1001 Low-Carb Recipes Part 1
1001 LOW-CARB RECIPES.
Hundreds of Delicious Recipes from Dinner to Dessert That Let You Live Your Low-Carb Lifestyle and Never Look Back.
Dana Carpender.
INTRODUCTION.
What's the hardest thing about your low-carb diet? And what's the most common reason that people abandon their low-carb way of eating and all the health benefits and weight loss that come with it? It's boredom. After a few weeks of scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast, a hamburger with no bun for lunch, and a steak-no baked potato-for dinner, day after day, people get fed up and quit. They just can't face a life of food monotony. Does this sound familiar?
If you've been getting bored with your low-carb diet, this is the book for you. You'll find dozens of exciting ways to vary a hamburger, a steak, pork chops, chicken, and even fish. You'll find a wide variety of side dishes and salads.
You'll find snacks and party foods that you can eat without feeling like you're depriving yourself. You'll even find recipes for bread-really, truly bread-not to mention m.u.f.fins, waffles, and pancakes. In short, this book has recipes for all sorts of things you never dreamed dreamed you could have on a low-carb diet. you could have on a low-carb diet.
Did I come up with these recipes for you? Heck, no! I came up with these recipes for me me.
Who am I? I'm a person who, through circ.u.mstances that surely could have happened to anyone, has spent the past several years writing about low-carbohydrate dieting. In fact, I spent so much time answering questions for the curious that I finally wrote a book, How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty Pounds! How I Gave Up My Low Fat Diet and Lost Forty Pounds! To supplement the book, I started an "e-zine"-an Internet newsletter-for low-carb dieters, called To supplement the book, I started an "e-zine"-an Internet newsletter-for low-carb dieters, called Lowcarbezine! Lowcarbezine! So for the past few years, through the wonders of the Internet, I've been writing and developing recipes for a growing audience of low-carb dieters around the world. So for the past few years, through the wonders of the Internet, I've been writing and developing recipes for a growing audience of low-carb dieters around the world.
I've always loved to cook, and I've always been good at it. My friends long ago dubbed me "The G.o.d of Food." So when low-fat, high-carb mania hit in the 1980s, I learned how to make a killer low-fat fettuccine Alfredo, curried chicken and mixed grain pilau, black beans and rice, blue corn pancakes, low-fat cheesecake-you name it.
And I got fat-really fat and sick and tired. Thank heavens, in 1995 I got smart and tried going low carb, instead. Within two days my energy levels skyrocketed and my clothes were looser. It was overwhelmingly clear that this was the way my body wanted to be fed and that this was the way of eating that would make me well. I had set my foot upon a path from which there was no turning back; I was low carb for life.
The only thing that nearly derailed me was a terrible sense of Kitchen Disorientation. I had to discard the vast majority of my recipes when I dropped the grains, beans, potatoes, and sugar from my diet. For the very first time in my life, I'd walk into my kitchen and have no idea what to cook-and I had always known what to cook and how to put together a menu. It really was pretty scary, and it certainly was depressing. But I set out to become as good a low-carb cook as I had been a low-fat cook.
What you hold in your hands is the end result of years and years of trial and error, of learning what works and what doesn't and of experimenting to find out which subst.i.tutes are yummy and which are just plain lame.
This is not, for the most part, a gourmet cookbook, which means that the recipes you find here are recipes you'll actually use. You'll find a lot of fairly simple recipes and a few more complex ones for special occasions. There's lots of family fare here-pork chops, meat loaf, burgers, and chicken. You'll find lots of meals you can cook on the stove top in a simple skillet and plenty of salads you can make ahead and stash in the refrigerator, ready to be pulled out and served when you dash in the door at a quarter-to-dinnertime. You'll find many one-dish meals that are protein and vegetables combined, from main dish salads to thick, hearty soups to ca.s.seroles. You'll also find ethnic flavors from around the world right alongside comfort foods you won't believe are low carb!
Why Is There Such a Wide Range of Carb Counts in the Recipes in This Book?
If carbs are your problem, then they're going to be your problem tomorrow, next week, next year, and even when you're old and gray. You cannot think in terms of going on a low-carb diet, losing your weight, and then going off your diet-you'll gain back every ounce just as sure as you're born. You'll also go back to blood-sugar swings, energy crashes, and nagging, insatiable hunger, not to mention all the health risks of hyperinsulinemia. In short, you are in this for life.
So if you are to have any hope of doing this forever, you're going to need to enjoy your food. You're going to need variety, flavor, color, and interest. You're going to need festive dishes, easy dishes, and comfort foods-a whole world of things to eat.
