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Chicken pot pie soup a la Kate

I love chicken pot pie. Comfort food nonpareil. Unfortunately, it no longer loves me. Between the wheat in the crust and gravy and the high-glycemic potatoes and English peas, I might as well just have a plateful of sugar topped with battery acid.

So I started thinking about ways to get that great comforting taste without the bad stuff.

Wheat-free piecrust is possible, but most of the gluten-free frozen crusts and recipes for making them call for high-glycemic flours like rice. Since what I really love is the innards of the pie anyway, would it be possible to make the innards separately without a crust? What about the veggies inside?

Hey, who made it a rule that potatoes and English peas were required? Carrots are okay if not terrific; GI somewhere around 35-49. Why not use edamame (sweet soybeans, GI 20-25) instead of peas (GI around 48-50)? Add some sautéed mushrooms instead of potatoes?

So here’s what I did. This is loose and open to refinement as well as improvisation. It was very simple, completely delicious, wheat-free and moderate- to low-glycemic, and will become one of my regular staples.

1 tablespoon butter or oil
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 to 1 cup carrots, peeled and sliced thinly
2 cups frozen edamame, shelled (make sure to get non-GMO soybeans)
1 cup cooked chicken, diced
1 tablespoon butter or oil
4 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons thickener: rice flour, cornstarch, or buckwheat flour
salt and pepper to taste

Add the butter or oil to a nonstick skillet. Over medium heat, sauté the mushrooms and onions until the onions are translucent but not browned.

Meanwhile, heat the chicken stock to near boiling. Add the carrots and simmer for 10 minutes or so. Add the edamame and heat for another 5 minutes.

Stir in the thickener a little at a time; you want the consistency about that of a cream soup but not as thick as gravy. Add the diced chicken, mushrooms, and onions. Stir well. Add salt and pepper as needed.

Serve in bowls.

I tried this once with broccoli added, which was not a success — it was a bit too assertive and didn’t play well with the other veggies. If you didn’t mind more of a carb load, you could add some rice to help thicken up the soup. Barley, maybe? Red peppers? I’ll have to try that next time too.