My secret ingredient for low-carb cooking...

[ronnie_suburban]

It's cauliflower! Seriously. My wife and I were talking about this over the weekend and we realized that we've gotten a lot of mileage out of substituting cauliflower into certain dishes (spanish-style tortillas, stuffed cabbage rolls, smashed 'potatoes', etc.) in lieu of more 'carby' ingredients like potatoes, bread crumbs and/or rice. We joked that the 'key' to Atkins was cauliflower.

Of course, we really enjoy roasted cauliflower on its own too but with the proper 'pre' steps I've come to appreciate and rely on the versatility of this under-rated veggie as a component in a lot of low-carb dishes.

What other 'cheats' am I missing? If you've got some low-carb cooking secrets, I'd love to hear about them.

=R=

[jackal10]

cabbage leaves for wrappers, or instead of lasagne sheets

flourless souffles, and the same mix for roulades, sponges

Blumenthal's wicked molten chocolate fondant mix and variantshttp://www.ukgourmet.com/chocfondant.html. Egg white only and don't beat them.

[ronnie_suburban]

cabbage leaves for wrappers, or instead of lasagne sheets

flourless souffles, and the same mix for roulades, sponges

Blumenthal's wicked molten chocolate fondant mix and variantshttp://www.ukgourmet.com/chocfondant.html. Egg white only and don't beat them.

Thanks Jack, especially for the linked recipe, which looks great.

Here is a pic of some stuffed cabbage I made last weekend. I simmered the cauliflower first in some stock I had in the freezer and then used it in the filling--in place of rice. Even with the tomatoes, the dish was extremely low-carb.

=R=

[Mottmott]

I hate rice in cabbage rolls, anyway. I'm not on low carb, so I'll use bread crumbs as usual, but I think I'll add some roasted cauliflower, too. Great siggestopm/

[ronnie_suburban]

I hate rice in cabbage rolls, anyway.  I'm not on low carb, so I'll use bread crumbs as usual, but I think I'll add some roasted cauliflower, too.  Great siggestopm/

Thanks Mottmott,

guajolote had suggested the same thing--using roasted cauliflower--and I'm definitely going try it next time.

BTW, I find the the quote in your current signature...

"Half of cooking is thinking about cooking." ---Michael Roberts

to be eerily descriptive of life while low-carbing. I find myself constantly scheming work-arounds and methods while low-carbing...at work, in bed, while driving. It's constant...maybe even more than 'half' the time I spend on food.

=R=

[KatieLoeb]

You can make a glass of "faux Champagne" that isn't entirely no-carb, but lower than the real thing with a bit of Crystal Light Pink Lemonade mix, one Tablespoon of white grape juice and filling the glass with sparkling mineral water such as San Pelligrino or I use the Gerolsteiner water from Trader Joes.

Doesn't work for induction phases of Atkins or South Beach, but you can sneak it in after that. No it ain't the real thing by a long shot, and yes, I derfinitely know better, but it can tide you over until you're allowed to "cheat" again. Tastes better and more festive in a real crystal Champagne flute too! This also works well for tee-totalers and children.

[Mottmott]

"Half of cooking is thinking about cooking." ---Michael Roberts

to be eerily descriptive of life while low-carbing. I find myself constantly scheming work-arounds and methods while low-carbing...at work, in bed, while driving. It's constant...maybe even more than 'half' the time I spend on food.

=R=

Yes, =R=, I find thinking about food almost as delicious as eating it. I especially love planning out what I'm going to cook, shopping for it, the delight of finding some new ingredient that does special things for a dish. (My current favorite is Banyuls vinegar. Mwsk (sound of lips smacking).

And smells of food, also akin to eating iit: Try roasting whatever vegetables your low carbing will allow with a bunch of garlic cloves. I like to sprinkle them with thyme, rosemary, s & p, then toss to coat in olive oil. Then I roast them fairly hot. Just smelling it as it cooks will give you joy. If squash or white turnips are on your list, be sure to add them. I doubt parsnips are okay since they're so sweet, but they are spectacular roasted.

I gather cabbage is ok. I love STEAMED cabbage or brussel sprouts. (I actually do it in them in the microwave). Steaming makes it wonderfully sweet which may be welcome if you're low carbing. Whenever I make cabbage with pork/ham, I cook the cabbage separately.