Because of this, I've included everything from very low-carb dishes, suitable for folks in the early, very low-carb "induction" stage of their diet, to "splurge" dishes, which would probably make most of us gain weight if we ate them every day but which still have far fewer carbs than their "normal" counterparts.
There's another reason for the range of carb counts: Carbohydrate intolerance comes in degrees, and different people can tolerate different daily carbohydrate intakes. Some of you, no doubt, need to stay in that 20-grams-a-day-or-less range, whereas many others-lucky souls-can have as much as 90 to 100 grams a day and stay slim. This cookbook is meant to serve you all.
Only you can know, through trial and error, how many grams of carbs you can eat in a day and still lose weight. It is up to you to pick and choose among the recipes in this book while keeping an eye on the carbohydrate counts provided. That way, you can put together menus that will please your palate and your family while staying below that critical carb level.
However, I do have this to say: Always, always, always the heart and soul of your low-carbohydrate diet should be meat, fish, poultry, eggs, healthy fats, and low-carb vegetables. This book will teach you a boggling number of ways to combine these things, and you should try them all. Don't just find one or two recipes that you like and make them over and over. Try at least one new recipe every week; that way, within a few months you'll have a whole new repertoire of familiar low-carb favorites!
You will, as I just mentioned, find recipes in this book for what are best considered low-carb treats. Do not take the presence of a recipe in this book to mean that it is something that you can eat every day, in unlimited quant.i.ties, and still lose weight. I can tell you from experience that even low-carb treats, if eaten frequently, will put weight on you. Recipes for breads, cookies, m.u.f.fins, cakes, and the like are here to give you a satisfying, varied diet that you can live with for life, but they should not become the new staples of your diet. Do not try to make your low-carbohydrate diet resemble your former Standard American Diet Do not try to make your low-carbohydrate diet resemble your former Standard American Diet. That's the diet that got you in trouble in the first place, remember?
One other thought: It is entirely possible to have a bad reaction to a food that has nothing to do with its carbohydrate count. Gluten, a protein from wheat that is essential for baking low-carb bread, causes bad reactions in a fair number of people. Soy products are problematic for many folks, as are nuts. Whey protein, used extensively in these recipes, contains lactose, which some people cannot tolerate. And surely you've heard of people who react badly to artificial sweeteners of one kind or another. I've also heard from diabetics who get bad blood-sugar spikes from eating even small quant.i.ties of onions or tomatoes.
Yet all of these foods are just fine for many, many low-carb dieters, and there is no way I can know which foods may cause a problem for which people. All I can tell you is to pay attention to your body. If you add a new food to your diet and you gain weight (and you're pretty certain it's not tied to something else, like a new medication), or you find yourself unreasonably hungry, tired, or "off" despite having stayed within your body's carbohydrate tolerance, you may want to consider avoiding that food. One man's meat is another man's poison, and all that.
What's a "Usable Carb Count"?
You may or may not be aware of the concept of the usable carb count, sometimes called the "effective carb count"; some low-carb books utilize this principle, whereas others do not. If you're not familiar with the concept, here it is in a nutsh.e.l.l: Fiber is a carbohydrate and is, at least in American nutritional breakdowns, included in the total carbohydrate count. However, fiber is a form of carbohydrate made of molecules so big that you can neither digest nor absorb them. Therefore fiber, despite being a carbohydrate, will not push up your blood sugar and will not cause an insulin release. Even better, by slowing the absorption of the starches and sugars that occur with it, fiber actually lessens their bad influence. This is very likely the reason that high-fiber diets appear to be so much better for you than "American Normal."
For these reasons, many (if not most) low-carb dieters now subtract the grams of fiber in a food from the total grams of carbohydrate to determine the number of grams of carbohydrates that are actually a problem. These are the "usable" carbs, or the "effective carb count." These nonfiber grams of carbohydrates are what we count and limit. Not only does this approach allow us a much wider variety of foods, especially lots more vegetables, but it actually encourages us to add fiber to things such as baked goods. I am very much a fan of this approach, and therefore I give the usable carbohydrate count for these recipes. However, you will also find the breakdown of the total carb count and the fiber count.
Using This Book I can't tell you how to plan your menus. I don't know if you live alone or have a family, if you have hours to cook or are pressed for time every evening, or what foods are your favorites. I can, however, give you a few pointers on what you'll find here that may make your meal planning easier.
