300 15-Minute Low-Carb Recipes (3 page)

Low-sugar preserves.
In particular, I find low-sugar apricot preserves to be a wonderfully versatile ingredient. I buy Smucker's brand, and I like it very much. This is lower in sugar by
far
than “all fruit” preserves, which replace sugar with concentrated fruit juice. Folks, sugar from fruit juice is still sugar.

Smucker's also makes artificially sweetened preserves, but they only have about 1 fewer gram of carbohydrates per serving than the low-sugar variety, and many people prefer to avoid aspartame, so I use the low-sugar variety.

Shredded cheese.
Virtually every grocery store in America carries shredded cheddar, Monterey Jack, mozzarella, Mexican blend, and the like. When this book calls for shredded cheese, I'm assuming you bought it that way. I'm also assuming that if a recipe calls for crumbled blue cheese, you bought it crumbled.

Sliced mushrooms.
A couple of years ago I discovered that my local grocery stores had started selling fresh mushrooms already sliced for the same price as unsliced mushrooms. I never looked back! Whenever a recipe calls for sliced mushrooms, I'm assuming that you bought them already sliced.

Sprinkle-on seasoning blends.
There are some recipes for these in the
Condiments, Sauces, Dressings, and Seasonings
chapter (see
page 289
), but I've also used some store-bought seasoning blends, all of which are widely available—lemon pepper, Old Bay seasoning, Creole seasoning, barbecue dry-rub seasoning (sometimes called “soul” seasoning), and a wonderful Rosemary-Ginger Rub from Stubb's, of Austin Texas. (Indeed, everything from Stubb's is great, and every product of theirs that I've tried has been lower in sugar than the run-of-the-mill.)

Tapenade.
Tapenade is a wonderful relish or spread made mostly of chopped olives. While it's traditionally spread on bread, it adds an exciting flavor to several recipes in this book but saves you the work of chopping up olives, onions, and various other things. Look for tapenade in jars in your grocery store—it will usually be with the olives and pickles, but it might be in the International section, instead.

These are some ingredients I consider standards for low-carb cooking in general—those of you who have read
500 Low-Carb Recipes
may notice these descriptions are familiar.

Avocados.
Several recipes in this book call for avocados. Be aware that the little, black, rough-skinned avocados are far lower in carbohydrates (and higher in healthy monounsaturated fat) than the big green ones. All nutritional analyses were done assuming you used little black avocados.

Beer.
One or two recipes in this book call for beer. The lowest carbohydrate beers on the market at this writing are Bud Select 55 (1.9 g carb) and Miller Genuine Draft Light 64 (MGD 64) (2.4 g carb). These are what I recommend you use. They are also what I recommend you drink, if you're a beer fan.

Blackstrap molasses.
What the heck is molasses doing in a low-carb cookbook? It's practically all carbohydrates, after all! Well yes, but I've found that combining Splenda with a very small amount of molasses gives a good, brown-sugar flavor to all sorts of recipes. Always use the darkest molasses you can
find—the darker it is, the stronger the flavor and the lower the carb count. That's why I specify blackstrap, the darkest, strongest molasses there is. It's nice to know that blackstrap is also where all the minerals they take out of sugar end up—it may be carby, but at least it's not a nutritional wasteland. Still, I only use small amounts. It's easiest to measure these small quantities if you store your blackstrap in a squeeze bottle—mine is in one of those plastic “honey bears.”

You may be asking why I don't just use some of the artificial brown-sugar flavored sweeteners out there. The answer is because I've tried them, and I haven't tasted a one I would be willing to buy again. Ick.

Bouillon or broth concentrates.
Bouillon or broth concentrate comes in cube, crystal, or liquid form. It is generally full of salt and chemicals and doesn't taste notably like the animal it supposedly came from. It definitely does
not
make a suitable substitute for good-quality broth if you're making a pot of soup. However, these products can be useful for adding a little kick of flavor here and there—more as seasonings than as soups—and for this use, I keep them on hand. I generally use chicken bouillon crystals because I find them easier to use than cubes. I also keep liquid beef broth concentrate on hand. I chose this because, unlike the cubes or crystals, it actually has a bit of beef in it. I use Wyler's, but I see no reason why any comparable product wouldn't work fine. If you can get the British product Bovril, it's probably even better! Since first writing this, I have discovered Better Than Boullion, which is the best product of this kind I've tried. It is now my standard.

Fish sauce.
Called nuoc mam in Vietnam and nam pla in Thailand, this is a salty, fermented seasoning widely used in Southeast Asian cooking. It's available in Asian grocery stores and in the Asian foods section of big grocery stores. Grab it when you find it; it keeps nicely without refrigeration. Fish sauce is used in a few really great recipes in this book, and it adds an authentic flavor. In a pinch, you can substitute soy sauce, although you'll lose some of your Southeast Asian accent.

By the way, fish sauce is not the same thing as Chinese oyster sauce.

Guar and xanthan.
These sound just dreadful, don't they? But they're in lots of your favorite processed foods, so how bad can they be? You're probably wondering what the heck they are, though. 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—nothing but. So don't worry about it.

Your health food store may be able to order guar or xanthan for you—I slightly prefer xanthan, myself—if they don't have them on hand. You can also find it 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 a few brands of low-carbohydrate bake mix on the market. These are generally a combination of some form of powdery protein and/or fiber—soy, whey, sometimes oat—plus baking powder and sometimes salt. These are the low-carb world's equivalent of Bisquick, although low-carb bake mixes differ from Bisquick in that they do not have shortening added. You will need to add butter, oil, or some other form of fat when using these mixes to make pancakes, waffles, biscuits, and the like. I mostly use low-carb bake mix in lesser quantities for things like “flouring” chicken before baking or frying or for making batter to fry onion rings in. If you can't find lit locally, there are many websites that sell it.

