300 15-Minute Low-Carb Recipes (42 page)

This is remarkably good—sweet and tangy and fruity. It takes just about the whole 15 minutes—about 12 to get it into the pot and another couple at the far end for thickening the sauce—but it's worth it.

3 to 3 1/2 pounds (1.3 to 1.6 kg) bone-in chicken parts of your choice—I use legs and thighs, but a whole cut up chicken would work great.

8 ounces (225 g) sliced mushrooms

3 tablespoons (45 ml) orange juice

Grated zest of one orange

1 tablespoon (6 g) chicken bouillon concentrate

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 can (8 ounces, or 225 g) can tomato sauce

2 tablespoons (28 ml) soy sauce

2 tablespoons (3 g) Splenda

1/2 teaspoon blackstrap molasses

2 teaspoons minced garlic or 4 cloves garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon dried thyme

Guar or xanthan

Remove the skin and any big lumps of fat from the chicken and throw it in the slow cooker. (You can save time by buying chicken with the skin already removed, but it's more expensive.) Dump the mushrooms on top.

Mix together the orange juice, orange zest, bouillon, pepper, tomato sauce, soy sauce, Splenda, molasses, garlic, and thyme and dump it on top of the chicken and mushrooms. Cover the pot, set it to Low, and let it cook for 5 to 6 hours.

When it's done, pull the chicken out and put it on a platter. Use the guar or xanthan to thicken up the sauce in the pot and serve it with the chicken.

Yield:
5 or 6 servings. Assuming 6 servings, each will have 8 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of fiber, for a total of 7 grams of usable carbs (assuming you eat all of the gravy) and 31 grams of protein.

Slow Cooker Brewery Chicken and Vegetables

There are plenty of vegetables in here, so you don't need a thing with it, except maybe some bread for the carb-eaters in the family. And the gravy comes out a beautiful color!

8 ounces (225 g) turnips (two turnips roughly the size of tennis balls), peeled and cut in chunks

2 stalks celery, sliced

1 medium carrot, scrubbed and sliced

1/2 medium onion, sliced

1 tablespoon (6 g) chicken bouillon concentrate

2 1/2 to 3 pounds (1.1 to 1.3 kg) cut-up chicken—I use leg and thigh quarters, cut apart at the joint.

1 can (12 ounces, or 355 ml) very low-carb light beer—Miller Lite, Milwaukee's Best Light, or Michelob Ultra

1 can (14.5 ounces, or 410 g) can diced tomatoes with green chilies

Guar or xanthan (optional)

Salt and pepper

Just put the turnips, celery, carrot, onion, bouillon, and chicken in the slow cooker in the order given. Pour the beer and the tomatoes over the lot, cover it, and set the slow cooker to Low. Cook for 8 to 9 hours.

When it's done, use tongs to pull out the chicken and place it on a serving platter. Then, using a slotted spoon, scoop out the vegetables. Put 1 1/2 cups (340 g) of them in the blender and pile the rest on and around the chicken on the platter. Scoop out 1 1/2 to 2 cups (355 to 475 ml) of the liquid left in the slow cooker and put it in the blender with the vegetables. Purée the veggies and broth and thicken the mixture a little more with the guar or xanthan, if it seems necessary. Salt and pepper to taste and serve as a sauce with the chicken and vegetables.

Yield:
5 or 6 servings. Assuming 5 servings, each will have 8 grams of carbohydrates and 2 grams of fiber, for a total of 6 grams of usable carbs and 36 grams of protein.

Chicken Chili Verde

This is marvelous and a really nice change from the traditional beef chili.

1 1/2 pounds (680 g) boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 1/2 cups (384 g) bottled salsa verde

1/2 medium onion, chopped

1 bay leaf

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon minced garlic or 2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 to 2 tablespoons (9 to 18 g) jarred, sliced jalapeños
^*

2 teaspoons chicken bouillon concentrate Guar or xanthan (optional)

Sour cream

Shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Chopped fresh cilantro

^*
I used 2 tablespoons (18 g), and it came out fairly hot.

