1001 Low-Carb Recipes: Hundreds of Delicious Recipes From Dinner to Dessert That Let You Live Your Low-Carb Lifestyle and Never Look Back (63 page)

1 clove garlic

1 dash salt

1 dash pepper

1 head radicchio

Mix together everything but the radicchio. Now, trim just the very bottom of the radicchio’s stem and cut the whole thing in quarters from top to bottom (you want a bit of stem in each quarter, holding it together). Put the radicchio quarters on a plate and spoon some of the balsamic vinaigrette over them, letting it drizzle down between the leaves.

Now grill your radicchio, turning once or twice, until it’s going limp and starting to brown. Then serve, drizzling it with a little more vinaigrette if you like.

Yield:
4 servings

Each serving will have 1 gram of carbohydrate and a trace of fiber, and a trace of protein.

This dressing has no grain of any kind in it, and it still tastes great. Serve with a simple poultry or pork dish.

4 tablespoons (56 g) butter

1 crisp, tart apple (I use a Granny Smith because I like the flavor, but one with a red skin would look prettier.)

2 large stalks celery

1 medium onion

1 cup (150 g) shelled walnuts

8 ounces (225 g) sliced mushrooms

¾ teaspoon salt or Vege-Sal

1½ teaspoons poultry seasoning

Melt the butter in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat.

Quarter the apple and trim out the core, whack each quarter in half (making eighths), and drop them in your food processor with the S-blade in place. Whack each stalk of celery into 4 or 5 big chunks and throw them in too. Quarter the onion, peel it, and throw it in and then dump in the walnuts. Pulse the food processor until everything’s a medium consistency.

Dump this mixture, along with the mushrooms (which we’re assuming you bought already sliced—if not, just chop them with everything else),
into the butter in the skillet, turn the heat up to medium-high, and sauté everything for a minute or two, stirring. Then cover it and let it cook for 10 minutes, uncovering every 3 minutes or so to stir the whole thing again.

Stir in the salt and poultry seasoning, let it cook for another minute or two and serve.

Yield:
6 to 8 servings

Assuming 6 servings, each will have 9 grams of carbohydrates and 3 grams of fiber, for a total of 6 grams of usable carbs and 6 grams of protein.

I didn’t know how this would work out, but it turned out very well indeed! You’ll need a deep-fat fryer or at least a deep, heavy pot and a frying thermometer. My thanks to my Alabaman friend Kay for helping me get this recipe right. (She also tells me, a bit late, that hush puppies really go with fish fries, but hey, I got the idea from Southern Living magazine. I’m a Yankee, what do I know?)

cup (80 g) Atkins Cornbread Mix

2 tablespoons (15 g) Atkins Bake Mix

¼ cup (30 g) rice protein powder

1 teaspoon seasoned salt

½ cup (120 ml) canola oil

½ cup (120 ml) water

2 eggs

¼ cup (40 g) finely minced onion

Preheat a deep-fat fryer to 370°F (190°C).

In a medium-size mixing bowl, stir the Atkins Cornbread Mix, Atkins Bake Mix, rice protein powder, and salt together. In a 2-cup (480-ml) glass measure, measure the oil, then the water (so that together the level is 1 cup). Break the eggs into the oil-and-water mixture and whisk the whole combination together. Stir the onion into the liquid ingredients. Then pour the oil mixture into the dry ingredients and stir the whole thing together with a few big strokes, just until everything’s wet—don’t overmix.

When your oil is up to temperature, drop the batter into the hot fat by the tablespoonful and fry until golden, just a few minutes. Drain on absorbent paper and serve hot.

Yield:
6 servings, at least!

Assuming 6, each serving will have 12 grams of carbohydrate and 3 grams of fiber, for a usable carb count of 9 grams; 17 grams of protein. (By comparison, a 5-pup serving of restaurant hush puppies will generally contain about 35 grams of carbohydrate.)

In many parts of the country, baked beans are an indispensable side dish with any barbecue. Sadly, most beans are way too high carbohydrate for us. However, there is one sort of bean that is low-enough carb for us: black soybeans. You’ll want to buy them canned, because soybeans take forever to cook soft—you can find them at the natural food store; a company called Eden cans them. They’re sort of bland by themselves, but add onions, celery, etc., and they’re fabulous.

These aren’t actually baked, I admit. I trust you’ll forgive me. This makes only 4 servings, but it’s very easy to double.

3 slices bacon

¼ cup (40 g) minced onion

¼ cup (30 g) minced celery

¼ cup (35 g) finely chopped green bell pepper

1 15-ounce (420-g) can black soybeans

3 tablespoons (45 ml) Dana’s No-Sugar Ketchup (page 463)

2 tablespoons (3 g) Splenda

½ teaspoon blackstrap molasses

1 dash salt

1 dash pepper

1 dash hot pepper sauce

Chop up the bacon or snip it right into a saucepan with kitchen shears. Start it cooking over medium heat. When some grease has cooked out of the bacon, add the onion, celery, and green pepper. Sauté the vegetables in the bacon grease until soft.

