How to Keto: Part II: Replace the carbs

How to Keto: Part II: Replace the carbs

In the last post, I talked about ways to eliminate carbs from a meal. Now we’re at:

Strategy 2: Replace the carbs. There are a lot of vegetables that make seriously great alternatives for the carbs we’re so used to eating. The honest truth is that most carbs themselves don’t have a ton of flavour – we enjoy them for their texture, generally, and use them as vessels for the thing which actually has the flavour. And we can still eat those. Here are a few examples:

Zucchini. Get yourself a simple, hand-held spiralizer and make friends with zucchini. Zucchini is a vegetable that I was lukewarm about at best before I started this. I genuinely prefer it to pasta now. It takes me approximately 30 seconds to spiralize an entire zucchini. It has virtually no carbs in it, and you can use absolutely any (low/no sugar) sauce that you might have used on pasta or rice/potato noodles. I like to spiralize the zucchini, salt the “noodles” well and let them drain in a colander for 15-20 minutes (not at all necessary, but it can help get some of the water out which will otherwise release into the sauce, which I don’t care about for tomato-based sauces, but for cream sauces it can come in handy), then make my sauce. When the sauce is ready, toss the zucchini in and toss it for around 4 minutes, and you’re good to go. Here are a few of my go-to’s:

• Basic marinara: ground beef grilled with fresh garlic, canned diced or crushed tomatoes, Italian herbs (oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme), parmesan cheese
• Italian sausage: crumbled Italian sausage grilled with fresh garlic, canned diced tomatoes, oregano, fennel seeds, lots of parmesan, fresh spinach
• Alfredo variations: grilled garlic (optional), grilled onions (optional), grilled chicken or shrimp, whipping cream, parmesan
• Peanut/coconut: grilled garlic, onion, red pepper, shrimp/chicken/other meat then add peanut butter (1-2 tbsp max), soy sauce, chili flakes, lime juice, coconut milk, fresh cilantro

Photo: the above sauce, with salmon

Photo: roasted chicken thighs with pesto zucchini noodles

Eggplant. Both zucchini and eggplant can replace pasta in a number of ways. My favourite way to use eggplant is to substitute noodles in lasagna. Slice it in long slice about half a centimetre thick, drizzle the slices with olive oil and sea salt and roast them for about 20 minutes (turn halfway through), then layer them into a lasagna the way you would have used noodles. I’m going to try this with zucchini at some point, too, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work. You can also use both eggplant and zucchini as “boats” to hold other things, in lieu of bread. Slice the veggie in half, hollow out the seeds, roast it as above, then dump whatever you like on it – spaghetti sauce, grilled meat, cheese, etc. I made zucchini garlic cheese “toast” like this once and it was great! There are other veggies that can work this way, too, such as spaghetti squash, which is delicious in season!

Photos: eggplant lasagna: 

Photo: the above Italian sausage sauce on spaghetti squash

Cauliflower. True fact: mashed cauliflower is better than mashed potatoes, and I say this as a major fan of mashed potatoes. Cauliflower is another veggie that holds a lot of water, so whether you’re using it as a base for a cauliflower pizza crust or anything ground, you’ll probably want to drain the water out of it after it’s been cooked (boil/steam it). For a good mash, I like to boil the cauliflower, then mash it with a potato masher or hand blender (you can use a food processer if you have one, but I don’t!), mix in cream cheese or sour cream, whipping cream, butter, cheddar, green onions, bacon, etc (aka: anything you like, pretty much!) and then bake it for a few minutes. You’ll never go back to mashed potatoes! Cauliflower can also be grated (cheese grater or food processer) to make “rice” or “couscous”. I’ve made sushi using cauliflower “rice” before and it was great!

Lettuce. If you can find yourself a sturdy lettuce leaf, you’ve got an instant bread replacement. Lettuce wraps have started showing up regularly on menus, and it’s not at all uncommon for someone to request lettuce in lieu of a hamburger bun. I like making lettuce tacos, too. They’re incredibly messy, but so good. Greens can also make a great base for what you might have put into a sandwich otherwise. I love making chicken salad out of leftover rotisserie chicken, or egg salad at any time, and I still do! Now I just put them on my favourite base of mixed spinach and arugula.

Photo: lettuce tacos

Photo: chicken salad on spinach & arugula with grape tomatoes

So there you have it: a few basic ideas! This way of eating is very possible – it just requires a bit of thinking outside the bun. And taco. And tortilla. And pita. And manicotti. And – you get the drift. 🙂