[tryska]

butter.

[jackal10]

Forgot to add bean sprouts as a pasta substitute

[Katherine]

Rutabagas are a good substitute for potatoes in many recipes.

[jackal10]

Rutabagas are a good substitute for potatoes in many recipes.

Not that low: 11g/100g and a high glycemic index

[iain]

Ronnie,

That stuffed cabbage does look good. Can you post your method?

[Katherine]

Rutabagas are a good substitute for potatoes in many recipes.

Not that low: 11g/100g and a high glycemic index

That's half a person's intake of carbs for induction, so it fits in. For someone who's not in induction, it's fine. 100 grams is a substantial serving of rutabagas.

Glycemic index is overrated. Give up grapes, eat whole grains over processed white flour, sure. But a non-starchy veg is a just a veg. Most of the programs I've seen fixate on making tiny changes in the diet by switching brands of processed foods. Kind of like going Atkins by buying Atkins substitute foods.

People need to achieve a level of sanity in their diets. If you're fixating on your diet to the extent that you've given up any vegetable that fits the profile of rutabagas, because it doesn't fit the intersection of carb level and glycemic level that you have targeted to be your goal, you're approaching orthorexia.

[jackal10]

I agree, but you might just as well eat a small portion of potato: 18g/ for half a cup of mashed vs 11g for rutagaba. Much nicer.

[ronnie_suburban]

Ronnie,

That stuffed cabbage does look good. Can you post your method?

Thanks, I will post something more comprehensive ASAP...sometime this weekend for sure.

That said, I didn't have a recipe. I was just improvising and I'd never made them before but here's the basic gist of what I did...

Tomato sauce....I used home-made stock/glace (although I'm sure that canned broth would be absolutely fine) to simmer the cauliflower. When the cauliflower was done cooking I saved the stock/glace mixture. Later, after the cabbages were rolled and positioned in the baker, I combined a portion of that stock, in equal parts, with 1 small can of whole plum tomatoes--which I crushed up with my hands.

(I should have used my stick blender to homogenize the tomatoes and the stock instead of settling for a chunky broth, but that's another story.)

There were 16 cabbage rolls and only 18g of carbs in the entire can of tomatoes so it really was a negligible amount, especially on a 'per-serving' basis.

I used ground beef and a little bulk italian sausage (2 total #, 75/25) and then 2 eggs (1 per pound of meat), 3 or 4 cloves of crushed garlic, s&p and 3 cups of the simmered cauliflower, which I let cool off first. I also threw in about 1/2 of a small onion, diced with the simmering cauliflower (again some carbs, but a negligible amount) and whatever portion of that onion eventually made it into filling, I have no idea--but it was part of the 3 cups of 'cauliflower' mentioned above.

I used savoy cabbage and blanched the separated, cleaned leaves in lightly simmering, salted water for about 1 minute to soften them up so they wouldn't crack or rip during the rolling process. I removed them from the hot water and shocked them in ice cold water to keep them from getting too soft before I made the rolls. After they cooled off, I dried them in a dish towel and spun them in my salad spinner before I assembled the rolls. Once assembled, I placed the rolls in a 9" x 13" ceramic baker, poured in the tomatoey stock and cooked them, covered tightly with foil, for about 90 minutes at 300 degrees F.

=R=

edited for clarity

Edited January 23, 2004 by ronnie_suburban (log)

[tryska]

actually i've used yucca succesfully instead of potatoes.

Edited January 23, 2004 by tryska (log)

[ronnie_suburban]

The suggestions to use bean sprouts and yucca both seem very promising because I like them both. Thanks

Off hand, does anyone know the carb, fiber and GI stats on those foods. I checked my usual sources but cannot find either of them listed there.

BTW, here are my usual sources for good nutritional information (not in this case, of course )

USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference (Rel 16)

Glycemic Index

=R=

[tryska]

i looked up yucca as cassava, and got a GI of 46.

not sure if you are watching total carbs, effective garbs or sugar grams but here's the breakdown for 100gs

http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/list_nut.pl

Edited January 23, 2004 by tryska (log)

[jackal10]

Fromhttp://www.easygourmet.com/nut_pages/1_index_page.htm

Bean Sprouts 1 cup: 15 calories, 2.7g carb, 0mg chol, 0.1g fat

Can't find yucca, except as an extract which has 4g carbs/100g

[Katherine]

I agree, but you might just as well eat a small portion of potato: 18g/ for half a cup of mashed vs 11g for rutagaba. Much nicer.