There are a lot of one-dish meals in this book-main dish salads, skillet suppers that include both meat and vegetables, and hearty soups that are a full meal in a bowl. I include these because they're some of my favorite foods, and to my mind, they're about the simplest way to eat. I also think they lend a far greater variety to low-carb cuisine than is possible if you're trying to divide up your carbohydrate allowance for a given meal among three or four different dishes. If you have a carb-eating family, you can appease them by serving something on the side, such as whole wheat pitas split in half and toasted, along with garlic b.u.t.ter, brown rice, a baked potato, or some noodles. (Of course, I don't recommend that you serve them something like canned biscuits, Tater Tots, or Minute Rice, but that shouldn't surprise you.) When you're serving these one-dish meals, remember that most of your carbohydrate allowance for the meal is included in that main dish. Unless you can tolerate more carbohydrates than I can, you probably don't want to serve a dish with lots of vegetables in it with even more vegetables on the side. Remember, it's the total usable carb count you have to keep an eye on. Complement simple meat dishes-such as roasted chicken, broiled steak, or pan-broiled pork chops- with the more carbohydrate-rich vegetable side dishes.
There's one other thing I hope this book teaches you to do, and that's break out of your old ways of looking at food. There's no law insisting that you eat eggs only for breakfast, have tuna salad for lunch every day, and serve some sort of meat and two side dishes for dinner. Are you short on both time and money? Serve eggs for dinner a couple of nights a week; they're fast, cheap, and unbelievably nutritious. Are you planing a family video night or game night? Skip dinner and make two or three healthy snack foods to nibble on. You just can't face another fried egg at breakfast? Throw a pork chop or a hamburger on the electric tabletop grill and you've got a fast and easy breakfast. Are you sick of salads for lunch? Take a protein-rich dip in a snap-top container and some cut up vegetables to work with you.
Helpful General Hints * If you're not losing weight, go back to counting every carb. Remember that snacks and beverages count, even if they're made from recipes in this book. A 6-gram m.u.f.fin may be a lot better for you and your waistline than a convenience store m.u.f.fin, but it's still 6 grams, and it counts! Likewise, don't lie to yourself about portion sizes. If you make your cookies really big, so that you only get two dozen instead of four dozen from a recipe, the carb count per cookie doubles, and don't you forget it.
* Beware of hidden carbohydrates. It's important to know that the government lets food manufacturers put "0 grams of carbohydrates" on the label if a food has less than 0.5 gram per serving and "less than 1 gram of carbohydrate" if a food has between 0.5 gram and 0.9 gram. Even some diet sodas contain trace amounts of carbohydrates! These amounts aren't much, but they do add up if you eat enough of them. So if you're having trouble losing, count foods that say "0 grams" as 0.5 gram and foods that say "less than 1 gram" as 1 gram.
* Remember that some foods you may be thinking of as carb-free actually contain at least traces of carbohydrates. Eggs contain about 0.5 gram apiece, shrimp have 1 gram per 4-ounce portion, natural cheeses have about 1 gram per ounce, and heavy cream has about 0.5 gram per tablespoon. And coffee has more than 1 gram in a 10-ounce mug before you add cream and sweetener. (Tea, on the other hand, is carb-free.) If you're having trouble losing weight, get a food counter book and use it, even for foods you're sure you already know the carb counts of.
1.
Ingredients You Need to Know About
Black Soy Beans Most beans and other legumes are too high in carbohydrate for many low-carb dieters, but there is one exception: Black soy beans have a very low usable carb count, about 1 gram per serving, because most of the carb in them is fiber. Several recipes in this book call for canned black soy beans. Many natural food stores carry the Eden brand; if yours doesn't, I'll bet they could special-order them for you. Natural food stores tend to be wonderful about special orders.
If you can't find canned black soy beans, you may be able to find them dry and uncooked; if so, you'll have to soak them and then cook them for a very long time until they soften-soy beans can be stubborn. I'd recommend using your slow cooker.
I would also recommend not eating soy bean recipes several times a week. I know that soy has a reputation for being the Wonder Health Food of All Existence, but there are reasons to be cautious. Soy has been known for decades now to be hard on the thyroid, and if you're trying to lose weight and improve your health, a slow thyroid is the last thing you need. More alarmingly, there was a study done in Hawaii in 2000 that showed a correlation between the amount of tofu subjects ate in middle age and their rate and severity of cognitive problems in old age. Since scientists suspect the problem lies with the soy estrogens that have been so highly touted, any unfermented soy product, including our canned soy beans, is suspect.
This doesn't mean we should completely shun soy beans and soy products, but it does mean we need to approach them with caution and eat them in moderation. Since many lowcarb specialty products are soy-heavy, you'll want to pay attention there, too.
Personally, I try to keep my soy consumption to 1 serving a week or less.