Just plunk the chicken breasts into your slow cooker and throw the salsa verde, onion, bay leaf, pepper, cumin, garlic, jalapeños, and bouillon on top. Cover it, set it to Low, and let it cook for 9 to 10 hours.

When the time's up, take a fork and shred the chicken right there in the pot, which will now be very easy to do. Stir it up, thicken the chili a little with the guar or xanthan if you think it needs it, and serve with sour cream, shredded cheese, and chopped cilantro on top.

Yield:
5 servings, each with 7 grams of carbohydrates, a trace of fiber, and 31 grams of protein (before adding garnishes).

I think these side dishes make very nice accompaniments to simple protein dishes—a grilled or pan-broiled steak or chop, a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store, or something like that. Of course, if you do both a 15-minute side dish
and
a 15-minute main course, you're looking at a bit more than 15 minutes total cooking time (although not necessarily 30 minutes, since you may well be able to multi-task).

When you
don't
feel like taking the time and effort to make one of these side dishes, or when your entire 15 minutes is going into making your main course, the easiest sides are frozen vegetables or bagged salad with bottled dressing. There is nothing wrong with either of these, and we'll talk a little about them at the end of the chapter.

We start this section with a couple of basic recipes that every low-carber needs. These are taken from my previous book,
500 Low-Carb Recipes: Fauxtatoes
, a cauliflower purée that makes a great substitute for mashed potatoes, and
Cauliflower “Rice,”
cauliflower run through the shredding blade of a food processor. These two recipes are repeated because they're great for serving with any dish that has a sauce or gravy. Either one of these is the obvious side, for instance, with any of the slow cooker dishes that makes a lot of good, flavorful gravy.

After these two recipes, you'll find a variety of ways to season
Cauliflower “Rice”
—I've become quite enchanted with this wonderful food, as you'll see! All these recipes start the same way—you run a half a head of cauliflower through a food processor's shredding blade and microwave it. If, like me, you discover that you're very fond of this wonderfully versatile food, you might consider running a couple of heads of cauliflower through the food processor
over the weekend and storing the resultant cauliflower “rice” in a large zipper-lock bag in the refrigerator to draw on through the week. However, all of these recipes fit into the 15-minute limit, including the minute or two needed to shred the cauliflower.

There are also recipes here where the cauliflower is sliced or chunked. Indeed, there are more recipes for cauliflower than any other vegetable here because cauliflower is The Great Fooler and makes a terrific substitute for rice, potatoes, and even bulgar wheat or noodles. And of course, cauliflower is more nutritious than any of these!

By the way, don't bother cutting the core out of the cauliflower—just trim off the leaves and the very base of the stem, whack the whole thing into chunks, and shred up the core and stem along with the flowerets. If you core the cauliflower, it will still work fine, but the yield for these recipes will be somewhat less.

Cauliflower Puree, a.k.a. Fauxtatoes

This is a wonderful substitute for mashed potatoes with any dish that has a gravy or sauce. Feel free, by the way, to use frozen cauliflower instead; it works quite well here.

1 head cauliflower or 1 1/2 pounds (680 g) frozen cauliflower

4 tablespoons (55 g) butter

Salt and pepper

Put the cauliflower in a microwaveable casserole with a lid, add a couple of tablespoons (28 ml) of water, and cover. Nuke it on High for 10 to 12 minutes or until quite tender but not sulfury smelling. (You may steam or boil the cauliflower, if you prefer.) Drain it thoroughly and put it through the blender or food processor until it's well puréed. Add butter, salt, and pepper to taste.

Yield:
At least 6 generous servings, each with 5 grams of carbohydrates and 2 grams of fiber, for a total of 3 grams of usable carbs and 2 grams of protein.

Fauxtatoes with Chèvre and Peas

This is an unexpected upgrade to
Fauxtatoes
, and the textural and color contrast of the peas adds a lot of interest.

1/2 head cauliflower

1/2 cup (75 g) frozen peas

4 ounces (115 g) chèvre (goat) cheese

salt and pepper

Microwave cauliflower as for
Fauxtatoes
. See
page 232
.

In the meantime, put the peas in a small, microwaveable dish, add a teaspoon or so of water, and cover.