There are many different ways to watch the amount of carbohydrates in your food. Some diets are ultra restrictive and recommend you stay away from absolutely all carbs, while others put more emphasis on the glycemic index of certain foods rather than the amount of carbs in your food. No matter what choices you make, cutting carbs from your diet requires you to be a lot more aware of what you use in your cooking. With a restricted diet it is easy to fall into a food rut where you make the same meal over and over because you know they are good, and they work. Of course, over time, even the most rugged lumberjack grows tiered off eggs and bacon and when you get tiered of the food you know you should eat, it is that much easier to get tempted by the things you know you should stay away from.
It gets even more challenging if only parts of the family is on a low carb diet, if you're cooking for people who are not interested in the carb content of their food, they might not be too thrilled with some of the modifications needed to keep the carb count acceptable. And, let's not forget, if you're cooking for young children, it is not recommended that they go on a very carb restricted diet. The result is too often that you end up cooking two meals, one for all the carb eaters, and one for whomever might be on a carb restricted diet. My goal with these recipes is to provide meals that are healthy and very low in carbs, while still serving as complete meals full of flavor, I will also give suggestions on easy to add side dishes that will keep any non dieters happy too. Lastly, it is my hope that these recipes will provide variety to your cooking both in textures and flavors, to make the low carb experience less repetitive and monotone. So, let's get to the recipes.
Chili con Carne
I love chili! Especially in the fall when it's getting cold and dark outside, it's a great meal to keep you warm and full. If you're on a low carb diet, you can't eat the chili you can buy in the store, the beans are full of carbs, and even if you get bean less chili, the added sugar and the tomato sauce used push the total carbs too high. Luckily, if you make your own chili it will be a lot better, with a lot less sugar. This recipe skips the beans you might be used to in chili, but I promise you won't miss them.
Ingredients
3 Lbs. ground beef
1 yellow onion
2-4 tomatoes
2 green bell peppers
4 fresh red chili peppers
2 cloves of garlic
1 tbs butter
salt
cayenne pepper
water
Preparation
Start with a medium sized to large pot. Melt the butter and add the ground beef and the chopped garlic. Chop up the vegetables, the pieces can be fairly large. If you want your chili strong, leave in some of the seeds of the chili peppers. Let the meat get brown before you add onion, tomatoes, bell pepper and the chili peppers. Add the cayenne pepper and salt, and stir well. Let it all simmer for a couple of minutes before adding about 20 fl oz of water. Stir again and let the chili boil until reaches the texture you prefer. I usually let the chili boil for about 45 minutes, adding water as needed. This breaks down the vegetables and the meat and gives the chili a nice smooth texture. If you want, you can boil the chili for a shorter time and use less water, this will give the different vegetables more character in the final dish. It might be worth to note though, that in my experience, the longer you boil peppers, the milder they get. Serve in a bowl and cover with shredded cheddar cheese.
I make this dish to keep me warm in the fall and winter, and so it is quite spicy. Naturally, you can adjust how hot the chili will be by adding more or using less peppers and the amount of cayenne pepper. And as always when working with hot peppers, wash your hands thoroughly after having removed the seeds! It is no fun rubbing your eyes after having removed the seeds of a chili pepper.
Variations
This is a basic bean less chili recipe that can be varied almost indefinably. I use ground beef in this recipe because it is cheap and still gives very good results, but you can use almost any meats in this recipe for variation. It is excellent with pork, or you could invest in some cheaper cuts of beef and dice it up. I've even used game like moose and reindeer with this recipe, but you might want to use that kinds of game meat to something that shows of the flavor of those meats better, unless you just have too much of that kind of meat.
This chili is a great meal on it's own, but if you are cooking for people not watching their carbs, it is also very good served over white rice, maybe with some garlic bread.
Why it's good on a low carb diet
The total amount of carbs in this dish is around 20 - 25 grams, and it should give 4 - 6 servings, which gives a very respectable amount of carbs per serving. The most carb heavy ingredient is actually the garlic, so it's best to keep the amount of garlic low, even if it is very very tasty. Of the other vegetables, the onion has the most carbs, and the tomatoes have the least. So depending on how strict your diet is, reduce the amount of onion, and add more tomato. Also, red bell peppers are better in chili in my opinion, but they also have more carbs, so, if you can handle the extra grams of carbs, use red belle pepper instead of green.
Blue cheese hamburgers with mushrooms
It's no surprise to anyone on a low carb diet that a hamburger is just the bun away from being an excellent low carb food, some restaurants and fast food places even offer low carbs burgers without buns these days. Even better, hamburgers are an excellent way of adding variety too your low carb diet, while still using ground beef, the staple of many carb conscious recipes.
