Category: Recipes

Delicious low-carb recipes, tried and tested.

Super Sides for Low-Carb Diets

EmmaLeave a comment

Steak, chicken and fish – all nice ingredients by themselves, but all the more nicer when accompanied by a delicious side dish!

Side dishes are what will keep you on the straight and narrow on a low-carb diet as they prevent boredom. Sure, a lovely piece of steak accompanied by salad can be nice, but second time round it’s even better with home-made coleslaw. Strips of lamb fried with cumin and served with spiced onions are fantastic and roast chicken paired with cheesy leeks is unbelievably delicious.

Here are three super sides to be going on with.

Home-Made Coleslaw

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Leeks, cream and cheese pre-cooking.

  • 200g white cabbage
  • 2 medium-sized carrots, peeled
  • Two spring onions
  • 1 tbsp garlic chives
  • 3-4 tbsp mayonnaise

Finely slice the cabbage, and grate the carrots. Chop the spring onion and mix all the vegetables with the garlic chives. Add in the mayonnaise and allow to sit for 10 minutes to allow the flavours to mix.

Carbs: total about 32g, with about 8g fibre

Spiced Onions with Sumac

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print
spiced onions
1 large white onion

  • 1tbsp sumac
  • 1tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 1tbsp finely chopped parsley
  • 1tsp sea salt

Peel the onion and cut it in half. Finely slice into half-moons. Mix with the salt, sumac, vinegar and parsley with the onions and leave to sit for 20 minutes. (This softens the onions and takes away that strong, bitter taste you get from raw onions.)

Carbs total: about 18g, with about 3g fibre

Cheesy Leeks

  • Servings: 6
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Leeks, cream and cheese pre-cooking.
Leeks, cream and cheese pre-cooking.

  • 800g leeks
  • 2 slices garlic
  • 25g butter
  • Olive oil
  • 1tbsp fresh thyme
  • 100g cheddar cheese, grated
  • 200ml double cream
  • Salt and freshly-ground pepper
  • Grated nutmeg

Take off the leeks’ outer leaves, split down the middle without cutting all the way through and wash. Dry well and slice into rings.

Melt the butter in a saucepan with the oil. Fry the leeks with the garlic and thyme for five minutes until softened. Season with salt and pepper.

 

Add three-quarters of the cheese to the double cream and mix well. Add the grated nutmeg.

Place the leeks in a shallow, oven-proof dish and pour over the cream and cheese mix. Top with the rest of the grated cheese and add some more black pepper.

Cook for 20 minutes at 200 degrees C.

Carbs per serving: 18g, with 2.5g fibre

For more delicious low-carb recipes and menu plans, see The Diabetes Diet by Dr Katharine Morrison and Emma Baird. 

Broccoli and Stilton Soup

Emma3 Comments
Green goodness!
Green goodness!

Got a glut of broccoli? OK, I wrote that sentence without irony but bear with me…

Broccoli isn’t at the top of most people’s preferred foods, but adding a tablespoon of butter to it helps a great deal, as does turning into a soup. Use home-made stock and the results improve immeasurably.

Soups are often associated more with winter than spring/summer – but why let tradition stop your enjoyment of warm, savoury deliciousness..?

Continue reading “Broccoli and Stilton Soup” →

Low-Carb, Gluten-Free Moussaka

Emma4 Comments
All you need (almost) for Greek moussaka.
All you need (almost) for Greek moussaka.

This week I had a large pot of Greek yoghurt seeking a happy culinary ending so I decided to make a moussaka.

Lots of moussaka recipes use a béchamel sauce which obviously pushes up the carbohydrate content and make it unsuitable for coeliacs because of the flour in the sauce, and as I was going to be entertaining a coeliac then this version is ideal for the gluten-free AND the low-carber.

I like mince done in the slow cooker as I think you get a concentrated flavour (and it’s easier), but I’ve also given you the conventional method for cooking the mince part.

Gluten-Free Low Carb Moussaka

  • Servings: 4 generous portions
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • 500g lamb mince
  • 1 onion, finely sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1tbsp ground cumin
  • 400g tinned, chopped tomatoes
  • 1tbsp tomato puree
  • Fresh rosemary, finely chopped (about 1tsp)
  • 1 large aubergine, sliced
  • 2tbsp olive oil
  • 500g Greek yoghurt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 50g freshly grated Parmesan
  • Salt and freshly-ground black pepper

For the slow cooker method:

Place the mince, onion, garlic, tinned tomatoes, ground cinnamon, ground cumin, rosemary, tomato puree and 1tbsp olive oil in your slow cooker and mix very well. Top up with enough water to cover.

