in soups. It's basically the same ingredients as meat-based stocks,
but uses potato peels instead of meat.

2. Clarifying soup to make consommé involves something called the "raft":
Egg whites are whipped and mixed with some form of ground meat (and
sometimes with eggshells as well). That egg-meat mixture is stirred into a
cold soup. The soup is heated. As the egg whites coagulate, they form a kind
of raft which floats to the top of the soup. The raft traps all kind of
particles inside, so that the remaining broth is clear.

So here's what I'm going to try for two diners: Roast three big russet
potatoes. Use a knife to remove the peels, including some of the potato
flesh. Use the remaining potato flesh for something else. (I'll be using it
to make potato soufflés.) Combine the potato peels with three cups water,
two tablespoons butter, one chopped onion, one smashed clove garlic, one
chopped small stalk celery, and a chopped carrot. Simmer for one hour, then
cool to room temperature and remove the cooked-out vegetables. Stir in a
quarter-cup of sour cream. Grind one big chicken breast with skin. Beat six
egg whites briefly, then combine the ground chicken and egg whites. Add
chicken-egg combination to soup pot and stir to combine. Cook over low heat,
stirring constantly, until egg whites coagulate and float to the top of the
pot. Continue to cook another 15 minutes undisturbed. (Do not allow to boil,
or the sour cream will curdle.) Remove raft using a skimmer, then pour
through a fine strainer to catch any particles of eggs which may have
dislodged from the raft. Skim off any fat from the top of the broth.
Sprinkle with chives when serving.

I'm *hoping* that the baked-potato flavor comes through, and that the raft
traps most of the fat. I think that there will still be some carbs in the
soup, because some starch will come out of the potato peels, but it
shouldn't be nearly as high as normal potato soup. I'll be interested to see
how thick the resulting soup is, and whether the raft can clarify the sour
cream component.

Has anybody here ever tried that kind of thing?

Bob