Hey, I like rutabagas!

I'm deep-frying some up right now.

[iain]

Ronnie,

That stuffed cabbage does look good. Can you post your method?

Thanks, I will post something more comprehensive ASAP...sometime this weekend for sure.

That said, I didn't have a recipe. I was just improvising and I'd never made them before but here's the basic gist of what I did...

{snip}

Thanks! Sounds great. I'm going to give it a whirl.

Edited January 23, 2004 by iain (log)

[ronnie_suburban]

Thanks for the links Tryska and Jack...

...just looked up cassava at the USDA link and it's 38% carbs with almost no fiber, so I don't think it will work.

OTOH, the bean sprouts look promising. They're very low-carb to begin with and probably contain some amount of fiber that can be backed out when counting the carbs on a net basis.

=R=

[Lisa1349]

1. I haven't tried it yet, but been thinking about using the new low carb breads (mostly from Arnold) to make seasoned breadcrumbs, and been eyeing Atkins pancake mix to use in an Amstel light beer batter for shrimp or the such. The ingredients are right with leaveners.

2. Bacon makes everything taste better.

3. I make fritattas (basically crust-less quiches) while I do the dinner dishes for the next morning. Even cold, a grab and go fritatta beats a scone with my sugar free vanilla breve latte from Starbucks. I wish Starbucks had other sugar free syrup besides vanilla!

[ronnie_suburban]

Fromhttp://www.easygourmet.com/nut_pages/1_index_page.htm

Bean Sprouts 1 cup: 15 calories, 2.7g carb, 0mg chol, 0.1g fat

Can't find yucca, except as an extract which has 4g carbs/100g

Thanks Jack,

I ended up making a fantastic frittata using bean sprouts, fresh spinach, asparagus tips (which I blanched in salt water), scallions, garlic and feta cheese. It was really satisfying and the bean sprouts were wonderfully crunchy.

I've also been experimenting with roasting different types of cabbage (green, red, savoy, nappa). One dish I made was a variation of the roasted cauliflower recipe that's been so talked about so much here recently. I kind of stole the idea from a restaurant near me that does a roasted raddichio bruschetta.

For this particular dish I used 1 small cauliflower (cut mostly into 1/2" slabs) and 1 small head of nappa cabbage (cut, against the spine, into 1" strips). I tossed the mixture in a large bowl with olive oil, minced garlic, oregano, s & p and then added about a pound of italian sausage (cut into 1/2" chunks) as well.

I spread the mixture out on a large baking sheet and cooked it for about 1 hour at 400 F and stirred it thoroughly about half way thru the cooking. Once out of the oven, I topped it with a fried-egg (over-easy) and some powdered pecorino romano. It really turned out great and it was very satisfying.

=R=

Edited February 4, 2004 by ronnie_suburban (log)

[ExtraMSG]

I prefer:

http://www.nutritiondata.com

because I have a better feel for what 3 or 4 ozs of something is than 100g. I also like the layout better.

Here's cassava:

http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-001-02s01ud.html

Way high, as expected. It's pretty starchy.

Recently went to a Northern Chinese/Korean restaurant where they made egg rolls by using a very thin, crepe-like skin of egg, a thin omelette, essentially. The put everything in it, lightly dusted it with flour, and then deep-fried it. It was very good.

I don't use too many substitutes on low carb. I just don't like the idea of it in general. I like to alter the way I eat instead. I think it's a better way anyhow.

eg, instead of serving flank steak with mashed potatoes, I'll just have it on top of steamed vegetables nicely coated with butter and salt. Or on top of a salad with a homemade blue cheese dressing. So many people are meat and potatoes people, or meat and starch people. Vegetables in much of the country often just means some corn on the side, but nothing green. If people like this can restructure their eating habits to green things instead of white things (except cauliflower, of course), they'd serve themselves well.

Here, I have one nice ingredient to use instead of croutons: fried onions. You can get them in any Asian grocery, pretty much. They're nice and crunchy, one of the more difficult textures to find in Atkin's besides chicharrones.