Cook on slow for 6-7 hours, or high for 4 hours.

For the conventional method:

Heat 1tbsp olive oil in a large sauce pan and brown the lamb mince, breaking up clumps with a wooden spoon as it cooks. (You might need to do this in two batches). Once the meat has browned and excess water boiled off (about 10 minutes, add the onions, garlic and herbs and cook, stirring, for another three or four minutes. Add the tomatoes and tomato puree, mix well and add in a little water – about 100-200mls. Bring to the boil.

Cover, turn down to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes. You might need to take the lid off for the last few minutes to condense the sauce. You are looking for a thick, concentrated sauce.

For both methods:

Season the lamb well with salt and pepper.

Meanwhile, cook the aubergine slices. Brush the slices with the remaining tbsp olive oil, sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and cook in a pre-heated oven (180 degrees C) for 15 minutes.

Beat the two eggs and mix with the yoghurt. Using a large rectangular, oven-proof casserole dish, layer up the lamb, then aubergine slices, then lamb, a final layer of aubergine and top the lot with the egg/yoghurt mixture, and the grated cheese.

Cook for 30 minutes in the pre-heated oven until the topping is golden-brown.

This moussaka has approximately 20g of carbs per serving.

French Onion Soup

EmmaLeave a comment

onion soup 2Recently, I made a big pot of stock (or bone broth as it’s more fashionably known these days) using a chicken carcass, carrots, celery, onions and cider vinegar.

I wanted a recipe that would make the most of the flavour of the stock – or one where the stock was the star – so I opted for French onion soup sans croutons.

The internet abounds with recipes for stock or bone broth and you could also make this soup with stock made from beef bones, which is the more traditional version of French onion soup. The internet also abounds with people waxing lyrical on the many health benefits of stock – from better skin, to alleviated joint and gut pain, shinier hair and boosted immunity. Who knows? Continue reading “French Onion Soup” →

Chocolate orange muffins: how to de-carb a standard recipe

kaitiscotland2 Comments

I found this recipe in this weeks Observer magazine. Of course the recipe was neither low carb or gluten free or even for muffins, but with a few tweaks I managed to produce these lovely muffins.

dark chocolate 85g

unsalted butter 120g

granulated sugar 120g ( I substituted 4 rounded dessertspoons of a mixture of splenda, z-sweet and truvia )

ground cinnamon 2 pinches ( this recipe could use a bit more than this)

ground all spice 2 pinches ( again, a bit more wouldn’t hurt)

vanilla extract one teaspoon ( and add chocolate essence one teaspoon if you have this)

zest of half an orange ( I used zest of one whole orange for very full orange flavour )

3 eggs

milk 2 tablespoons ( or use double cream )

ground almonds 150g

plain flour 60g ( I used wheat free white flour but think you would easily get away with more almonds here or you could use whey protein powder instead, either plain, chocolate or vanilla)

baking powder 1/2 teaspoon

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. Gas mark 4.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave and use a wooden chop stick to stir or melt in a bowl over simmering water on the hob.

Mix the butter, sugar substitute, spice, essences, zest together until light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs and the almonds and chocolate till fully incorporated. This is most easily done one egg/ a few spoons of almonds at a time.

Add the flour or extra almonds and baking powder.

Mix thoroughly.

Either cook as a cake in a buttered/cake released springform cake tin or put into muffin cases for muffins.

The muffins took 25 minutes and the recipe says the cake takes 30 minutes.

Either way it is best to check your muffins at 20 minutes. Use a cocktail stick, special heat conduction stick (Lakeland Ltd) or your finger to check doneness. Sticks will come out dryish, the top will spring back when pressed with your finger when done).

Serve with whipped double cream with a little vanilla essence.

Cauliflower Cheese

kaitiscotland2 Comments

This is my very easy take on cauliflower cheese making the most of pre-prepared supermarket ingredients.

Easy Cauliflower Cheese

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • Frozen cauliflower florets (or prepare from fresh) equivalent of one cauliflower
  • Frozen chopped onions (or prepare from fresh) one handful
  • Lazy garlic (or prepare from fresh) one teaspoon
  • 250mls double (heavy) cream
  • Pre-grated mature cheddar cheese (or grate yourself) 3/4 of a bag
  • English mustard (or use French if preferred for a milder flavour) one teaspoon
  • White pepper ground one teaspoon
  • 1-2 oz unsalted butter
  1. Put on the oven at 190 degrees.
  2. Put cauliflower in the microwave to cook. Add some water to a microwavable pot and seal with lid or cling film.
  3. Cook as directed or around 7-9 minutes. Check for firmness. Cook as you like either firm or sloppy or somewhere in between.
  4. Meanwhile melt butter in a saucepan. Add the onions and garlic and brown.
  5. Take off the heat and add the double cream.
  6. Add the pepper and mustard and stir.
  7. Add the grated cheese and stir (leave some cheese over).
  8. Drain the cooked cauliflower and put in a Pyrex bowl or similar oven-proof dish. Pour over the cheese sauce.
  9. Sprinkle on the remaining grated cheese and put in the oven for 20 minutes.
  10. Remove and serve immediately.

