If you or anyone can take a moment to help with this I would really appreciate it.

I made the Zuppa Toscana soup recipe (link below) and substituted cauliflower for the potatoes. The recipe is pretty basic; chicken broth, bacon italian sausage, kale, onion, garlic, cauliflower and cream. The soup flavor was just like it is when made with potatoes, but my problem was with the texture of the broth. Normally when I have made this recipe with the potatoes, they break down a bit over the course os simmering and add a slight thickness to the broth. This was missing with the cauliflower. I was wondering what your suggestions might be as to replicate the original broth texture. I was considering possibly pureeing 1/4 or so of the boiled cauliflower and then adding that back into the soup. Do you think this would work? The soup is very tasty as is with the cauliflower, but getting the proper broth would make it perfect. Thank you in advance for any advice on this recipe!

recipe link http://recipes.robbiehaf.com/O/573.htm

Karen has often recommended a puree of vegetable (especially cauliflower) as a thickener. Sounds like a good plan to me, too! Sounds exceedingly yummy, in fact

I would make a base for the soup with cauliflower and stock, then puree it. You can then build the soup with the rest of the ingredients.

Karen

Why cauliflower? Why not use rutabaga instead of the potatoes?

Rutabaga is higher on the glycemic index. Turnip could be an appropriate substitution also.

I thought Turnips and Rutabaga were the same thing? At least thats what the guy in the produce aisle told me

Not the same. Very different in taste as well.

Turnips, for some reason, don't tend to puree as well as cauliflower--it's either very fibrous or very mushy.

I've tried a couple low-carb zuppa toscana recipes and I love this one: http://www.camacdonald.com/lc/Cookbook/0801.html

As you can see, it calls for mashing the cauliflower with cream cheese which really thickens the soup nicely.

Here's the nutrition info I have for it in My P.L.A.N. (Note: I used breakfast sausage because it was much lower in carbs than the Italian sausage I looked at. If you can find good Italian sausage with no crappy fillers, use it.)