Eggs There are a few recipes in this book that call for raw eggs, an ingredient currently frowned upon by nutritional "officialdom" because of the risk of salmonella. However, I have it on pretty good authority that only 1 out of every 16,000 uncracked, properly refrigerated eggs is actually contaminated. As one woman with degrees in public health and food science put it, "The risk is less than the risk of breaking your leg on any given trip down the stairs." So I use raw eggs now and again without worrying about it, and we've never had a problem around here.
However, this does not mean that there is no risk. You'll have to decide for yourself whether this is something you should worry about. I generally use very fresh eggs from local small farmers, which may well be safer than eggs that have gone longer distances, and thus have a higher risk of cracking or experiencing refrigeration problems.
One useful thing to know about eggs: Although you'll want very fresh eggs for frying and poaching, eggs that are at least several days old are better for hard boiling. They're less likely to stick to their sh.e.l.ls in that maddening way we've all encountered. So if you like hard-boiled eggs (and they're certainly one of the most convenient low-carb foods), buy a couple of extra cartons of eggs and let them sit in the refrigerator for at least three or four days before you hard boil them.
Fats and Oils Bland Oils Sometimes you want a bland oil in a recipe, something that adds little or no flavor of its own. In that case, I recommend peanut, sunflower, or canola oil. These are the oils I mean when I simply specify "oil" in a recipe. Avoid highly polyunsaturated oils such as safflower; they deteriorate quickly both from heat and from contact with oxygen, and they've been a.s.sociated with an increased risk of cancer.
b.u.t.ter When a recipe says b.u.t.ter, use b.u.t.ter, will you? Margarine is nasty, unhealthy stuff, full of hydrogenated oils, trans fats, and artificial everything. It's terrible for you. So use the real thing. If real b.u.t.ter strains your budget, watch for sales and stock up; b.u.t.ter freezes beautifully. Shop around, too. In my town I've found stores that regularly sell b.u.t.ter for anywhere from $2.25 a pound to $4.59 a pound. That's a big difference, and one worth going out of my way for.
Coconut Oil Coconut oil makes an excellent subst.i.tute for hydrogenated vegetable shortening (Crisco and the like), which you should shun. You may find coconut oil at natural food stores or possibly in Oriental food stores. One large local grocery store carries it in the "ethnic foods" section with Indian foods. My natural food store keeps coconut oil with the cosmetics. They're still convinced that saturated fats are terrible for you, so they don't put it with the foods, but some folks use it for making hair dressings and soaps. Coconut oil is solid at room temperature, except in the summer, but it melts at body temperature. Surprisingly, it has no coconut flavor or aroma; you can use it for sauteing or in baking without adding any "off" flavor to your recipes.
Olive Oil It surely will come as no surprise to you that olive oil is a healthy fat, but you may not know that there are various kinds. Extra-virgin olive oil is the first pressing. It is deep green, with a full, fruity flavor, and it makes all the difference in salad dressings. However, it's expensive and also too strongly flavored for some uses. I keep a bottle of extra-virgin olive oil on hand, but I use it exclusively for salads.
For sauteing and other general uses, I use a grade of olive oil known as "pomace." Pomace is far cheaper than extra-virgin olive oil, and it has a milder flavor. I buy pomace in gallon cans at the same Middle Eastern grocery store where I buy my low-carb specialty products. These gallon cans are worth looking for because they're the cheapest way to buy the stuff. If you can't find gallon cans of pomace, feel free to buy whatever cheaper, milder-flavored type of olive oil is available at your grocery store.
Be aware that if you refrigerate olive oil it will become solid. This is no big deal-it will be fine once it warms up again. If you need it quickly, you can run the bottle under warm water. Or if the container has no metal and will fit in your microwave, microwave it for a minute or so on low power.
Flour Subst.i.tutes As you are no doubt aware, flour is out, for the most part, in low-carb cooking. Flour serves a few different purposes in cooking, from making up the bulk of most baked goods and creating stretchiness in bread dough to thickening sauces and "binding" ca.s.seroles. In low-carb cooking, we use different ingredients for these various purposes. Here's a rundown of flour subst.i.tutes you'll want to have on hand for low-carb cooking and baking: Brans Because fiber is a carbohydrate that we neither digest nor absorb, brans of one kind or another are very useful for bulking up (no pun intended!) low-carb baked goods. I use different kinds in different recipes. You'll want to have at least wheat bran and oat bran on hand; both of these are widely available. If you can also find rice bran, it's worth picking up, especially if you have high cholesterol. Of all the kinds of bran tested, rice bran was most powerful for lowering high blood cholesterol.
