Soup jelly?! As bizarre as it may sound, jellied consommé is actually a thing. Thicken your soup with gelatin, to give yourself a semi-solid meal.
Is jellied consommé real? In fact it is, and it has a long culinary history behind it, even though it has fallen out of fashion in modern times. It’s lack of popularity not that surprising, really. After all, who would want to eat jellied soup?
The answer is probably someone on a clear liquid diet desperate to eat a solid meal!
Let’s face it, eating clear liquids all day can get tiresome, and your stomach is probably going to grumble for a real meal at some point. This is where jellied consommé steps in, by combining nutritious clear soup with gelatin as a thickener, to give you the illusion of eating a more solid meal. It is an illusion because the gelatin breaks down in your body, but sometimes an illusion is all that is needed to get you through.
The amount of gelatin you add and the length of time you refrigerate the consommé is up to you. When it comes to jellied consommé some people only cool the soup enough to allow it to thicken a bit, while others serve it cold and firm like savory jello. The amount of gelatin you use is variable, and what we’ve specified here is just a starting point. If you are planning to serve your consommé at room temperature, you might want to add more gelatin to help it thicken better.
While we have specified a recipe here, in fact you can turn any consommé recipe into jellied consommé, simply by the addition of gelatin. Before adding it to vegetable soups, vegans and vegetarians should beware gelatin is an animal product, and agar-agar is not a suitable substitute for gelatin on the clear liquid diet due to its high fiber content.
Jellied Consommé for clear liquid diet
Cooking Time: 1 hour + chilling time
Servings: 10
Ingredients
- 4½ cups (1L) beef broth
- 2½ cups (600mL) chicken broth
- 3 lb. (1.3kg) tomatoes, chopped
- 1 lb. (450g) ground beef
- 2 carrots, peeled & chopped
- 4 large egg whites + shells
- 1 cup scallion, chopped
- 1 stalk celery, chopped
- ½ tsp black peppercorns
- ¼ tsp dried thyme, crumbled
- 2 Tbsp unflavored gelatin powder
- ¼ cup warm water
- Fresh lemon juice to taste
- White pepper to taste
Method
- Place broth, tomatoes, scallions, carrots, celery, peppercorns, thyme, and beef in a stockpot.
- Bring to a boil, stirring gently. Lower the heat, and continue to cook for 1 hour.
- Line a sieve with three layers of clean cheesecloth, and set it over a large bowl. Strain soup through the sieve, leaving clear soup. Discard fat and solids.
- Mix gelatin powder with warm water, and rest 5 minutes to soften. Stir gelatin into hot consommé until fully combined.
- Allow the consommé to cool until room temperature. Add lemon juice, white pepper and season with salt to taste.
- Place consommé in the fridge and chill until desired thickness reached.*
- Distribute evenly between chilled bowls and garnish with a lemon wedge.
Cooking Notes
*How long you refrigerate the consommé depends on your personal preference for how thick/firm you would like it. Some people prefer it just slightly jellied to give the soup a thicker mouthfeel, while others serve the consommé cold and fully set into a jelly.
Nutritional Info | Calories: 459cal | Proteins: 45g | Carbohydrates: 18g | Fat: 29g