Goes well with sliced meats, especially ham.

Chinese Duck Breast

kaitiscotlandLeave a comment

Chinese Duck Breasts

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • Two duck breasts with skin on
  • Coarse sea salt
  • Chinese Five Spice seasoning
  1. Put on the oven at 180 degrees.
  2. Score your duck breasts with a sharp knife and rub in the coarse sea salt, followed by the five spice powder.
  3. To a COLD frying pan add the duck breasts skin down and cook for 4-5 minutes till there is a good amount of fat in the pan from the melting duck fat.
  4. Turn the duck breasts over and cook for 2-3 minutes till seared.
  5. Put in tin foil and cook for a further 15-20 minutes in the oven.
  6. Take out and rest for 10 minutes.

Serve.

Braised Celeriac

EmmaLeave a comment
The far from pretty celeriac. Darn tasty though...
The far from pretty celeriac. Darn tasty though…

Lately, I have been eating A LOT of celeriac, sometimes called celery root…

It’s delicious and it’s low carb, and there are a number of ways to prepare it. Mostly, you can use it as a potato substitute – roast celeriac instead of roast potatoes, mashed celeriac instead of mashed potatoes etc.

If you’re not familiar with celeriac (and I wasn’t until very recently) the taste is similar to celery, but the texture is very different. It has a really savoury taste and you might end up preferring it to potato.

100g of celeriac contains roughly 9g of carbs (with 2g of fibre) and it is a good source of Vitamin C, potassium and magnesium.

Here is a very simple recipe for braised celeriac, which goes well with roast chicken.

Braised Celeriac

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • 1 celeriac
  • 2tbsp olive oil or butter
  • 1tbsp dried thyme
  • Salt and pepper
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed.
  1. Peel the celeriac and cut it into two-inch cubes. Heat the olive oil or butter in a large saucepan and add the cubes.
  2. Brown the cubes for a few minutes, add the garlic and cook briefly (make sure the garlic doesn’t burn) and then add 100ml or about five tablespoons of water.
  3. Put a lid on the saucepan, turn the heat down the lowest setting and cook for 25 minutes – or until the celeriac is soft. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Here’s another great recipe for celeriac, and one for a celeriac salad, and let us know if you have a great use for what is arguably the world’s ugliest vegetable.

Pic thanks to Wikipedia.

Rack of Lamb Roast

kaitiscotlandLeave a comment

Rack of lamb

white wine (half a glass)

rosemary dry or fresh

coarse sea salt

black pepper

easy garlic or garlic chopped finely

unsalted butter

olive oil

Marinade your rack of lamb for a few hours in white wine, garlic, chopped rosemary and black pepper.

Heat your oven to 190 degrees.

Melt butter and olive oil in frying pan. Bring to a high heat. Sear the lamb.

Place in foil along with remaining oil mixture.

Bake in oven for 20 minutes for medium done rack of lamb.

Warm your plates before serving.

Plate out 3-4 chops per person. Spoon over some of the oil over the chops.

Serve with vegetable of your choice.

Pork chops in creamy sage sauce

kaitiscotlandLeave a comment

This is a very quick and tasty meal that you can produce with very little effort, particularly if you cheat with the onion and garlic.

Pork chops 1 or 2 per person

Dried sage one heaped teaspoon per person (or use fresh if you can get it)

Olive oil and butter for frying

Frozen or fresh cut white onion, one heaped dessert spoon per chop.

One teaspoon very lazy garlic or one clove per chop

Double cream

Salt and pepper

White wine

Put on oven to warm at 150 degrees

Marinade the pork chops in a little white wine and sage, salt and pepper, for at least 30 min

Heat frying pan with olive oil and butter

Fry chops till some browning on both sides and fat

When done, about 3-4 mins per side depending on thickness, put in oven proof dish and leave to warm in the oven.

Turn down the heat under the frying pan

Add onion and garlic and fry till soft and lightly browned

To cooked juices in the pan add double cream and allow to thicken

To serve pour the sauce over the cooked pork chops

Goes well with any green vegetable dish