The cats have been confused. In? Out? Both, rapidly?
My first thought was that as long as I have Limestone Country sausage and chicken broth I can do anything.
Rooting around in the refrigerator turned up half a head of cabbage and about 1/8 of a purple onion.
Onions are high carb items but this little chunk wouldn't yield more than 2 carbs and still be enough to give flavor to the soup. Cabbage, for one medium head, is about 51 net carbs. Waaaay too many for our stage of Atkins. But half a head is around 25 and when added to this recipe the average serving contains a lot less. A 32 ounce container of Organic chicken broth has 4 carbs and the sausage and spices have zero carbs. Here's how it worked:
Rainy Day Soup
1 lb link sausage, sliced. Preferably country smokehouse style; otherwise, add sage, crushed red pepper, celery salt, cumin and oregano to taste.
1/2 head of a medium cabbage, chopped
1 ounce minced red onion
1 32 ounce container organic chicken broth
salt, pepper, paprika to taste
Put the sausage and onion in a soup pot over medium heat and stir occasionally while you chop the cabbage. When the onion bits are translucent, add the cabbage. Stir and toss a few minutes until cabbage wilts a bit, add the chicken broth and bring to a boil for two minutes or so then reduce to a simmer.
Simmer for fifteen minutes (or more, if you like). Taste and season, add a little olive oil if you think the mouth-feel is too watery. Add a cup or two of water if needed.
This is actually four servings but we ate it all ourselves!
Carbs per cup: approx. 8.5
As we ate it, 17 carbs for the meal, below our daily allowance of 20-25.
I made it extra dense as far as solid ingredients to reduce the longing for crackers or bread.