Ground Almonds and Hazelnuts Finely ground almonds and hazelnuts are wonderful for replacing some or all of the flour in many recipes, especially cakes and cookies. Packaged almond meal is becoming easier to find; the widely distributed Bob's Red Mill brand makes one. It's convenient stuff, and you certainly may use it in any of the recipes that call for almond meal. If you can purchase hazelnut meal locally, it should also work fine in these recipes.
However, I prefer to make my own almond and hazelnut meal by grinding the sh.e.l.led nuts in my food processor using the S-blade. It takes only a minute or so to reduce them to the texture of corn meal, after which I store the meal in a tightly lidded container. Why do I bother? Because the carb count is lower. How on earth can that be? Because I grind my nuts with the brown skins still on them, while commercial nut meal is made from almonds and hazelnuts that are "blanched"-have the skins removed. Since the skins are practically pure fiber, the fiber count of my homemade meal is higher, and the usable carb count per cup is accordingly lower. The carb counts in this book reflect my homemade, high-fiber meal; if you use purchased meal you'll want to revise your estimated carb count a gram or two higher per serving.
It's good to know that both almonds and hazelnuts actually expand a little during grinding. This surprised me because I thought they'd compress a bit. Figure that between 2/3 and of a cup of either of these nuts will become 1 cup when ground.
Guar and Xanthan Gums These sound just dreadful, don't they? But they're in lots of your favorite processed foods, so how bad can they be? If you're wondering what the heck they are, here's the answer: They're forms of water-soluble fiber, extracted and purified. Guar and xanthan are both flavorless white powders; their value to us is as low-carb thickeners. Technically speaking, these are carbs, but they're all fiber, so don't worry about using them.
You'll find guar or xanthan used in small quant.i.ties in a lot of these recipes. Don't go dramatically increasing the quant.i.ty of guar or xanthan to get a thicker product, because in large quant.i.ties they make things gummy, and the texture is not terribly pleasant. But in these tiny quant.i.ties they add oomph to sauces and soups without using flour. You can always leave the guar or xanthan out if you can't find it; you'll just get a somewhat thinner result.
You'll notice that I often tell you to put the guar or xanthan through the blender with whatever liquid it is that you're using. This is because it is very difficult to simply whisk guar into a sauce and not get little gummy lumps in your finished sauce or soup, and the blender is the best way to thoroughly combine your ingredients.
If you don't own or don't want to use a blender, put your guar or xanthan in a salt shaker, and sprinkle it, bit by bit, over your sauce, stirring madly all the while with a whisk. The problem here, of course, is there's no way to know exactly how much you're using, so you'll just have to stop when your dish reaches the degree of thickness you like. Still, this can be a useful trick.
Your natural food store may well be able to order guar or xanthan for you (I slightly prefer xanthan, myself) if they don't have it on hand. You can also find suppliers online. Keep either one in a jar with a tight lid, and it will never go bad. I bought a pound of guar about 15 years ago, and it's still going strong!
Low-Carbohydrate Bake Mix There are several brands of low-carbohydrate bake mix on the market. These are generally a combination of some form of powdery protein and fiber, such as soy, whey, and sometimes oat, plus baking powder, and sometimes salt. These mixes are the low-carb world's equivalent of Bisquick, although they do not have shortening added. You will need to add b.u.t.ter, oil, or some other form of fat when using them to make pancakes, waffles, biscuits, and such. I mostly use low-carb bake mix in lesser quant.i.ties, for "flouring" chicken before baking or frying or replacing flour as a "binder" in a ca.s.serole. If you can't find low-carbohydrate bake mix locally, there are many Web sites that sell it.
Oat Flour A handful of recipes in this book call for oat flour. Because of its high fiber content, oat flour has a lower usable carb count than most other flours. Even so, it must be used in very small quant.i.ties. Oat flour is available at natural food stores. In a pinch, you can grind up oatmeal in your blender or food processor.
