Tag: low carb recipes

Jovina cooks Italian: Fresh herbs and summer squash chowder

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Cooking With Fresh Herbs

by Jovina Coughlin

Don’t let your herbs go wild in the garden or get moldy in the refrigerator. There are lots of way to incorporate them into your recipes.

A general guideline for using fresh herbs in a recipe is to use 3 times as much as you would use dried herbs.

Wash herbs when you are ready to use them. Shake off moisture or spin dry in a salad spinner. Pat off any remaining moisture with clean paper towels.

For most recipes, unless otherwise directed, mince herbs into tiny pieces. Chop with a chef’s knife on a cutting board or snip with a kitchen scissors.

Unlike dried herbs, fresh herbs are usually added toward the end in cooked dishes to preserve their flavor.

Storing Herbs

Fresh herbs can be stored in an open or a perforated plastic bag in your refrigerator for a few days.

After washing, you can mince the herbs and place them halfway up in the sections of an ice-cube tray. Cover herbs with cold water and freeze until solid.

Transfer the frozen cubes to a freezer bag. Drop them into soups, stews and sauces as needed.

Some Other Ways To Use Herbs

If you love a big, green salad, add fresh herbs to the mix.

Add a big handful of fresh herbs to a basic mixture of equal parts sugar and water, bring to a boil, stir and then remove from the heat. Once completely cooled, strain out the herbs (discard) and use the simple syrup to sweeten iced coffee or tea and cocktails.

Fresh herbs are a perfect in salad dressings and vinaigrettes. They round out the fatty and sharp flavors from the oil and vinegar.

Combine finely chopped herbs and room-temperature butter to make a spread that compliments bread or cooked meat or vegetables.

Summer Squash Chowder

  • Servings: 4-6
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons butter
  • 3 medium courgettes and 2 medium patty pan squash, diced
  • 1 large sweet (Vidalia) onion, chopped
  • 2 celery stalks, diced
  • 8 cups Summer Vegetable Stock (corn cob stock) (recipe here)
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme
  • 1 tablespoon minced fresh sage
  • 1 tablespoon minced fresh basil
  • 1 teaspoon minced fresh oregano
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1 cup fresh corn kernels
  • Sour cream for garnish

Directions

Heat the butter in a large saucepan or stockpot; add the garlic, celery and onion. Saute for 5 minutes. Add the squash and lightly salt the vegetables. Saute for an additional 5 minutes.

Add the stock and 1 teaspoon salt, bring to a boil, reduce heat and partially cover and cook for 25 minutes. Puree the soup with a hand immersion blender until smooth.

Taste and season with additional salt and pepper, if needed. Stir in lemon juice, corn and herbs. Simmer for 5 minutes. Serve in individual soup bowls topped with a tablespoon of sour cream.

Allow 12-15g of net carbs per serving.

Carrot, dill and yoghurt salad

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Carrot, Dill and Yoghurt Salad

  • Servings: 4
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • 1tbsp olive oil
  • 220g grated carrot
  • 3 tbsp Greek yoghurt
  • 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 4 tbsp chopped dill
  • pinch of salt
  • 40g toasted walnuts

Method

  1. Warm oil and saute carrots until wilted.
  2. Whisk 3 tbsp yoghurt, garlic, dill and salt.
  3. Stir in carrots, scatter with walnuts and serve warm or cold.

Allow about 5g of carbs per serving.

 

Jovina Cooks Italian: Orange Roasted Chicken

kaitiscotland1 Comment

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Orange Roasted Chicken

  • Servings: 8
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

Ingredients

  • Zest of 5 bergamot oranges (or ordinary oranges if you can’t get them)
  • 1 cup bergamot orange juice
  • 3 finely minced garlic cloves
  • 2 tablespoons finely chopped herb mixture (rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano)
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • 1 (3-pound) chicken, cut into 8 pieces, bone-in, skin-on
  • ¼ cup butter, softened and room temperature
  • ½ teaspoon paprika
  • 1 bergamot orange, cut into thick slices for garnish
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Herb sprigs for garnish

Directions

  1. In a mixing bowl, combine half of the orange zest with the orange juice, garlic, herbs and olive oil. (Set aside the remaining zest for later.)
  2. Stir to combine and pour into a very large zip-lock bag. Add the chicken pieces and move them around to ensure they’re all coated with the marinade.
  3. Seal the bag and place into a bowl (in case it leaks) and then into the refrigerator to marinate for at least 3 hours and up to overnight.
  4. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
  5. In a mixing bowl, combine the softened butter with the paprika and the remaining orange zest.
  6. Remove the chicken pieces from the bag and place them in a  9 X 13 X 2-inch baking dish. (Set aside the marinade in the bag.)
  7. Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper and then using your hands rub the butter mixture under the skin of each chicken piece and on top of the skin.
  8. Pour the marinade over the chicken and add the orange slices. Place the baking dish in the oven and roast the chicken until it’s cooked through, about 45 minutes.
  9. Baste the chicken several times during cooking.
  10. Let the chicken rest for at least 10 minutes before serving. Garnish with fresh herbs, if desired.