Bland oils.
Sometimes you want to use a bland oil in a recipe—something that adds little or no flavor of its own. In this case, I recommend peanut, sunflower, or canola oil. These are the oils I mean when I simply say “oil.” Avoid highly polyunsaturated oils such as safflower oil; they deteriorate quickly both from heat and from contact with oxygen, and they have been associated with an increased risk of cancer.

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 is expensive and it's 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 sautéing and other general use, I use a grade of olive oil known as “pomace.” Pomace is far cheaper than extra-virgin olive oil and has a milder flavor. I buy pomace in gallon cans at a local grocery specializing in Mediterranean foods. These gallon cans are worth looking for; it's the cheapest way to buy the stuff. If you can't find gallon cans of pomace, feel free to buy whatever cheaper, milder-flavored olive oil is available in 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 microwave it for a minute or so on low power (assuming the container has no metal and will fit in your microwave).

Onions.
Onions are a borderline vegetable; they're certainly higher in carbohydrates than, say, lettuce or cucumbers. However, they're loaded with valuable phytochemicals, so they're very healthful, and of course they add an unmatched flavor to all sorts of foods. Therefore I use onions a lot, but I try to use the least quantity that will give the desired flavor. Indeed, one of the most common things I do to cut carb counts on “borrowed” recipes is to cut back on the amount of onion used. If you have serious diabetes, you'll want to watch your quantities of onions pretty carefully and maybe even cut back further on the amounts I've given.

If you're not an accomplished cook, you need to know that different types of onions are good for different things. There are mild onions, which are best used raw, and there are stronger onions, which are what you want if you're going to be cooking with them. My favorite mild onions are sweet red onions; these are widely available, and you'll see that I've used them quite a lot in the recipes. However, if you prefer, you can substitute Vidalia or Bermuda onions anywhere I've specified sweet red onions. Scallions, also known as green onions, also are mild and are best eaten raw or quickly cooked in stir-fries. To me, scallions have their own flavor, and I generally don't substitute for them, but your kitchen won't blow up or anything if you use another sort of sweet onion in their place.

When a recipe simply says “onion,” what I'm talking about is good old yellow globe onions, the ones you can buy in net sacks. You'll be doing yourself a favor if you pick a sack with smallish onions in it—that way, when a recipe calls for just 1/4 or 1/2 cup (40 to 80 g) of chopped onion, you're unlikely to be left with half an onion on your hands. For the record, when I say simply, “a small onion” I mean one about 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) in diameter, or about 1/4 to 1/3 cup (40 to 53 g) when chopped. A medium onion would be about 2 inches (5 cm) in diameter and would yield between 1/2 and 3/4 cup (80 and 120 g) when chopped. A large onion would be 2 1/2 to 3 inches (6.4 to 7.5 cm) across and will yield about 1 cup (160 g) when chopped. Personally, I'm not so obsessive about exact carb counts that I bother to measure every scrap of onion I put in a dish; I think in terms of small, medium, and large onions, instead. But that's up to you.

Packaged broths.
Canned or boxed chicken broth and beef broth are very handy items to keep around, and they're certainly quicker than making your own. 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—it frequently has no beef in it whatsoever. I refuse to use the majority of these products, and you should, too.

However, there are a few canned or boxed broths on the market worth buying. Many grocery stores now carry a brand called Kitchen Basics, which contains no chemicals at all. It is packaged in quart-size boxes (one litre in the UK), much like soy milk. Kitchen Basics comes in both chicken and beef. Health 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 will cost you a little more than the stuff that is made of salt and chemicals, but not a whole lot more. If you watch for sales, you can often get it as cheaply as the bad stuff and stock up. When my health food store runs a sale on good broth, I buy piles of the stuff!

One last note—you will also find canned vegetable broth, particularly at health food stores. This is tasty, but it runs much higher in carbohydrates than the chicken and beef broths. I'd avoid it.

Rice protein powder.
For use in savory recipes—entrées and such—you need 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've tried several kinds, and I've found that rice protein powder is the one I like best. I buy Nutribiotic brand, which has 1 gram of carbohydrates per tablespoon (10 g), 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. If you can't find rice protein powder, ask your local health food store to order it for you—most health food stores are lovely about special orders.

Sucralose.
I'm a fan of sucralose, aka Splenda. I think it tastes great. Splenda is the latest artificial sweetener to hit the market, and it blows all of the competition clear out of the water! Feed nondieting friends and family Splenda-sweetened desserts and they will never know that you didn't use sugar. It tastes that good.

Splenda has some other advantages. The table sweetener has been bulked so that it measures spoon-for-spoon and cup-for-cup just like sugar. This makes adapting recipes much easier. Also, Splenda stands up to heat, unlike aspartame, which means you can use it in baked goods.

However, Splenda is
not
completely carb-free. Because of the malto-dextrin
used to bulk it, Splenda has about 0.5 gram of carbohydrate per teaspoon, or about one eighth of the carbohydrates of sugar. So count 0.5 gram per teaspoon, 1 1/2 grams per tablespoon (0.5 g), and 24 grams per cup (25 g). At this writing, MacNeill, the company that makes Splenda, has no plans to release liquid Splenda in the United States, but I am hoping that they will change their minds. The liquid, available in some foreign countries, is carb-free, and while it will take a little more finesse to figure out quantities, it will allow me to slash the carb counts of all sorts of recipes still further.