Something Luxe, and Not Too Sinful.

I adore me some Seafood Bisque. Crab. Lobster. Generally anything that likes to taste sweet, swim in cream and sherry and makes me go over the moon with food coma delight.

That said, bisque is so fat and cream laden, that while that tends to not bother me sometimes, other times a girl wants her bisque and wear her skinny jeans too. I’ve been on a “okay, I’m going to finally take this 8 lbs. off” kick lately, and I needed bisque. This puts a girl in quite a tight spot.

What was I to do? Well. Create my own. The below can be done with lobster, or a mix of crab and lobster even – but my grocery store had fresh crab already cooked and picked. So on I went. This particular version removes the usual suspects – cream, whole milk, etc…and replaces it with fat free half and half. Not to worry naysayers, there’s enough of a roux here that won’t make it seem soupy. Likewise dieters, there’s only 1.5 T of butter and for a whole pot, it’s negligible.

That said, this is only a lightened up version of bisque – “not light”. It still has half and half and it does still have butter and flour. I did a very (Very!) back-of-the-envelope calculation and the entire pot (about 6 servings for dinner) would be just over 1600 calories.  Working out to less than 300 calories per serving. Still not too shabby for a fix.

Reduce the Waistline Crab Bisque

2 cups cooked crab meat

1/3 C cream sherry

1.5 T butter

1/4 – 1/3 C Flour

1/2 large onion, diced

1 rib of celery, diced

1 carrot, diced

Salt and black pepper, liberally to taste

1 t Old Bay Seasoning

1/4 C tomato paste

1 1/2 C Fat Free half and half

2 C seafood stock

Combine the crab meat with the sherry. Cover and refrigerate.

In a dutch oven over medium heat, melt the butter.  Saute the onion, celery, carrot, salt and pepper and Old Bay. Stir and let cook until the vegetables are fork tender.

Using a whisk, Add the tomato paste, stirring it to coat all of the vegetables  and cook for another couple of minutes. Add the flour and cook for one or two minutes, do not stop stirring here, it will burn.

While whisking, seafood stock and  half and half and stock and bring to a boil. Let thicken slightly, reduce heat.

Using a stick blender, blend the soup until smooth. Add sherry and crab mixture in, continue to simmer until heated through.  Season a final time with salt, pepper and Old Bay.