From Jovina Cooks Italian.

Beef Stroganoff – Low-Carb Main Courses

Emma2 Comments

low carb main coursesBeef Stroganoff is a quick and easy dish for two. All in all, it takes about 15 minutes to prepare. The classic accompaniment is rice or noodles. If you are following a low-carb diet, try cauliflower rice instead, broccoli or a huge salad.

Beef Stroganoff

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • 300g rump steak (Aldi sells rump steaks in this size)
  • 1tbsp butter
  • 100g mushrooms
  • 100g onion, finely sliced
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1tsp Dijon or wholegrain mustard
  • 100ml reduced-fat crème fraiche
  • 2tbsp parsley, finely chopped

Chop the steak into 2cm chunks. Melt the butter in a large frying pan and cook the steak pieces. You might need to do this in batches to prevent over-crowding the pan.

Depending on how you like your steak, cook for 2-4 minutes – the lesser time will mean a rarer finished dish.

Remove the steak from the pan and add the onion and mushrooms. Cook for five minutes until softened and lightly browned. Add the salt and pepper, steak and mustard and cook for one minute. Add the crème fraiche and cook through. Top with chopped parsley and serve immediately.

Allow about 10-12g of carbs per portion.

 

Low Carb Baked Custard

kaitiscotland3 Comments
THIS RECIPE IS FOR TWO CUSTARDS. YOU CAN TRIPLE IT AND MAKE SIX SERVINGS. IT KEEPS IN THE FRIDGE FOR SEVERAL DAYS.

Low-Carb Baked Custard

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print
  • 1 whole egg
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 1/2 cup double cream or whipping cream
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 1/2  tbsp. Splenda  or similar granular sugar substitute
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • Ground nutmeg  (optional)

Lightly beat the egg and yolk.  Add cream, water, Splenda, vanilla and salt and mix well.  Pour into two un-greased 6-ounce custard cups.  Sprinkle with nutmeg.  Set in a pan containing 1/2 to 1 inch of hot water.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until set.

Yield:  2 servings; approximately 5 grams carbohydrate per serving.
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Dana Carpender: Parmesan baked chicken wings

kaitiscotland1 Comment

Dana, what recipes get the best feedback from your readers?

The one that has been most pirated is Heroin Wings – my publisher renamed it Wicked Wings in 1001 Low-Carb Recipes. They’re chicken wings dipped in melted butter and rolled in seasoned grated Parmesan, then baked, and they’re fabulous. But then, I stole the recipe from my mother, who I believe got it from one of those little cookbooks that local organizations make up to raise money, and who knows where they got it from. So I suppose pirating is to be expected.

But really, it doesn’t matter what I say I’ve just tried, from snacks through main courses to desserts, someone on my Facebook fan page will ask “Where can I find the recipe?”  (Note: At the moment the Facebook fan page is Dana Carpender’s Hold the Toast Press, but as soon as I return from the Low Carb Cruise I’m shifting it over to Dana’s Low Carb For Life. Happy to have all your readers come join in.)

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A Day of Low Carbohydrate Eating

Emma2 Comments

One person’s low-carbohydrate diet will look very different to another’s. When you eat low-carb, meals start to lose the distinction higher carbohydrate meals have.

At some point in the 20th Century, marketers decided that some foods were breakfast foods and some should be defined as lunch. Therefore, breakfasts should be cereal and/or toast, and at mid-day you should eat sandwiches, or bread and soup for example. That means you need ready-made products – boxes of corn flakes, or packets of pre-prepared slices of bread filled with cheese, ham and various other choices.

A low carb diet doesn’t usually include cereals and sandwiches, so anything can be eaten for breakfast or lunch. Leftovers from last night’s dinner, eggs and bacon for lunch – why limit yourself to a time of day food marketers have decided to earmark for certain foods?