Psyllium Husks This is another fiber product. It's the same form of fiber that is used in Metamucil and similar products. Because psyllium has little flavor of its own, it makes a useful high-fiber "filler" in some low-carb bread recipes. Look for plain psyllium husks at your natural food store. Mine carries them in bulk, quite cheaply, but if yours doesn't, look for them among the laxatives and "colon health" products. (A brand called "Colon Cleanse" is widely available.) Pumpkin Seed Meal A few recipes in this book call for pumpkin seed meal-I started experimenting with it after getting a fair amount of e-mail from folks who couldn't make my baked goods because of an allergy to nuts, and I've found it works quite well. (If you're allergic to nuts and want to make any of my recipes that call for almond meal, I'd try subst.i.tuting pumpkin seed or sunflower seed meal.) It's very easy to make pumpkin seed meal. Just buy raw sh.e.l.led pumpkin seeds at your natural food store or at any market that caters to a Mexican-American population-sometimes they'll be labeled "pepitas." Then put the pumpkin seeds in your food processor and grind them with the S-blade until they reach a cornmeal consistency. That's all. (Do not try this with the salted pumpkin seeds in the sh.e.l.l that are sold as snacks! You'll get salty food with a texture like wood pulp.) By the way, when I first published my recipe for Zucchini Bread, which calls for pumpkin seed meal, a few Lowcarbezine! Lowcarbezine! readers wrote to tell me that their bread was tasty, but that it had come out green. I a.s.sume this is because of the green color of the seeds. I haven't had this problem, but it's harmless. readers wrote to tell me that their bread was tasty, but that it had come out green. I a.s.sume this is because of the green color of the seeds. I haven't had this problem, but it's harmless.
Rice Protein Powder For savory recipes such as main dishes, you need a protein powder that isn't sweet and preferably one that has no flavor at all. There are a number of these on the market, and some are blander than others. I tried several kinds, and I've found that rice protein powder is the one I like best. I buy Nutribiotics brand, which has 1 gram of carbohydrates per tablespoon, but any unflavored rice protein powder with a similar carb count should work fine. For that matter, I see no reason not to experiment with other unflavored protein powders, if you like.
Rolled Oats Also known as old-fashioned oatmeal, rolled oats are oat grains that have been squashed flat. These are available in every grocery store in the Western Hemisphere. Do not subst.i.tute instant or quick-cooking oatmeal.
Soy Powder, Soy Flour, and Soy Protein Isolate Some of my recipes call for soy powder powder. None call for soy flour flour. If you use soy flour in a recipe that calls for soy powder, you won't get the results I got. You also won't get the right results with soy protein powder soy protein powder, also known as soy protein isolate soy protein isolate. What is the difference? Soy protein isolate is a protein that has been extracted from soybeans and concentrated into a protein powder. Soy flour is made from raw soybeans that have simply been ground up into flour, and it has a strong bean flavor. Soy powder, also known as soy milk powder soy milk powder, is made from whole soybeans, like soy flour, but the beans are cooked before they're ground up. For some reason I don't pretend to understand, this gets rid of the strong flavor and makes soy powder taste quite mild. If your local natural food store doesn't stock soy powder, they can no doubt order it for you; I recommend Fearn brand.
You should be aware that despite the tremendous marketing buildup soy has enjoyed for the past several years, there are some problems emerging. Soy is well known to interfere with thyroid function, which is the last thing you need if you're trying to lose weight. It also can interfere with mineral absorption. It is also less certain, but still possible, that regular consumption of soy causes brain deterioration and genital defects in boy babies born to mothers with soy-heavy diets. For these reasons, although I do not shun soy entirely, I use other options when possible.
Vital Wheat Gluten Gluten is a grain protein. It's the gluten in flour that makes bread dough stretchy so that it will trap the gas released by the yeast, letting your bread rise. We are not, of course, going to use regular, all-purpose flour, with its high carbohydrate content. Fortunately, it is possible to buy concentrated wheat gluten. This high-protein, low-starch flour is absolutely essential to making low-carbohydrate yeast breads.
Buying vital wheat gluten can be a problem, however, because the nomenclature is not standardized. Some packagers call this "vital wheat gluten" or "pure gluten flour," whereas others simply call it "wheat gluten." Still others call it "high-gluten flour." This is a real poser, since the same name is frequently used for regular flour that has had extra gluten added to it; that product is something you definitely do not want.
To make sure you're getting the right product, you'll simply have to read the label. The product you want, regardless of what the packager calls it, will have between 75 and 80 percent protein or about 24 grams in cup (30 g). It will also have a very low carbohydrate count, somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 grams of carbohydrates in that same cup (30 g). If your natural food store has a bulk bin labeled "high-gluten flour" or "gluten flour" but there's no nutrition label attached, ask to see the bulk food manager and request the information off of the sack the flour came in. If the label on the bin says "vital wheat gluten" or "pure gluten flour," you can probably trust it.
At this writing, the most widely distributed brand of vital wheat gluten in the United States is Bob's Red Mill. More and more grocery stores are beginning to carry this line of products. If your grocery store doesn't yet, you might request that they start.
Wheat Germ The germ is the part of the wheat kernel that would have become the plant if the grain had sprouted. It is the most nutritious, highest-protein part of the wheat kernel, and it is much lower in carbohydrates than the starchy part that becomes white flour. A few recipes in this book call for raw wheat germ, which is available at natural food stores. Raw wheat germ should be refrigerated because it goes rancid pretty easily. If your natural food store doesn't keep the raw wheat germ in the cooler, I'd look for another natural food store.