Drain the canned black soybeans and dump them in with the vegetables. Stir in the ketchup, Splenda, molasses, salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Turn the heat to low, cover, and let the whole thing simmer for 15 minutes or so and then serve.

Yield:
4 servings

Each serving will have 11 grams of carbohydrate and 6 grams of fiber, for a usable carb count of 5 grams; 11 grams protein. (Bush’s brand Barbecue Baked Beans have 32 grams of carbohydrate in a ½-cup (125 g) serving!)

It’s such a shame fresh pumpkin is available for only a couple of months in the autumn; it’s so wonderful. This side dish is a tad high in carbs, but it’s so unusual and so good I had to include it. Don’t try shelling the seeds from the pumpkin you’re cooking to complete the recipe—it’s a tedious task! Just roast them and salt them as is and snack on them later.

1 little pumpkin, about 2 pounds (910 g)

2 tablespoons (28 g) butter

1 tablespoon (15 ml) oil

½ cup (120 g) shelled pumpkin seeds (pepitas)

1 teaspoon chili garlic paste

2 teaspoons lime juice

Whack your pumpkin in half and scoop out the seeds. Peel off the hard rind and then cut the flesh into slices about ¼-inch (6-mm) thick.

Put the butter and the oil in a big, heavy skillet over medium heat. Swirl them together as the butter melts. Now, lay the slices of pumpkin flat in the butter/oil mixture and sauté until they’re lightly golden on both sides. They should be tender but still al dente. You’ll need to do this in more than one batch; keep the stuff that’s done warm on a plate under a pot lid.

While this is happening, toast your pepitas by stirring them in a dry skillet over medium-high heat until they swell a bit—about 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat when they’re done.

When the pumpkin’s all cooked, put it all back in the skillet. Mix together the chili garlic paste and the lime juice and gently mix it in, coating all of the pumpkin slices.

Lay the pumpkin slices on serving plates, top each serving with a tablespoon of toasted pumpkin seeds, and serve.

Yield:
8 servings

Each with 2 g protein; 10 g carbohydrate; 1 g dietary fiber; 9 g usable carbs.

This is seriously kicked-up from regular cranberry sauce! It’s a natural with curried poultry, but try it with any simple poultry or pork dish.

12 ounces (340 g) cranberries

1½ cups (300 g) diced peaches (I use unsweetened frozen peach slices, diced.)

1 clove garlic, minced

3 inches (7.5 cm) ginger, sliced into paper-thin rounds

1 lime, sliced paper-thin

1 ¼ cups (30 g) Splenda

1 cinnamon stick

1 teaspoon mustard seed

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon orange extract

¼ teaspoon baking soda

Combine everything but the baking soda in a slow cooker. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 3 hours, stirring once halfway through.

When the time’s up, stir in the baking soda and keep stirring until the fizzing subsides. Store in a tightly lidded container in the fridge. If you plan to keep it for long, freezing’s a good idea.

Yield:
Makes about 2½ cups, or 20 servings of 2 tablespoons

Each with trace protein, 8 g carbohydrate, 1 g dietary fiber, 7 g usable carbs.

Why baking soda? Because by neutralizing some of the acid in the cranberries, it lets you get away with less Splenda—and fewer carbs.

Most countries in Latin America have a version of this classic dish, in which the fish is “cooked” in lime juice instead of by heat. This makes a posh appetizer or if you want to increase the serving sizes, a light main course. This is not only low-carb, it’s also very low-calorie—and except for squeezing all those limes, very simple.

1½ pounds (680 g) fish fillets

8 limes

2 tomatoes

1 fresh jalapeño (optional)

1 black avocado

¼ red onion, diced

¼ cup (16 g) chopped fresh oregano

¼ cup (16 g) chopped fresh cilantro

Salt and pepper to taste

This dish lends itself to endless variation, but one thing remains constant: Everything must be perfectly fresh, especially the fish. Talk to the fish guy at your grocery store and tell him you’ll be using the fish for ceviche (that’s “seh-vee-chay”). Tell him you need fish that has never been frozen and choose from what he has, rather than going into the store with the idea of buying a particular kind of fish and ending up buying something that’s been thawed. You can use seafood as well as fish fillets—shelled shrimp, scallops, baby squid, and chunks of lobster tail all lend themselves to this treatment. Or you can use fin fish like mackerel, red snapper, grouper, halibut, cod, or flounder. It is customary to use two to four kinds, rather than just one, but suit yourself.

Cut any fish fillets into serving-sized pieces. Put your fish or seafood in a glass or crockery dish. Squeeze 7 of your limes—you should have about 1¼ to 1½ cups (300 to 360 ml) lime juice— and pour the lime juice over the fish. Turn the fish to make sure it’s completely coated. Cover the dish with piece of plastic wrap and refrigerate for 8 to 12 hours or overnight. If at all possible, it’s best to turn the fish at least a few times during the marinating time to make sure it “cooks” evenly. Drain the fish or seafood and put it in a fresh bowl.