Low carb cooking

[Moo]

I'm slowly building up my collection of favourite low carb recipes, and was wondering if other people have some great ideas to share.

So far I've been quite pleased with my attempts at:
- A half decent bread like substance (which I'm busy drying out to eat as rusks but it's quite nice fresh)
- Minestrone like soup
- A chocolate hazelnut cake
- Cheesecake
- A plethora of things to add to double cream yogurt for breakfast
- Truffles
- Lots of meat recipes, obviously
- Quiche (sort of). My favourite variations so far are roasted tomato and basil, and spinach and feta. Can also be baked in cups as savoury "muffins"

Does anyone else eat and/or cook low carb?

[Zohar]

I have a great recipe for a wonderful cake, it has zero flour (but nine eggs and about 450 gr. chocolate).
It sounds like you could add various vegetable fritters to your repertoire - they only need a little flour. I don't have any specific recipes but I'm sure you can find one online easily.
There's a quinoa salad we love to make at home - essentially quinoa, some type of beans, avocado, radishes, lots of lemon juice, some sort of herb, I think that's basically it.
You could make burritos (not that much carbs, I would think) with non-carb fillings - veggies, guacamole, beans, cheese etc.

[Moo]

I'm aiming to stay under 50g of carbs a day (plus I have a slightly compulsive side, especially with eating) so I wouldn't use flour, tortillas or quinoa.

I tried a coconut flour based tortilla recipe, which was a flop - I ended up just using lettuce leaves on family fajita night - but I have a different recipe that uses finely chopped cauliflower that I should try.

I could probably use coconut flour or maybe milled flax seed in a fritter too... thanks for the ideas.

Cake recipe please! I've made peace with spending a fortune on eggs, and as long as I use really high cocoa percentage chocolate, again price is the only potential issue - I guess this is a cake to make when the Lindt 85% is on sale

[Zohar]

There you go!

It's an incredibly rich and satisfying cake. Also amazing for Passover (if everyone has dairy).

[Moo]

Made a cauliflower pizza crust, and it was edible, but that's really about as high a compliment as I can give it. It was still that little bit too cabbagey for me in taste, and slightly grainy in texture. Maybe more cheese, finer dicing of the cauliflower, and baking it longer would improve it, but I'm not sure if I'm willing to try again.

Spoiler:

[sardia]

Made a cauliflower pizza crust, and it was edible, but that's really about as high a compliment as I can give it. It was still that little bit too cabbagey for me in taste, and slightly grainy in texture. Maybe more cheese, finer dicing of the cauliflower, and baking it longer would improve it, but I'm not sure if I'm willing to try again.

Spoiler:

cauli pizza.jpg

Wait, is your goal to find delicious recipes that aren't carb heavy, or is your goal to find low carb versions of high carb dishes? Because one is a subset of the other and much harder to accomplish.
For example, seared chicken breast with cripsy skin served with a white wine reduction and paried with steam broccoli is a delicious dish. On the other hand, low carb chicken fried steak and mash potatoes is not good eats.

[Moo]

Wait, is your goal to find delicious recipes that aren't carb heavy, or is your goal to find low carb versions of high carb dishes? Because one is a subset of the other and much harder to accomplish.
For example, seared chicken breast with cripsy skin served with a white wine reduction and paried with steam broccoli is a delicious dish. On the other hand, low carb chicken fried steak and mash potatoes is not good eats.

My goal is to eat a satisfying, nutritious and wide range of food within my chosen parameters (<50g carbs per day, <=30% protein).

This often includes experimenting with replacement type dishes - sometimes because I miss a food, sometimes for social reasons, sometimes for the sheer challenge of it. I agree with you completely; it's just that chicken and veggies is hardly a culinary feet nor a meal where its lack of carbs features as its main identifying factor, so I don't typically make the effort to post about those sorts of meals. If I do, it's more likely to be in the "Today I made" thread.

I'm not here to find anything as such, other than people who might also be on a low carb lifestyle and want to chat, especially about cooking.