If you can't get raw wheat germ, toasted wheat germ, such as Kretchmer's, is a usable second-best. It's widely available in grocery stores.
Wheat Protein Isolate A few of these recipes, particularly some of the baked goods, call for wheat protein isolate. This is just what it sounds like-it's a protein powder made from wheat. It has a high gluten content but also contains other proteins found in wheat. Wheat protein isolate has very little flavor and very little carbohydrate-just 1.5 grams per cup.
Wheat protein isolate is not widely distributed yet, but it is available through a few online sources. In particular, www.locarber.com and and www.carbsmart.com both carry it. both carry it.
Whey Protein Powder Whey is the liquid part of milk. If you've ever seen yogurt that has separated, the clearish liquid on top is the whey. Whey protein is of extremely good quality, and the protein powder made from it is tops in both flavor and nutritional value. For any sweet recipe, the vanilla-flavored whey protein powder is best, and it's readily available in natural food stores. Keep in mind that protein powders vary in their carbohydrate counts, so look for the one with the fewest carbohydrates. Also beware of sugar-sweetened protein powders, which can be higher in carbs. The one I use is sweetened with stevia and has a little less than 1 gram of carbohydrates per tablespoon.
Natural whey protein powder is just like vanilla-flavored whey protein powder, except that it has not been flavored or sweetened. Its flavor is bland, so it is used in recipes where a sweet flavor is not desirable. Natural whey protein powder is called for in some of the recipes that other folks have donated to my books; I generally use rice protein powder when a bland protein powder is called for.
Ketatoes Ketatoes is a low-carb version of instant mashed potatoes. It actually contains some dehydrated potato, diluted with a lot of fiber. You simply mix the powder with equal amounts of water. Personally, I find Ketatoes made according to package directions unappealing-they smell good, but the texture is off. However, used in small quant.i.ties, Ketatoes mix allows us to give a convincingly potatoey flavor to a variety of dishes. I've used Ketatoes mix in a number of the recipes in this book. Be aware that Ketatoes come in a variety of flavors, but all my recipes call for Ketatoes Cla.s.sic-that is, plain potato flavor.
If you can't buy Ketatoes in your hometown, there are about a billion online merchants who would be only too happy to ship them to you.
Liquids Beer A few recipes in this book call for beer. The lowest carbohydrate beers currently on the market are Michelob Ultra, at 2.8 grams per bottle, and Miller Lite and Milwaukee's Best Light, both 3.5 grams per can. These are what I recommend you use. These are also what I recommend you drink if you are a beer fan.
Broths Canned or boxed chicken and beef broths are very handy items to keep around, and it's certainly quicker to make dinner with these than it would be if you had to make your own from scratch. However, the quality of most of the canned broth you'll find at your local grocery store is appallingly bad. The chicken broth has all sorts of chemicals in it and often sugar, as well. The "beef" broth is worse, frequently containing no beef whatsoever. I refuse to use these products, and you should too.
However, there are a few canned and boxed broths worth buying. Many grocery stores now carry a brand called Kitchen Basics, which contains no chemicals at all. It's packaged in 1-quart (960-ml) boxes, much like soy milk, and it's available in both chicken and beef. Natural food stores also have good quality canned and boxed broths. Both Shelton and Health Valley brands are widely distributed in the United States.
Decent packaged broth won't cost you a whole lot more than the stuff that is made of salt and chemicals. If you watch for sales, you can often get it as cheaply as the bad stuff; stock up on it then. (When my natural food store runs a sale of good broth for 89 cents a can, I buy piles of the stuff!) One last note: You will also find canned vegetable broth, particularly at natural food stores. This is tasty, but it runs much higher in carbohydrates than the chicken and beef broths. I'd avoid it.
Carb Countdown Dairy Beverage A very useful addition to low-carb cuisine is this carbohydrate-reduced milk product, available in full-fat, 1%, and skim, not to mention an exceedingly yummy chocolate variety. To me, Carb Countdown tastes just like milk, and I've used it pretty extensively in these recipes.
I checked with the manufacturer, and Carb Countdown is nationally distributed, so you should be able to find it near you. However, if you cannot, try subst.i.tuting half-and-half or equal parts of heavy cream and water. For that matter, if you're on the South Beach Diet, low-fat milk is allowed; feel free to use it in place of Carb Countdown wherever I've specified it.
