Quick ways to build your low-carb meal
Keeping things simple makes it much easier to stick to a low-carb diet as a way of life. Most of us haven’t got the time to make dishes from scratch all the time so it’s helpful to have some simple recipes up your sleeve. i love the idea of ‘mix and match’: this is how i put together nearly all meals at home — in a few simple steps — it’s easy.
STEP 1: PROTEIN
pick from these protein-rich foods (about 120g meat or fish, 100g cheese, half a tin of pulses or one or two eggs per person). eggs Fish Lamb chops Steak Low- carb sausages (these contain pure meat with no starchy filler) cheese chicken legs Sliced, cooked ham or beef Tinned salmon or tuna Beans/ lentils/ nuts/ seeds for a vegetarian option
STEP 2: FRESH VEG
chooSe at least one low- carb veg; you want to fill most of your plate with this. green salad Spinach cabbage cauliflower Mushrooms peppers Aubergine
Asparagus Avocado eat starchy carbohydrates sparingly, depending on how low carb you want to go; these include beetroot, parsnips, butternut squash, carrots, swede, sweetcorn and turnip.
STEP 3: SAUCE
FinALLy choose one of these lowcarb sauces:
Shop-bought full-fat mayonnaise, pesto, hollandaise (but check the label for added sugar) Melted herb butter cheese — you could simply grate some over hot green veg or add a dash of olive oil or a knob of butter.
it’s also easy to make a vinaigrette dressing with a little salt and pepper, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, a teaspoon of white wine vinegar and topped up with olive oil — then shaken together in an empty jam jar.
Why not try one of the low-carb sauce recipes that katie caldesi has created and shared this week?
if you make a batch of the tomatobased Quick italian Sauce or creamy Mushroom Sauce (both featured in Saturday’s Weekend magazine, Mail plus and Mail online) you could either keep a portion in the fridge for up to three days or freeze it until needed.
STEP 4: PUDDING
cheeSe and walnuts or celery, or berries and cream are two delicious ways to finish off an evening meal — and you do not have to cook a thing! My grandchildren love five or six strawberries or raspberries whisked into double cream with a few drops of vanilla essence. if you spoon it into a wine glass, put a couple of extra chopped berries on top with a shaving of dark chocolate it’s good enough to serve at a dinner party.