low carb

Low Carb Easter Eggs

March 20, 2019 by Michele Neylon Leave a Comment

It’s that time of the year when the shops fill their shelves with Easter eggs.

If you’re on a low carb diet, however, it’s impossible to be loyal to your diet and indulge in “normal” easter eggs.

Sure you can have *some* chocolate when you’re on a low carb diet, but you need to choose chocolates that are way higher in cocoa solids than the average. So you need to be looking for chocolates with 70% or more cocoa solids. Of course the more cocoa solids in the bar the more bitter it’ll be. Anything above about 80% is going to be really really bitter in my experience and while it’s fine to use it to cook with it’s quite hard to eat it.

However there are places where you can get easter eggs that are designed to be low carb or even keto friendly.

From my research, which is far from comprehensive, there seem to be two if not three paths you can go down:

very high cocoa solids, which will mean the carb count will be very low, but the taste is going to be really bitter
something with alternative ingredients, so the taste should be more palatable overall
cheat a little and opt for chocolates that are fairly high in cocoa solids, but aren’t as bitter. The downside to that will be that the carb count will be higher than you’d normally take..

So what is out there?

A UK company is producing a 100% cocoa solids egg. Yes, that does exist!

The “absolute black” egg is made without dairy products, sugar or anything else other than cocoa solids.

Here’s the breakdown in terms of carbs etc:

Full details on their site here.

CiaoCarb make a chocolate egg that uses a combination of ingredients but ends up with about 8g carbs per 100g, so similar to our 100% cocoa solids version, though probably a lot less bitter.

I’m not sure which Irish sites, if any, sell the CiaoCarb, but it’s available via Amazon UK.

If anyone comes across other low carb options let me know via the comments!

Low Carb Parsnip Fries

November 4, 2018 by Michele Neylon Leave a Comment

For the last couple of months I’ve been making low carb celeriac fries semi-regularly. They go really well with pretty much any dish that you’d serve fries with. But I wanted to try some of the alternatives to celeriac – apart from anything else not all shops stock celeriac.

So how about parsnip fries?

It turns out that parsnip fries are a good substitute to celeriac (as is turnip, though I haven’t tried that yet!).

I made my first batch of parsnip fries last night.

I won’t bore you with the details, but it’s essentially the same process as with the celeriac fries. The only real difference being that the physical shape of parsnip is quite different, so you need to peel them, top and tail them and then slice them up.

I used similar seasoning as I would with the celeriac fries and baked them in the oven for about 25 minutes. You’ll need to be careful as some of the smaller chunks can end up getting burnt, which isn’t exactly tasty!

The end result was pretty damn good, so it’s definitely something I can try again in the future.

As you can see from the photo above some of the fries ended up a bit burnt, but overall it worked out pretty well.

I served the fries with some nice low carb pork schnitzels and it was all very tasty!

Low Carb Crumble Experiment

September 16, 2018 by Michele Neylon Leave a Comment

When you’re eating low carb you’re used to simply not eating certain food.

However over the last couple of days I got an overwhelming yearning for crumble. I *love* crumble. It’s always been one of those desserts that I really like both to make and to cook.

So can you create a crumble without getting an overload of carbs?

The answer is a qualified yes. Yes, you can create a low carb crumble topping. The bit that’s going to be a little more of a challenge in terms of keeping your carbs down is the choice of fruit.

When you’re making a “normal” crumble you essentially make a shortbread style topping using butter, flour and sugar. Obviously the sugar is out, though you can replace it with an alternative sweetener (admittedly I didn’t in my experiment yesterday and simply did without). The flour has to be swapped out for a lower carb alternative such as almond flour or coconut flour, or a combination of both.

The one where you still have the issue with carbs that you can’t entirely avoid is in your choice of fruit for the filling. Apples are out. Berries, however, are much lower in carbs and can make a viable alternative.

Low carb crumble before being baked in the overn

The filling for a crumble is usually your fruit gently cooked with a bit of sugar and water. To go lower carb you can swap out the sugar for some natural honey.