Vinegar Various recipes in this book call for wine vinegar, cider vinegar, sherry vinegar, rice vinegar, tarragon vinegar, white vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and even raspberry vinegar, for which you'll find a recipe. If you've always thought that vinegar was just vinegar, think again! Each of these vinegars has a distinct flavor all its own, and if you subst.i.tute one for the other, you'll change the whole character of the recipe. Add just one splash of cider vinegar to the Asian Chicken Salad (page 159), and you've traded your Chinese accent for an American tw.a.n.g. Vinegar is such a great way to give bright flavors to foods while adding very few carbs that I keep all of these varieties on hand. This is easy to do, because vinegar keeps for a very long time.
As with everything else, read the labels on your vinegar. I've seen cider vinegar that has 0 grams of carbohydrates per ounce and I've seen cider vinegar that has 4 grams of carbohydrates per ounce-a huge difference. Beware, also, of apple ciderflavored vinegar, which is white vinegar with artificial flavors added. I bought this once by mistake. (You'd think someone who constantly reminds others to read labels would be beyond such errors, wouldn't you?) vinegar, which is white vinegar with artificial flavors added. I bought this once by mistake. (You'd think someone who constantly reminds others to read labels would be beyond such errors, wouldn't you?) Wine There are several recipes in this cookbook calling for either dry red or dry white wine. I find the inexpensive box wines, which come in a mylar bag inside a cardboard box, very convenient to keep on hand for cooking. The simple reason for this is that they don't go bad because the contents are never exposed to air. These are not fabulous vintage wines, but they're fine for our modest purposes, and they certainly are handy.I generally have both Burgundy and Chablis wine-in-a-box on hand. Be wary of any wine with "added flavors." Too often, one of those flavors will be sugar. Buy wine with a recognizable name, such as Burgundy, Rhine, Chablis, Cabernet, and the like, rather than stuff like "Chillable Red," and you'll get better results.
Low-Carb Tortillas These are becoming easier and easier to find. I can get them at every grocery store in town. If you can't buy them at a local store, you can order them online. They keep pretty well. I've had them hang around for 3 or 4 weeks in a sealed bag without getting moldy or stale, so you might want to order more than one package at a time.
I use La Tortilla Factory brand because they've got the lowest usable carb count of any I've found, just 3 grams. They're mostly made of fiber! Beware: I have recently seen "low-carb" tortillas with deceptive packaging. The listed serving size turned out to equal only half of one tortilla. That's not a serving, as far as I'm concerned!
Nuts, Seeds, and Nut b.u.t.ters Nuts and Seeds Low in carbohydrates and high in healthy fats, protein, and minerals, nuts and seeds are great foods for us. Not only are they delicious for snacking or for adding crunch to salads and stir-fries, but when ground, they can replace some of the flour in low-carb baked goods. In particular, you'll find quite a few recipes in this book calling for ground almonds, ground hazelnuts, and ground sunflower seeds. Since these ingredients can be pricey, you'll want to shop around. In particular, natural food stores often carry nuts and seeds in bulk at better prices than you'll find at the grocery store. I have also found that specialty ethnic groceries often have good prices on nuts. I get my best deal on almonds at my wonderful Middle Eastern grocery, Sahara Mart.
By the way, along with pumpkin and sunflower seeds, you can buy sesame seeds in bulk at natural food stores for a fraction of what they'll cost you in a little shaker jar at the grocery store. Buy them "unhulled" and you'll get both more fiber and more calcium. You can also get unsweetened coconut flakes at natural food stores.
Flaxseed Flaxseed comes from the same plant that gives us the fabric linen, and it is turning out to be one of the most nutritious seeds there is. Along with good-quality protein, flaxseeds have tons of soluble, cholesterol-reducing fiber and are a rich source of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), the same fats that make fish so heart-healthy.
Most of the recipes in this book that use flaxseed call for it to be ground up into a coa.r.s.e meal. You can buy pre-ground flaxseed meal (Bob's Red Mill sells it, among others), but I much prefer to grind my own. The simple reason for this is that the fats in flaxseeds are very stable so long as the seeds are whole, but they go rancid pretty quickly after the seed coat is broken.
Grinding flaxseed is very easy if you have a food processor. Simply put the seeds in your ood processor with the S-blade in place, turn on the machine, and forget about it for about 5 minutes. (Yes, it takes that long!) I have heard from a few people that a far better tool is an electric coffee grinder, though you'll want to use one you don't use for coffee or clean it meticulously of coffee residue before using it. You can then add your flaxseed meal to whatever it is you're cooking.
If you don't have a food processor or a coffee grinder, you'll just have to buy flaxseed meal pre-ground. If you do, keep it in an airtight container, refrigerate or freeze it, and use it up as quickly as you can.