"Bob Terwilliger" > wrote in message
eb.com...
>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

I once made a potato and leek soup. I think it might have had chicken broth
in it. No dairy but the end result was creamy and it seemed like it had
dairy in it.