creamy lemon chicken soup with riced cauliflower and coconut milk, AIP Core

There are days deep in AIP elimination when chopping a single raw chicken breast is more than your hands want to do. This soup exists for that day: pull pre-cooked chicken from the fridge or freezer, lean on riced cauliflower instead of rice, and you have something warm and creamy on the table in well under an hour, with almost nothing standing between you and the couch afterward.

The lemon juice is doing more than brightening the bowl. The vitamin C in the lemon and the iron in the chicken both matter here in their own right, and having them in the same bowl is a small, easy way to cover two things at once. Cauliflower is part of the cruciferous family, known for compounds that support the liver's own clearance work, quiet background labor while your system works to calm down.

Squeeze a fresh lemon wedge over the bowl right before you eat, and give yourself a real minute with it instead of finishing it at your desk. A calmer body absorbs a meal better than a rushed one, and that quiet pause is part of the medicine here too.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1/2 cup chopped celery
• 3 cups riced cauliflower
• 2 cups chopped pre-cooked chicken
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 4 cups bone broth (chicken)
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 cup coconut milk (choose a brand with no gums)
• 1 tbsp arrowroot starch or flour
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 cup chopped fresh spinach
• Lemon wedges, served at the table

Method

Warm the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and sweat them until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.

Stir in the riced cauliflower and let it cook with the aromatics for 2 to 3 minutes, just to take off the raw edge.

Pour in the bone broth and add the sea salt. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook until the cauliflower is tender, about 8 to 10 minutes.

Add the chopped pre-cooked chicken and the lemon juice, then pour in the coconut milk. Stir and bring it back to a soft simmer so the chicken warms through, about 3 minutes.

Mix the arrowroot and water in a small bowl until smooth, then stir the slurry into the simmering soup. It will thicken to a creamy body within a minute. Turn off the heat and fold in the fresh spinach, letting it wilt in the residual warmth. Taste, adjust the salt, and serve warm with lemon wedges at the table.

Instant Pot variation

Use the Saute function to sweat the onion and celery in the olive oil, then stir in the riced cauliflower for a minute. Press Cancel. Add the bone broth and salt, seal the lid, and pressure cook on high for about 3 to 4 minutes (untested, flagged), then quick release. Switch back to Saute, stir in the chicken, lemon juice, and coconut milk, then thicken with the arrowroot slurry. Turn off and fold in the spinach at the end.

*Adapted from wendisaipkitchen.com*