To this end, I thought I’d document a day of low-carb eating. See what you think.

Breakfast

low carb breakfastsCream cheese and cucumber slices. We’ve been growing cucumbers this year – successfully too. I sliced some up and had them with some Asda soft cheese. It looks a bit like ice-cream doesn’t it?

Lunch

diabetes dietPrawns in home-made pesto, with baby sweet corn. I’ve got a couple of basil plants so I stripped the leaves from most of one, and blended them with 150ml extra virgin olive oil, one clove of garlic, salt, 40g sunflower seeds and 40g grated Parmesan. I use sunflower seeds rather than the traditional pine nuts as sunflower seeds are much cheaper.

This quantity will make you enough pesto to last a week. Store it in the fridge and use as a salad dressing, mixed with roast aubergines, peppers and courgettes, or spread on top of roast chicken.

Dinner

low carb saladsAvocado and chorizo salad. Recipe here.

I also ate an apple and cheese. The carbohydrate count for the whole day was roughly 50g.

 

 

 

 

What do you eat? What’s your favourite meal of the day – or your best meal? Let us know in the comments.

 

Disclaimer: my meal choices are not necessarily recommendations – it’s just what I ate one particular day.

Tropical Chocolate Bars

kaitiscotland4 Comments

Isla_Saona.jpgThis is a great recipe if you miss plain chocolate bounty bars. These are still produced but difficult to find in shops. Our version is low carb too! Sadly mine never seem to resemble the commercial product. I dread to say what they do look like, but if you recall the swimming pool scene from the film Caddyshack, you’ll get the idea…

Tropical Chocolate Bars

  • Servings: 12-14
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • Ingredients:
  • 100ml Zsweet or sweetener of your choice (taste the mixture)
  • 50 g coconut oil
  • 100ml double cream
  • 100ml coconut milk (preferably organic coconut milk from Blue Dragon because of the low carbohydrate value)
  • 200 g desiccated coconut
  • 100 g of chocolate with high cocoa content (> 70%) Lidl’s is good for this
  1. Carefully, in a saucepan, melt coconut and sweetener.
  2. Add the coconut milk, cream, grated coconut and let it simmer. Stir well and leave in the fridge for about an hour.
  3. Shape the mixture into 12-14 cylindrical  pieces.
  4. Put the pieces in the freezer and leave for one hour.
  5. Carefully melt the chocolate in the microwave.
  6. Dip the coconut bars in the melted chocolate.
  7. Place in the freezer to cool, then store in the fridge.

Avocado and Chorizo Salad

Emma2 Comments

low carb saladsThis is an embarrassingly easy salad – so simple, it barely justifies a recipe. I thought I’d share it anyway because it’s really delicious.

Do cook the chorizo, even if it’s one that doesn’t have to be cooked. If you cook the meat, then the juices and oil run and it can form the dressing for the salad.

Avocado and Chorizo Salad

  • Servings: 2
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

  • 1 large, ripe avocado
  • Packet sweet and crunchy salad leaves
  • 150g chorizo, sliced
  • Salt and pepper
  • White wine vinegar

Fry the chorizo in a pan for five minutes until lightly browned. Turn frequently to stop it burning.

Arrange the salad in two bowls – I use soup bowls – and chop up the avocado. Put the pieces on top of the salad and sprinkle with a little vinegar, and salt and pepper.

Tip the chorizo, oil and all, on top.

Allow about 8g of carbs per portion.

 

Chicken Curry

kaitiscotland4 Comments

 

1.25 kg chicken pieces, bone in                           1 tsp salt

Black pepper                                                      2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp fresh ginger                                               1 large clove garlic, crushed

5 tbsp full fat yoghurt                                         1 ½ tbsp ground coriander

2 tsp cumin                                                        ½ tsp cayenne

6 cardamom pods

2 tbsp finely chopped onion or shallot

 

Serves 4

 

  1. Put the chicken in a large casserole dish in a single layer. Add salt, juice, lots of pepper, mix well and set aside for 20 mins.
  2. Combine ginger, garlic, yoghurt, coriander, cumin, turmeric, cayenne and cardamom in a bowl. Mix well.
  3. Rub chicken with mix, cover and put in fridge overnight.
  4. Heta oven to 200C/gas 6.
  5. Bring chicken to room temperature. Brush with oil, scatter with onion. Bake in middle of oven for 30 mins. Turn chicken over and put back in oven. Cook another 40 mins, basting every 10 with juices.

 

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