Carl’s Keto Clam Chowda!
I was born and raised in New England, so I’m no newcomer to clam chowder. In fact, I grew up (and still live) right near the ocean. Good New England clam chowder is seldom seen in keto circles, mostly because of two ingredients: flour or starch, and diced potatoes. Now, I’ve already made several recipes thickened with xanthan gum, and it works great as a thickener. I’ve also just made a great cauliflower mash to substitute for potatoes at Thanksgiving. So, I decided to give it a go and make what turned out to be the best chowder – keto or not – I’ve ever tasted.
One key step is to dice the cauliflower, and remove any little crumbles. That means you end up trimming a lot of the floret part away and sticking with the parts that hold together. Another step I take is to roast the cauliflower in olive oil. This brings out the sweetness of the cauliflower, a nice contrast to the rich and salty chowder. A couple other secret weapons: bacon, butter, and fresh tarragon. OMG.
The secret to good chowder is a rich clam flavor. You don’t get that with clam juice right out of the can. You have to reduce it. The more reduce it the more flavor you get. My recipe calls for a quart or a liter of clam juice reduced to 1/3 volume, but you could easily start with 2 liters and reduce it to 1/6th volume. You might have to watch out for it being too salty at some point, so there’s a sweet spot. Mine came out great with 1 liter.
You can garnish it with parsley, tarragon, pork rind crumbs, or just eat and enjoy!
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 1 hour |
| Servings |
bowls
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- 1 liter clam juice
- 1 head cauliflower diced, with small crumbs removed
- 3 tbsp olive oil plus one tsp for dissolving xanthan gum
- 1 cup chopped clams canned or fresh
- 5 pieces bacon cooked and chopped
- 2 stalks celery chopped
- 1 pint heavy cream
- 1/2 stick butter (1/4 cup)
- 6 leaves fresh tarragon chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- 2 tbsp onion powder
Ingredients
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- Preheat oven to 300 F. Chop cauliflower into small pieces, discarding the small crumbly florets. Try to use mostly the stem parts. Any is fine, so long as it holds together and doesn't crumble. Place into a roasting pan or cast-iron skillet, toss in 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and bake at 300 F for 15-20 minutes, or until the bottoms are a little brown and caramelized.
- While cauliflower is roasting, pour clam juice into a large saucepan and start reducing on high heat. If you have canned clams, pour the juice in, setting the clams themselves aside.
- Wash and chop the celery stalks into small pieces, and add them to the clam juice.
- Chop up the bacon and tarragon into bite size pieces and add it to the clam juice along with the onion powder and bay leaves.
- Take the cauliflower out of the oven when done, and allow to rest
- When the clam juice has reduced to 1/3 volume, add the clams, butter, cauliflower, and heavy cream and bring to a boil for 30 seconds, then remove from heat to cool for 15 minutes.
- Remove bay leaves. Mix 1 tsp of xanthan gum with 1 tsp of olive oil and stir into the chowder. Bring to a rolling boil for 30 seconds or until thick, stirring constantly. Add fresh cracked black pepper to taste.
- Remove from heat. Serve immediately!
