Low Carb Recipes
If you’re having trouble with your blood sugar (pre-diabetes, reactive hypoglycemia or diabetes), or if you need to lose weight but find that you’re unable to do it (or to maintain weight loss) on the standard low-fat, high-carb diet, I highly recommend that you talk to your doctor about switching to a low-carb, moderate protein, high-fat diet. The recipes featured here typically contain 10 grams of carbs per serving or less, making them suitable even for very low-carb diets.
Tarragon is a prominent herb in French cooking, and is considered very suitable for chicken. Its flavor is similar to anise, and since the fresh herb is very strongly flavored, it should be used sparingly. I wanted to make the classic dish of tarragon chicken, but I don’t like sauces poured over my meat so was curious to see if I could use a similar combination of flavors to brush, then bake the chicken breasts. I really liked the result – moist, tender chicken breasts nicely flavored with olive oil, Dijon mustard, garlic and tarragon. And making it this way is easier than the classic recipe.
If you can’t get fresh tarragon, or are not fond of the anise-y flavor, any fresh herb would do – I’m thinking that rosemary, for example, would be fabulous.
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I love the way onions transform from bitterly sharp in their raw state, into sweet and caramelized when slowly, patiently cooked. In this recipe for red onion confit (confit originally means meat slowly cooked in its own fat, but is loosely applied to any slow-cooked dish), red onions are gently cooked in butter until very soft, then further caramelized with thick, well-aged balsamic vinegar. The result is buttery, sweet *and* savory, and the mouthfeel is soft and pleasant. Wonderful with any meat dish, especially pork chops and steaks. I know this dish is not much to look at, but please do give it a try – you won’t regret it.
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I think I need to rename this blog to “cauliflower recipes.” 
What can I say, cauliflower is tasty, healthy, and extremely versatile. So when I saw a “cauliflower pizza crust” on Pinterest, I had to give it a try.
Now, rest assured, this pizza is delicious – otherwise it wouldn’t be on this blog – but it is NOT real pizza, and does not provide the experience of biting into soft, elastic pizza crust. It does, however, give someone who tries to limit their carbs (or to avoid wheat and gluten) a tasty, pizza-like experience, especially if you prefer thin-crust pizza and if you bake the cauliflower crust until very set and crisp.
While the cauliflower pizza slices CAN be held with your hands, they are on the floppy side, so a knife and a fork might prove helpful.
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Cauliflower RICE? Rest assured, I was suspicious too. When I stumbled upon “cauliflower rice” recipes in several low-carb, gluten-free and Paleo blogs, I thought to myself, this can’t be true. It’s cauliflower, after all – even if you can make it *look* like rice, there’s no way it can recreate the experience of eating rice.
I’m glad to report I was wrong! Cauliflower is magical – it can transform itself into so many textures and flavors, and as it turns out, just like mashed cauliflower is very similar to mashed potatoes, cauliflower rice is not just delicious, but also very similar in its mouthfeel and texture to white rice, especially when well-seasoned. Here, I seasoned it with olive oil, garlic, butter and Parmesan, but the options are endless – I’m thinking olive oil, garlic, paprika and cumin; or sauté an onion, then add the garlic, and the riced cauliflower with curry powder and maybe a little coconut milk.
Of course, you can also keep cauliflower rice very simple – just olive oil, garlic and salt (omit the butter and Parmesan), especially when you plan to serve it with saucy dishes such as chicken curry or no-butter chicken.
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These roasted drumsticks truly are spicy, but not overwhelmingly so. I like to serve them with sautéed spinach and roasted butternut squash. The chicken and the squash can be roasted together in the same oven, which I find convenient.
You can leave the skin on the drumsticks and rub them with a dry rub, or you can take the skin off and rub them with an olive oil rub. Nutrition information for both options is provided below, and both are excellent, although the skin-on drumsticks do tend to be slightly juicier.
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In this easy Thai chicken recipe, succulent chicken pieces are sautéed in fragrant coconut oil and flavored with a delicious, creamy, mildly spicy sauce of coconut milk, almond butter (healthier than peanut butter), garlic and ginger. Do use the full-fat coconut milk in this recipe – it imparts so much more flavor and creaminess, and coconut fat is a very healthy fat.
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These pickled red onions are very easy to make, and are wonderful paired with just about any meat dish you can think of. Most pickled red onion recipes call for sugar – some for lots of it, some for just a teaspoon. I’m trying to eliminate sugar as much as possible these days, so did not use any sugar, and we loved the result. You could add a teaspoon or two of sugar to cut a bit on the acidity, if you prefer.
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I'm Vered DeLeeuw, a blogger, a foodie and a mom. Welcome to Healthy Recipes, my food blog and the only cookbook I use. I'm so excited to share it with you. Bon appetit!