Ingredients
2 lbs. ground beef
2 cups of crumbled blue cheese
1 egg
salt
ground black pepper
16 oz. mushrooms
10 fl oz cream
butter
Preparation
Put the meat in a deep bowl, add salt and pepper to taste and add the egg. Use your hands to work all the ingredients together into a smooth mixture. Partition the meat into four equal parts before working the cheese into each individual burger. I try to make sure that the blue cheese is thoroughly mixed into the burger, and try to work as much of the cheese as possible towards the center of the burger. The burgers will be a lot easier to fry if the cheese is mixed in well with the meat. When the cheese is mixed in enough, form the burgers and fry them at medium heat until they are done to your liking. While the burgers are frying, it's time to work on the mushrooms. Since we are using quite a bit of mushrooms in the recipe make sure you get a large frying pan, I rinse off the mushrooms and cut them into slices and put them into a dry and hot pan. For mushrooms I like to use quite high heat. Stir the mushrooms around and soon they will start to release water, I let the mushrooms release all their water and let the water boil off before I add a couple of tbs of butter to the pan. Let the mushrooms fry for a few minutes while stirring before adding the cream. After adding the cream, turn the heat down and let the mushrooms simmer until the cream has thickened. Season with salt and black pepper.
Serve the burgers with a nice mustard, and either smothered by mushrooms or with the mushrooms on the side. If you want a little more variation, you can serve it with a simple green salad using some of the typical burger condiments, lettuce and tomato for example. Since the burgers are carb free, you can add some vegetables and still have a very low carb meal.
Variations
Again, there are many many different ways to prepare burgers, the blue cheese can be substituted with any cheese you prefer, or you can even use green olives mixed in with the meat.
Again, if you are cooking for persons not on a low carb diet, add some buns and some homemade French fries, and the rest of the family won't even notice that you've prepared a low carb meal.
Why it is good on a low carb diet
These burgers are as close to totally carb free as you can get. You get a total of about 3 grams of carbohydrates from the mushrooms and the egg. So less than 1 gram of carbs per serving. This is good news as it gives flexibility, if your diet allows more carbs, to add a side salad or some vegetables that might be a bit more carb intensive than you would normally use.
Bacon and broccoli soufflé
I think that anyone who's been on a low carb diet for more than just a few days, they are all tiered of bacon and eggs. The classic breakfast, is one of the most typical low carb meals, and also one you can tire of really quickly. Of course, the reason why so many low carb dieters eat so much bacon and eggs, is because bacon and eggs are really good foods on the diet. This recipe has plenty of egg and plenty of bacon, but still provides a welcome change in both flavor and texture.
Ingredients
6 eggs
1 lbs bacon
1 head of broccoli
2 fl oz cream
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
salt
pepper
Preparation
Cut the bacon into small pieces and fry until crisp, drain the fat (if your d is a high fat type diet, you might want to leave a little of the fat with the bacon). Separate the egg yolks and whites, and whip the egg whites until they from stiff peaks. Beat the yolks and the cream together, and fold it carefully into the egg whites. Place the bacon pieces and the broccoli pieces in a prepared serving bowl, carefully pour the eggs in and sprinkle the cheese on top.
Bake in the middle of the oven at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.
Variations
This soufflé is delicious with mushrooms and bell pepper. Serve with a green salad and a side of fresh bread for any non carb dieters.
Why it's good on a low carb diet.
The total amount of carbs in this dish is about 12 grams, 6 grams from the eggs, and about 6 grams for the broccoli (this assumes you use about a quarter pound of broccoli).
Oven baked salmon
When trying to restrict carbs, meat is essential, since almost all meats we use have no carbs at all. For many carb watchers, they eat some sort of meat with every single meal. While this is good from a diet standpoint, it's hard to not get tiered of the high amount of meat in your food. Luckily for us, fresh fish is also completely free of carbohydrates, as well as very tasty and healthy. A low carb diet is a great starting point for adding more fish to your diet.
Ingredients
2 lbs salmon fillet
1 lemon
1 cucumber
2 tbs. balsamic vinegar
4 tbs. water
salt
pepper
olive oil
dill
1 cup sour cream
2 fl oz cream
chives
Cut the salmon into serving sized pieces, put them in a prepared pan on a bed of dill and one sliced lemon. Add a little olive oil and salt and pepper. Cover the pan in tin foil and bake in the oven at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes. While the fish is baking, prepare the sauce by boiling the sour cream and cream in a pan until it has a creamy consistency. Sprinkle with finely chopped chives right before serving. For the cucumber salad, slice the cucumber into thin slices and put them in a serving bowl. Mix the vinegar, sugar, water and about a tsp of salt and a little pepper. Pour the mixture over the cucumbers.
Discard the dill and lemon and serve the salmon with the sauce and a side of the cucumber salad.
Variations
For people not watching their carbs, this dish is excellent with boiled and peeled potatoes.
Why it's good on a low carb diet
This recipe is very light on carbs, the most carb intensive ingredient is the lemon which adds about 8 grams of carbs, but a lot of that will be discarded after cooking. The cucumber adds another 2 grams, and one more from the chives. So, for a dish that serves 4, you should come in under 5 grams of carbs per serving, more than acceptable for most low carb regimes.
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