Mexican Chicken & Cauliflower Soup (GAPS intro legal)
What to eat besides fairly bland soups is the trickiest part of preparing GAPS-legal meals for me. Everything I’ve ever learned about cooking tasty foods for my family is pretty much out the window. You don’t brown meat, you boil everything into submission, and very little spices are allowed.
So I suppose I am forced out of my comfort zone and so is my husband, the one actually on the intro diet. His favorite foods are almost invariably Mexican. I think when I asked him if I could get him anything the other day he answered "A GAPS-legal grilled stuffed burrito, please."
Sorry, hun, no can do. (It’s a good thing he’s a trooper.)
Fresh cilantro, onions, and garlic are all legal, though, so I came up with this soup. A squeeze of lemon juice, which I think is legal, really livens the whole thing up to give your dinner guests something other than plain boiled meat and veg.
It’s no grilled stuffed burrito, but it definitely leaves you feeling more nourished than nauseous, which we can’t necessarily say about the that other "food".
Mexican Chicken & Cauliflower Soup
Ingredients
- 2 lb. head of cauliflower
- 6-8 cups of bone broth
- 2 medium onions, diced
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 heaping packed cups of cooked, cubed chicken
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- juice of 1/2 lemon
Directions
- Bring bone broth to a boil in a Dutch oven. Meanwhile, prepare cauliflower by removing florets from all tough stalks and breaking into bite-sized pieces.
- Once broth is simmering add cauliflower, onions and garlic with a generous pinch of salt. Simmer for 20-30 minutes or until vegetables are very soft.
- Once vegetables are soft add chicken, cilantro, and lemon juice. Allow chicken to just warm through and remove from heat. Taste for seasoning and add sea salt as desired.
- Serve in bowls with avocado, hot sauce or red pepper flakes, and additional cilantro as you are able on the GAPS diet. My husband enjoyed his without any of the above and still really liked it.
What are you cooking up this week?
This recipe looks delicious! I love the plain simple recipes. Thanks for sharing with us!
Wow, I didn’t know GAPS was so strict with even how you cook meat?
Michelle – Yeah… I think the idea is to make meat as digestible as possible and some claim that when you char or brown meat it can denature proteins which are hard on the digestive system. After 2 weeks my husband is eating pan-fried meats so it wasn’t too long of a time span on the boiled everything.
Thanks for these GAPS legal meal ideas! Keep up the good work Shannon.
I might even be interesting to run the cauliflower through a ricer- to get a rice type texture.
jen
Michelle, you have to boil meat and veggies on the first couple of stages of intro – which I think is where Shannon’s husband is. Later you add roasting and grilling – this is all intro again, mind you. On full GAPS you can use any cooking method.
I made this recipe for dinner tonight as I had leftovers from my (first ever!) free-range, organic chicken that I roasted myself. I also used your stock recipe in the slow cooker – wow did it turn out great! I love what the avocado adds, and you are right, the lemon really brightens the dish. Love your blog!!!
My husband loves Mexican food, too. We eat at a Mexican restaurant at least once a month. And if we are not there for quite a while, it seems like he goes through withdrawal–just kidding 🙂
I am going to make one of my favorite meals–which I do not think is part of the GAPS diet–this week, which is a roast, potatoes, carrots, and onions.
http://faithfulsolutions.blogspot.com/
Your soup looks yummy. I have a question for you though about fermentation. I tried my first fermenting project this week–a yummy asparagus, lemon, thyme and sea salt recipe I found on website. We excitedly watched and waited for it as it did it’s “thing” this week. Opening the bubbling concoction last night my husband and I each ate one spear and he looked at me and asked if I was trying to kill him. (not your typical pickled asparagus). Then within the half hour we each started belching and our tummies were making some rolling and tumbling sounds. Neither of us felt good last night.
Did I do something wrong?—Is asparagus a little too strong of a veggie to start with? Oh my–this GAPS thing could be a hard sell for my husband.
What are your thoughts??
gogardengirl – It’s hard to tell. If it was your first go at eating fermented foods it might be a shock to your system. How did the asparagus smell? It should smell fermented and sour, but not rotten or nasty. How long did you let it ferment? A few days should be all it needs, depending on your temperatures. I hope you all are feeling well again.
Is this ok fro stage 1 or do I have to wait to stage 2 when you can add in herbs, I tnk?