A low-carb zuppa toscana

And, why cooking at home matters

Hi, and happy December! If you celebrated Thanksgiving, I hope it was a lovely one. Ours was fun and relaxed and we enjoyed the nice long weekend, which led right into my birthday. So far, the last week has consisted of great food (like today’s zuppa toscana recipe, pictured below!), spending time with family, holiday shopping, seeing friends in town, a trip to the zoo, and a couple of perfect Arizona nights spent around a backyard fire. Between Christmas and birthdays, holiday events and all the extra dates to keep track of, December is always such a whirlwind, but I love it.

Low-carb zuppa toscana featuring mushrooms and cauliflower rice.

I find that it’s also the time of year when everyone is baking more, but perhaps cooking less. Whether it’s the holiday hustle or family visiting or the concept of re-setting in the new year (or all of those reasons and more), it can be so easy to set aside cooking healthy meals this season.

I recently shared this note with some thoughts on my mindset around cooking and convenience and was blown away by the response. So many great comments and apparently, many of you can relate.

It’s really sad to see what food culture in America has become, along with the consequential health crises that impact nearly every single one of us in some way. There is so much research that shows chronic illnesses like diabetes, cancer, heart disease, stroke, etc., are related to poor metabolic health, and I want to set myself and my family up for lots of healthy years ahead.

I will say that it’s tough to follow this 100% of the time (I’m certainly not perfect) but that’s what goals are, right? Something to work toward.

Why cooking at home matters

If there’s one thing I hope to do, it’s inspire you to eat in a way that supports your metabolic health. (I love what Beth Bollinger outlines here about real food, along with part 2 on building a healthy eating blueprint.)

But secondly, I hope to inspire you to cook more often.

For me, this journey started out with my husband’s brain cancer diagnosis over seven years ago, which resulted in some major lifestyle changes. I learned to cook ketogenic-friendly meals with a focus on nutrient-dense foods, and we began a necessary shift away from “convenience” foods, refined carbs, and ultra-processed food products, as much as possible.

Brown butter cod and zucchini; autumn squash chicken chili.

But I also hope this newsletter shows you how easy and simple it is to cook at home. In fact, I believe that the more we cook at home, the more we will want to cook at home.

While eating out can be fun and completely appropriate on occasion, I think too much of it actually lowers our standards and makes us forget what good, real food tastes like.

Also, I can’t stress enough that it’s much more affordable to eat real food, cooked at home— a point that Johanna Vann makes a wonderful case for.

With that said, I think December is actually the perfect time to strive toward eating more at home with family, and saving money while you’re at it, don’t you?!

If you’re new to my newsletter, I share a 30-minute, low-carb dinner recipe every Thursday that is exclusive to my newsletter subscribers and is not on my blog, Stem and Spoon.

Here’s a look at some of the recent recipes paid subscribers received:

Three ways to make Thai red chicken curry

A 30-minute autumn chicken chili

Chicken tinga taco salad (for leftover chicken or turkey)

And if you’re looking for some more free recipes, you can always head to the blog and take a browse. This time of year, I’m all about holiday baking and these are some of my faves:

• Keto French silk pie

• Low-carb tiramisu *pictured below

• Peanut butter blossoms

• Almond flour biscotti

• Low-carb gingerbread loaf

• Sugar-free (and dairy-optional) hot cocoa

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A cozy, low-carb “zuppa toscana”

I made this soup on my birthday on Tuesday. I have been craving a cozy soup like this and it felt just like the lunchtime treat I needed.

It has enough protein to stand alone as a main meal, but I’m also including a few easy substitutions for those of you looking to get even more protein into a serving.

The soup is packed with flavor from the Italian sausage, caramelized onions, mushrooms and smoked paprika. Kale adds a pop of green and a little bit of frozen cauliflower rice adds extra heartiness to the meal. I wrote the recipe with chicken bone broth, but I actually used homemade turkey bone broth. Either is fine.

