GAPS soup ideas

When I first started GAPS, I literally ate nothing but chicken stock with chicken and boiled carrots for 2 days. By the end of the second day I didn't think I could even look at another bowl of chicken soup with carrots. That's when I realized I really needed to make these soups more interesting or I just wasn't going to last. I scoured the internet for ideas and made the following list. There are 17 soups because that's what I could fit on a single sheet of paper, lol. I printed the list out and have it taped to the front of my kitchen cabinet so I can easily assemble the days soup in the morning. These are all Stage 1 - Stage 3 recipes.

I usually steam-sautee a bunch of vegetables and some kind of meat beforehand. I try to do it on Sunday, which is my "prep for the week" day but I don't always get around to it. More often I pick up some veggies after work and steam sautee a bunch of them that I can use for several days to prepare dishes with.

I've included a couple of condiments in some of these soups - fish sauce and sesame sauce - because they don't seem likely to contain any GAPS illegal ingredients. I use Red Boat fish sauce, which is just fermented fish juice with nothing added other than salt; and toasted sesame oil is just 100% sesame oil. They both add so much amazing flavor to dishes!



GAPS Soups

Asian Soup
Meat (any kind, including fish), mushrooms, carrot shreds, peppers, onions, fish sauce, sesame oil, chicken stock preferred, a little mushroom juice is a nice addition if you have any on hand

Creamy Broccoli Soup
Meat, garlic, broccoli, pureed with chunks, egg yolk mixed in (be sure to "temper" eggs before adding unless you want scrambled egg soup; to temper an egg add a bit of the hot broth to the egg/egg yolk and stir, I usually repeat this until it's more soup than egg yolk then I dump it into the pot and put it back on the heat for a bit)

Creamy Zucchini Soup
Onion & zucchini, pureed, egg yolk mixed in, with added chicken or meat on the side

Carrot Ginger Soup
Onion, carrots, and ginger pureed, meat on the side

Squash Soup
Onion, butternut/acorn/kabocha squash pureed, meat on side

French Onion Soup
Use beef broth; shredded carrots and wet sauteed onions with meat (beef preferred)

Italian Tomato Soup
Use beef broth; onion, carrots, celeriac, tomato paste (brown the tomato paste first to add some umami), garlic cloves, meat (beef preferred)

Cream Soup
Cook cauliflower and garlic and puree; veggies can be varied: spinach, broccoli, carrot, pepper, any kind of meat or meat can be on side

Mexican Soup
Onion, garlic, tomato, lemon juice, cilantro, avocado, meat (beef preferred)

Chicken “Noodle” Soup
Onion, carrots, zoodles* (salted and pressed?), chicken, in chicken broth

Pho
Onion, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, zoodles* (salted and pressed?), meat (probably any kind), in beef stock

Tom Yum Soup
Mushrooms, shredded carrots, tomatoes, garlic, lime juice, fish sauce, meat

Beef Stew
Mushrooms, carrots, tomatoes, onion, partially puree for body, add beef

Chinese Soup
Ginger, bok choy, shredded carrots, green onions, in chicken stock, meat (fish, seafood, chicken, or pork preferred) in chicken broth and mushroom juice if you have any. You want the bok choy to be bright green with a bit of crunch and the green onions fresh so if you're bringing a thermos don't put them in with the rest of the soup, bring them in a little side container and add them right before eating (the bok choy should already be steam sautéed).

Egg Drop Soup
A little zucchini or cauliflower pureed to give some body, ginger, green onions, sesame oil, in chicken stock, drizzled scrambled eggs (do not temper the eggs here - you want the egg to cook in thin, noodle-like strands)

Clam Chowder
Onion, garlic, cauliflower, homemade coconut milk*, roughly pureed, carrots, spinach, green onions, in chicken broth, add clams and juice

Creamy Mushroom Soup
Onion, cauliflower, homemade coconut milk*, pureed, in broth (beef or chicken), with meat and mushrooms and their juice



I hope this list helps. Enjoy!

* "Zoodles" are "noodles" made out of zucchini. I have something like this, basically a vegetable peeler with teeth that slice the stripe into noodle shapes. What I really want is spiralizer, but I don't want to spend the money when I have my little hand-held doodad. Note, you can make veggie noodles out of anything you can peel, although I've only tried zoodles.

* If you don't have homemade coconut milk use tempered egg yolk and/or pureed cauliflower to add some creaminess. (Most canned coconut milk, even the good stuff, has guar gum in it. This is no bueno for GAPS/SCD. It is possible to find canned coconut milk without guar gum but it's not easy.)