So how did the experiment work out?

Personally I was happy with it. It can definitely be improved on, as I’d like a crunchier and more toffee like crumble, but it was very good.

Here’s a shot before I started to demolish it:

I served it hot with some Greek style yoghurt, which worked out to be a very nice combination. I would have used cream, but I was out of it! (Odd for me, since I use cream so much in my cooking)

Low Carb Celeriac Fries

August 26, 2018 by Michele Neylon 1 Comment

Having chips (fries) with meat is something that you can’t do easily if you want to stick to a low carb diet. Potatoes, as I’ve said repeatedly, are simply not on the menu. While you can do a fantastic cauliflower mash it’s simply not the same as a portion of fries.

So what are your options?

There are quite a few sites devoted to the low carb or keto lifestyle, so there are plenty of bloggers sharing their recipes. It’s just a matter of finding the alternative to potatoes that works for you. Some of the recipes I came across would give you a nice “side” but they wouldn’t come close to replacing the consistency of fries.

I ended up going with celeriac for mine, but apparently turnip is a good option too.

Celeriac is *not* a pretty vegetable. It really does look ugly:

Making fries using celeriac isn’t complicated. You just need to treat the celeriac as if it was an oversized potato!

Celeriac Fries

A low carb alternative to French fries for anyone on a low carb or keto diet

Course Side Dish

Cuisine American, International, Low carb, vegetarian

Keyword celeriac, keto, vegetables, vegetarian

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 2

Calories 40 kcal

Ingredients

1/2 head celeriac You'll have a better idea of the quantity you need once you've sliced up the celeriac after cleaning it.
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp mixed herbs Don't be afraid to add more
1/2 tbsp paprika

Instructions

Trim the celeriac removing the roots. Depending on the size of the celeriac and how many people you're making this for the quantities will vary
Heat the oven to about 180 centigrade (around 400 fahrenheit)
Peel the celeriac like with a potato peeler and then slice it into chips
Spread the fries on a greased baking tray and season with the herbs and paprika
Once the oven has heated transfer the fries to it and cook for 20 to 25 minutes. You should probably turn or shake the baking tray a few times while cooking to make sure that they're cooked through and don't burn.
Serve as you would French fries or chips.
Bon apetit!

Recipe Notes

I used mixed herbs with paprika. You could easily use any other combination of herbs and spices that would go well with potatoes - the end result is very similar in consistency to potatoes, so you can treat it almost identically.

In terms of carbs celeriac is pretty good. It’s about 9g per 100g, so the amount you end up with obviously depend on how much you eat.

Low Carb Chicken Tenders

August 21, 2018 by Michele Neylon Leave a Comment

Over the weekend I dropped into my favourite local butcher and picked up some bits and pieces, including the pork that I used for making the pork schnitzels. While I was there I got some chicken breast, but I didn’t have any firm plans for it. This evening I didn’t feel like doing anything terribly elaborate, so I thought I’d try my hand at doing low carb chicken tenders. If you can do schnitzels using almond flour, why not other “breaded” meats and poultry?

Chicken tenders are basically just strips of chicken in a bread. Once they’re breaded you can either fry them, deep fry them or, as I did, do them in the oven.

If you want super mild, yet tasty, you could simply use some herbs and a bit of salt and pepper, but if you want to give them a bit more “kick” there’s no end to the combinations of herbs and herb mixes you can use.

Low Carb Chicken Tenders

A simple low carb take on comfort food

Course Dinner, Snack

Cuisine American, International, Low carb

Keyword almond flour, chicken

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 2

Calories 300 kcal

Ingredients

50 g Almond flour You might need more
1 medium egg
2 tbsp Cajun spice mix or mixed herbs with cayenne pepper
2 breasts chicken
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper

Instructions

Heat the oven to 180 degrees C
Slice the chicken breast into strips. Relatively thin strips are better.
Beat the egg in a bowl
Mix the herbs and other seasoning together with the almond flour in another bowl or plate.
Dip each chicken piece in the egg and make sure it's well covered, then transfer it to the dip with the herbs and flour. Coat each piece of chicken well. Transfer the dipped chicken pieces to a baking tray which you've either lined or greased.
When the oven is ready transfer the prepared chicken to it. Cook the chicken for 20 - 25 minutes. The chicken pieces should be turned at least once.
Serve with your favourite dip or with a bit of salad.
Enjoy!