[sardia]

=( That's insulting for you to call this

Spoiler:

"chicken with veggies". I don't call angel food cake a sugary hard boiled egg, or that pizza a cauliflower monstrosity.

Anyway, there's a delicious chili con carne in a pressure cooker. Delicious.

Spoiler:

3 whole sweet fresh dried chilies like Costeño, New Mexico, or Choricero, stems and seeds removed
2 small hot dried chilies like Arbol or Cascabel, stems and seeds removed
3 whole rich fruity dried chilies like Ancho, Mulatto, Negro, or Pasilla, stems and seeds removed
1 1/2 quarts homemade chicken stock or store-bought low-sodium broth
2 whole Chipotle dried chilies canned in adobo sauce, plus 2 tablespoons sauce, stems and seeds removed
4 pounds whole beef chuck, trimmed of excess gristle and fat, cut into 2 to 3 large steaks
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 large onion, finely diced
4 medium cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon powdered cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 tablespoons Asian fish sauce, plus more to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons masa harina (optional)
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
Hot sauce, to taste
Cilantro, chopped onions, scallions, grated cheese, avocado, and warm tortillas for serving as desired. Can be swapped with leaves instead of tortillas.

[Nath]

That chili looks good. And familiar. Is it a Kenji Lopez-Alt recipe?

[sardia]

That chili looks good. And familiar. Is it a Kenji Lopez-Alt recipe?

Yes it is, both of them are actually. The biggest complaints I gotten from people is that it's too stew-like, and should be closer to chili...whatever that means. The second is how hot it is, which is more a factor on how much time I want to spend deveining/and scraping seeds out of it. It should be low carb, unless I'm missing something hidden in the ingredients.

[PAstrychef]

The size of the meat is one difference between a stew and a chili, which technically is a kind of stew. A coarse grind, about twice as big as hamburger is pretty typical. Many folks use a standard ground beef because the coarser kind isn't available. Chilies are also usually more liquid than stews. They are very rarely thickened.

[Nath]

I think it's a regional thing. Most of the Texas-style chilis I've eaten (and recipes I've found) had reasonable-sized chunks of meat, rather than ground meat, and weren't as soupy as the All-American chain-restaurant-type chili. A bit of masa harina is not unusual; some people used crushed tortilla chips, or even white flour in a pinch. It's definitely not what a lot of people would think of as chili, even though it's a forerunner to the version with ground meat, beans, and tomatoes. Both versions can be tasty, but somebody expecting one and getting the other will be confused and disappointed.

[Moo]

=( That's insulting for you to talk over my attempts to discuss actual changes to lifestyle you need to make to go low carb and sharing the successes as well as the failures (aka "monstrosities"). But sure let's make it about the food you think I should be posting about and making, and how awesome your chicken is.

Now, for the part of the post where you actually try to contribute in a meaningful and constructive way, thank you for the chile recipe. Pity almost none of those types of chillies are easily available in South Africa

[Zohar]

Now, for the part of the post where you actually try to contribute in a meaningful and constructive way, thank you for the chile recipe. Pity almost none of those types of chillies are easily available in South Africa

Yeah when I got to the US I was like "Oh there's more than one type of chili?"

[Nath]

I've made versions of that recipe with various substitutes for those chiles, and it still usually turns out well.

• The Arbol/Cascabel can be replaced with any other hot dried chile, or even regular cayenne or red pepper flakes in a pinch. Those are mostly just for heat.
• I've found that unsweetened cocoa powder is a pretty good stand-in for the rich/dark chiles (Ancho, Negro, Pasilla). Coffee or dark beer can also fill this role.
• Sweet paprika might work instead of the dried Costeño/New Mexico/Choricero. Or just omit this component; the dish still works without it.
• The Chipotles in adobo sauce can be replaced with other sources of smokiness -- smoked paprika, liquid smoke, that sort of thing. Or you could char some large mild Hatch-like green peppers on a grill or gas flame, remove the skin, puree it, and add it to the sauce. (Standard procedure for chili verde, but I think it would be a tasty if unusual addition to red chili as well.) Some people also add some smokey grilled or barbecued meat to their chili, instead of searing their meat on the stove.

