Low carb fish chowder is hearty, full of cream, lightly flavoured with fish or clams, and it fills you up with goodness and warms you to your toes. Typical chowders are often so thick, your spoon can stand straight up in them. They can be like concrete. And all that thickness comes from flour, which let’s face it, really isn’t good for you. It only makes it seem heartier, when really it’s filling you up with empty carbs. Add to that the potatoes that are standard in Boston Clam Chowder and you’ve got yourself a carb-filled soup with little nutrition to recommend it. The truth is, low carb fish chowder is far more satisfying.
Even before I followed a low carb diet, I always skipped the flour in my fish chowder in favour of a thinner broth. So I suppose my version was always gluten-free. In the past few years, I’ve figured out a great sub for the potatoes to make it a truly low carb fish chowder. Radish may seem like a strange substitute for potatoes, but not if it’s daikon radish. Say what? Yep, that was my first reaction too; what was this huge, white radish I’d never heard of?
Daikon is a really mild, white radish that resembles potatoes when chopped. It’s a perfect low carb substitute for potatoes. In fact, you wouldn’t be able to tell the daikon from potatoes for a second unless I told you that’s what they were.
(23 votes, average: 3.43 out of 5)Loading...Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon, chopped
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 cups chopped daikon radish
- 2 1/2 cups chicken stock
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 lb fresh white fish like cod, pollock or tilapia, chopped
- OR 2 can chopped clams
- 1 tbsp butter
Instructions
- In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook bacon until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper-towel lined plate.
- Add onion and daikon radish to bacon grease and cook until onions are tender, about 10 minutes.
- Add chicken stock and simmer 10 minutes. Season with thyme, salt and pepper.
- Add cream and fish and continue to simmer until fish is cooked through, about 4 minutes.
- Float butter on top.
- Serve immediately.