And no, you can’t really taste the almond! If you’re completely new to low carb cooking then you might notice a slight difference in the taste compared to more “traditional” flour mixes, but I don’t think it’s noticeable.

Low Carb Pork Schnitzels

August 19, 2018 by Michele Neylon 1 Comment

When you’re trying to stick to a low carb diet anything with bread or bread crumbs is off the menu. So when you’re perusing the shelves in your local supermarket you cannot simply pick up a pack of chicken or whatever in any kind of bread crumbs. That won’t work. However there is absolutely nothing to stop you from making your own, though using low carb ingredients.

Pork schnitzels are simple yet tasty. The traditional recipe uses bread crumbs, but it’s super easy to swap that out for almond flour or ground almonds (which is practically the same thing).

low carb pork schnitzels with almond flour

All you need are a few pork boneless pork chops, eggs, seasoning and almond flour.

My local butcher not only had the pork chops, but was able to remove the excess fat as well as pounding the meat for me, so that it was a thinner and more suitable for schnitzels. Yet another reason why shopping at a local butcher is always a good idea!

So how do you make them?

It’s incredibly easy.

Beat an egg or two in a shallow bowl or plate – you’ll be using this to dip the meat into.

In another bowl or plate mix about 100 grams or a couple of tablespoons of almond flour with your seasoning (salt, pepper and sage seems to work well)

Dip the meat in the egg, then coat in the almond flour mix and then simply fry it. Repeat for each schnitzel.

Fry the meat on a medium flame and make sure to turn them from time to time. Just make sure they’re cooked all the way through.

Serve with some lemon.

I also did some cauliflower mash to go with mine, which turned out very well.

Baking Low Carb Bread

August 12, 2018 by Michele Neylon Leave a Comment

While I like cooking in general I’ve never done much with baking bread. I was very good at eating bread, but I’d never made my own. I think I might have made an attempt years ago, but I don’t think it was a success.

When you’re avoiding carbs and trying to stick to a low carb diet bread is off the menu. Normal bread is very high in carbs, so there’s simply no way to eat it without breaking the basic rules of the diet.

But there are low carb versions of many bread based foods, so you can, for example, get low carb wraps and even loaves of bread, though they’re pretty expensive. So making your own is probably the best solution.

As somebody who has very little confidence in my ability to make bread I needed a recipe that was pretty much idiot proof. This one from Ditch the Carbs ticked all the boxes for me. It has a handful of ingredients and is super simple to make. You just measure out the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, mix them, add the wet ones and bake it.

You can see a couple of photos of my first attempt below:

It came out pretty well. The only issue I ran into was that I didn’t have any greaseproof paper to line the baking tin. However as the tin I used is non-stick I was able to extricate the final product from the tin without too much difficulty.

I had to try it pretty much immediately, so I went for a bit of butter just to see how it was and I was not disappointed!

I’ll admit I sort of demolished most of that loaf yesterday evening as it was both really tasty and also a culinary achievement for me having never been any good at baking bread.

Most of the ingredients for this low carb bread or variants are readily available in any supermarket. The only exception being psyllium husk which you can get in larger supermarkets, health shops or online. I couldn’t find it locally here in Carlow, so ended up getting it online.

I’ll definitely be making this bread again now that I’ve got over my initial fear of baking! It’s handy to have a low carb bread for things like paté, cold cuts etc., Also if you have visitors who aren’t on a low carb diet they sort of expect you to have bread in the cupboards, so this solves that for you too.

low carb

Celeriac Fries

Ingredients

Instructions

Recipe Notes

Low Carb Chicken Tenders

Ingredients

Instructions

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