There is cream involved but it’s entirely optional. You can even swap it out for a dairy-free alternative like coconut cream, macadamia milk, or soaked/blended cashews if you prefer.

It has a really wonderful zuppa toscana flavor, and will most likely set you up with lunch the next day, so it’s a double win.

Yield: 6-8 servings

Prep time: ~25 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon avocado oil or olive oil

• ½ yellow or white onion, sliced thin

• 6 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced

• 1-½ teaspoons minced garlic (about 2-3 cloves)

• 1 pound ground Italian sausage, regular or spicy

• 1 tablespoon arrowroot powder

• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

• 5 cups chicken bone broth

• 1 very large handful of chopped kale, any variety

• 1-½ cups frozen riced cauliflower

• ½ to 1 cup heavy cream (see notes for swaps)

• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper

• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt (add more to taste)

• 2 teaspoons nutritional yeast

• Freshly-grated Parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes (optional), for serving

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Instructions

1. Set a large soup pot over medium-high heat and add the oil. When it glistens, add the sliced onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the mushrooms to the pot and cook for another 2-3 minutes, just until they have slightly browned. If the mushrooms need another drizzle of oil, go ahead and add a bit more.

2. Stir in the minced garlic and ground Italian sausage. Cook for about 4 minutes or until the sausage is mostly browned– break it up with your spoon as it cooks. Spoon out any excess grease and discard.

3. Add the arrowroot powder and smoked paprika to the mixture, stirring it and cooking for about 30 seconds. Pour in the bone broth.

4. Increase the heat to “high” and bring the soup to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium, then stir in the kale and cauliflower rice and simmer for 3-4 minutes.

5. Stir in the cream, salt, pepper, and nutritional yeast. Taste and add more seasonings if needed.

6. Ladle into bowls and serve with freshly-grated Parmesan and red pepper flakes.

Recipe notes

• The arrowroot powder is not completely necessary, but I think it helps thicken up the soup ever so slightly. If you don’t have it, don’t worry about it.

• You can use chicken bone broth, turkey bone broth, or any type of chicken stock/broth or vegetable stock/broth.

• Store any leftovers in the fridge for up to five days.

How to add extra protein

• Replace the heavy cream with ¾ cup cottage cheese processed with ¼ cup bone broth. Process or blend it until smooth, then pour it into the soup at the very end.

• Substitute the cauliflower rice for a lupini bean rice or pasta like Kaizen (it’s high in fiber and contains 20g of protein per serving). Simply add 1 cup of pre-cooked rice or pasta at the same time as you would add the cauliflower.

Substitutions

• Broth: Bone broth is my broth of choice because it’s highly nutritious and adds extra protein to the meal. If you don’t have it, you can easily substitute it with chicken broth or stock.

• Italian sausage: You can use any type of ground meat instead of Italian sausage. To season it like Italian sausage, add the following to 1 pound ground meat: 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon dried parsley, ¼ teaspoon onion powder, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon ground fennel and a dash of red pepper flakes.

• Mushrooms: If you’re not a fan of mushrooms, feel free to omit them. You can also substitute the mushrooms for a squash like butternut or delicata and just add extra simmer time so that the squash becomes tender.

• Cauliflower rice: Frozen, riced cauliflower is a no-fuss way to add extra veggies into this soup. You can substitute it for high-protein lupini rice, or Miracle Rice, if preferred.

Nutrition

Nutritional information is calculated by MyFitnessPal and is based on an estimate of 6 servings.

Calories: 421

Total fat: 31 g

Cholesterol: 101mg

Total carbohydrate: 9 g

Dietary fiber: 2 g

Total sugar: 3 g

Protein: 28 g

Total net carbs: 7 g

Low Carb Zuppa Toscana

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I hope you find this simple soup to be as cozy and warming and hearty as I do. If you enjoy this post and the recipe, I’d be so grateful if you tap the ❤️ for this post or share it with someone you know.

Until next week!

Abby