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Thickening soups and stews

Pulses will do the trick. I use pasta with leeks and a stock cube and let boil a good while so it becomes more concentrated. Sometimes I mash the contents.
 
I usually cook the stew (without flour or root veg) adding minimal stock. Then serve it in a bowl.

If i want a thick soup, i use a hand blender and enough veg that the liquid is the texture i want.

Thankfully, I have quite lost my taste for thick heavy flour based sauces and gravy granules, but have been known to use thick cream, psyllium husks and blended cashews to give txture.
 
I sauted mushrooms to use as a gravy base and it would completely work to thicken soups. I blended them with herbs, garlic and broth.
I used a blender but an emmersion blender would work perfectly. No flours, starches etc. just mushrooms and a few bits of onion. Made an awesome gravy by the way. Nobody would know it was low carb
 
4ratbags said:
Definitely stay away from pasta and lentils to thicken. I think you can use guarantee gum to thicken.
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I think @4ratbags was thinking of xantham gum .. I think also arrowroot can be used if pre mixed with water then added.
I would just cook things for a bit longer to evaporate the water and have naturally thickened juices.
 
I usually whizz a few of the veggies up if I ive used them - if not I use xantham gum - but go easy with it you need to sprinkle it in and stir like mad to stop it going lumpy - I sift it in with a tea strainer. You don't need a lot. Some find it can upset their stomach.

A word to the wise - if you ever spill it DO NOT clean it up with a wet cloth - it just gets bigger and clumpier and takes forever to get up - sweep it up with a dry cloth - I lost an hour of my life once lol
 
I use either mashed veg or ground chia seeds - but generally I just don't add more liquid than I need.
 
I make big pot full in the pressure cooker and when it's done and cooled a bit, I take a third out, blend and stir back in. Makes a really lovely thick soup. I do add pulses but only a drained tin full in 4 litres of soup. Into containers and thern the freezer, bingo - soup for the week. Served with half a lidl roll and it's a filling, nutritious meal
 
Serena51 said:
I make big pot full in the pressure cooker and when it's done and cooled a bit, I take a third out, blend and stir back in. Makes a really lovely thick soup. I do add pulses but only a drained tin full in 4 litres of soup. Into containers and thern the freezer, bingo - soup for the week. Served with half a lidl roll and it's a filling, nutritious meal
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I also use a pressure cooker for soups and stews.

I'll give your idea a go the next time I'm making a soup or a stew..
 
Finely chopped okra.
 
Ive always used a heaped teaspoon full of plain white flour, so shoot me.

1 x heaped teaspoon of white flour weighs around 7g on my scales so at 76g carbs per 100g that works out at around 5g carbs per heaped teaspoon, when thats divided into 4 portions thats around 1.25g of carbs per portion, I dont think my meter is sensitive enough to register the effect of 1.25 g of carbs on my bg levels :)
 
I use gram flour which is made from chickpeas as a thickener for soups and sauces. If you can eat hummus without a high rise then you could use this
 
Microwaved frozen cauliflower whizzed to a puree and stirred in. It's one of the two components of my favourite cheese sauce recipe, but even without cheese it makes a brilliant sauce, or a decent thickener for soups and stews etc. It's in pretty much everything I cook.....

:)
 
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