P.S. the author of that recipe just released his first book today, if anyone's interested.

[sardia]

Now, for the part of the post where you actually try to contribute in a meaningful and constructive way, thank you for the chile recipe. Pity almost none of those types of chillies are easily available in South Africa

What do you have available? I only know northern African cooking, nothing south of the Sahara. How's the local selection?

[Moo]

"Chillies" or "no chillies"

Well not really if you go into fancy stores but it's not a market with much demand, we cook a lot of local and international food so south/central american style cooking makes up a very small percentage of the types of dishes people here are going to try. "Some chillies" suffices for that. I'm sure there are foodies that know their poblanos from their chipotles but they are a niche market.

Also I have a 3 year old so chillies seldomly figure into my cooking, let alone a selection of them. But thanks!

[muzikkid]

Roasted vegetables, as many different kinds as possible (cauliflower and broccoli especially), all in a roasting tray and cut to size depending on how long they take to cook. Put a couple cloves of garlic in too and roast in coconut oil. When done grab a spoon of cream cheese and mix it into the vegetables (it's awesome if you've used tomatoes because it creates a nice sauce). With your favourite fried fish on top it makes a great low carb meal. Delicious!

[kaispencer]

Low carb is really popular among sportsman. Most of us are forced to eat it. I`m lucky one since I like low carb food. Some times I eat hight prot food instead of low carb but result stays almost the same.

[Moo]

Roasted vegetables, as many different kinds as possible (cauliflower and broccoli especially), all in a roasting tray and cut to size depending on how long they take to cook. Put a couple cloves of garlic in too and roast in coconut oil. When done grab a spoon of cream cheese and mix it into the vegetables (it's awesome if you've used tomatoes because it creates a nice sauce). With your favourite fried fish on top it makes a great low carb meal. Delicious!

Sounds good; I hadn't thought of the cream cheese and tomato combo for a sauce.

[Moo]

After a bit of a carb-heavy bender this weekend, I decided to try an egg-fast on Monday. It lasted all of 3 hours. I quite like eggs and cheese but there's nothing like the feeling of restriction and off-limits to make me yearn for other food. After my two poached eggs for breakfast at home, I went down to the work canteen for pork sausages and grilled tomato for brunch. Luckily, it seems after more than a year of low-carbing that my body is keto-adapted enough to quickly shift back into ketosis, as I didn't seem to need the egg fast to break out of my carby ways and feel perfectly satisfied with regular low carb high fat food by evening.

[emceng]

I'll see if I can find the recipe my girlfriend used for our breakfasts. It's a fritata that was pretty easy. Cooked some asparagus, and browned a pound of sausage. Threw in some feta, then a half dozen eggs or more. Poured into a muffin tray, then baked for a while. Turned out really well. They taste good, are easy to reheat, and you can make a bunch ahead of time.

I really need to read more about food. I'm not sure what has carbs, or starch, or whatever. Been way too fucking busy to try and read about it at work, and at home busy with other things.

[Moo]

They aren't perfect or exhaustive (and the site design is awful) but you could try these as a starting point. They break food down into green, orange and red lists. Green is what you should be eating every day to stay low carb (I think the lists assume <50g carbs per day), orange is allowable on occasion, red is high carb.

http://auntiebanting.com/the-green-list/


UPDATE:
One of the blogs I follow just published a handy guide
http://www.ditchthecarbs.com/2017/05/29 ... s-in-food/

[Moo]

I am simultaniously jonesing hard for cookies, and too lazy to make any of the decent looking grain free sugar cookie recipes I have. I made peanut butter cookies at the weekend because they were ridiculously easy, and it's better than having no cookies; but I still need to find the time and energy to make either sugar cookies or choc chip cookies. And maybe some chocolate fat bombs.