CAULI MASH - INSTEAD OF MASHED POTATOES
LOW-CARB SWAPS FOR HIGH-CARB FOODS AND DRINKS
By Jennifer Eloff
Apple Swaps:
Chayote
squash (also known as mirliton squash and by several other names, is an edible
plant belonging to the gourd family, Cucurbitaceae).
Zucchini
Helpful Hint: These squash
alternatives require adding ingredients like lemon juice, sweetener, vanilla
extract and cinnamon to mimic apple flavor.
Baking Swaps:
Search
on Pinterest or your favorite low-carb blogs for the recipe you require.
Bread Swaps:
Commercial
Low-carb bread
Eggplant
bruschetta
Eggplant
slices used to sandwich various fillings
Famous
flourless almond or peanut butter bread
Homemade
low-carb bread, hamburger buns and sandwich thins
Homemade
Miracle Dough® or Fathead Dough® for garlic bread, buns,
pull-apart buns, bagels, flatbread, pretzels,
etc.
Jiffy
microwave breads and buns
Lettuce
wraps for a burger patty and toppings
Helpful Hints: For maintenance levels: buy wholegrain bread that is lower in carbs
and toast a slice of bread. Slice it in
half horizontally with a sharp, serrated knife.
Now you can make a sandwich with half the carbs since you are using only 1 slice or use the 2
slices of very thin toast you made for breakfast with your omelet or scrambled
eggs.
Breadcrumb Swaps:
Parmesan
cheese and almond flour mix
Pork
rind crumbs
Helpful Hints: Breadcrumb Topping:
Mix 1/2 cup (125
mL) grated cheese of choice, 1/4 cup (60 mL) almond flour
and 1 tbsp (15 mL) coconut flour (or use 1/3 cup (75 mL)
low-carb bake mix instead) and 2 tbsp (30 mL) melted butter to form a “dough”
that sticks together – press into pie dish and bake alongside casserole until
getting golden brown (crisps up when cooler) and sprinkle small bits over
cooked casserole. Delicious and much tastier than ordinary breadcrumbs!
Condiment Swaps:
Real
mayonnaise (not Miracle Whip®)
Sugar-free
barbecue sauce
Sugar-free
ketchup
Sugar-free
mustard
Sugar-free
pickle relish
Cracker Swaps:
Cheese
chips
Cucumber
slices
Homemade
low-carb crackers
Wheat-free,
small commercial crackers
Crouton Swaps:
Anything
crunchy like pine nuts, sunflower seeds,
toasted sliced almonds or crumbled crispy
bacon for topping salads
Low-carb
bread used to make homemade croutons
Parmesan
crisps
Crust and Puff Pastry
Swaps
Almond
flour, coconut flour (or a combination of those two) or low-carb bake
mix crusts for baking applications
Homemade
Miracle Dough® (similar to Fathead Dough®) works
well for pie crusts (top or bottom),
calzones, stromboli, and
most puff pastry applications as well (it is
very good but different).
Dessert and Confection
Swaps:
Search
on Pinterest or your favorite low-carb blogs for the recipe you require.
French Fries Swaps:
Celeriac
fries (boil first, toss with seasoned oil and roast)
Crumbed
Avocado Fries (Crumb mixture of Parmesan and almond flour)
Crumbed
Eggplant Fries
Crumbed
Zucchini Fries
Jicama
Fries
Roasted
Crispy Potato Skins for fries (maintenance levels)
Sweet
Potato Fries (maintenance levels)
Turnip
Fries
Hard-Shell Taco Swap:
Cheese
Tacos
Helpful Hints: Cheese tacos are made purely out of grated
cheese such as Cheddar or Mozzarella cheese.
In nonstick frying pan, melt cheese and when turning golden brown
underneath, flip and cook the other side, too. Remove cheese taco and fold over
a big spoon to keep the taco open as it cools.
Fill as desired.
Hashbrown Swaps:
Shredded
turnips, fried
Sliced
radishes, fried
Helpful Hints: Radishes and turnips
lose their characteristic bite when fried with onions, seasonings and bacon
bits.
Jam Swaps:
Commercial Sugar-free fruit spreads
Homemade jams with either gelatin or chia seeds
Oatmeal or Cereal
Swaps:
Chia seed porridge for oatmeal
Commercial low-carb cereals
Low-carb “granola” and other homemade low-carb cereal
recipes
Pasta Swaps:
Cabbage
noodles
Crepes
in lasagna for Crepe Lasagna
Dreamfield’s
Lower Carb Pasta (maintenance levels)
Eggplant
in lasagnas using either beef or chicken
Explore
Cuisine® Black Bean Spaghetti (authentic-tasting)
Homemade
low-carb pasta-like substitutes
Mac-and-cheese
style cauliflower
Palmini® hearts
of palm linguine
Shirataki
Noodles (Miracle® Noodles)
Spaghetti
squash
Spiralized
vegetables
Zucchini
in zucchini lasagna
Zucchini
spiralized noodles
Pizza Crust Swaps:
Cauliflower
Pizza Crust
Ground
chicken pizza crust
Many
low-carb pizza crust recipes abound using ingredients such as cheese, bake
mix, almond flour, coconut flour, Miracle
Dough® or Fathead Dough®
Meatza
pizza crust (ground beef used for the “crust”)
Portobello
Mushrooms
Zucchini
Pizza Crust
Potato Chip Swaps:
Cheese
chips
Commercial
low-carb chips
Eggplant
chips (roasted)
Kale
chips
Pepperoni
chips
Pork
rinds
Veggie
chips using a dehydrator
Zucchini
chips (roasted)
Helpful Hints: Pepperoni
Chips: Place pepperoni on a paper towel on a dinner plate and nuke until
crispy. Check frequently as they can
burn rather quickly. They will crisp up
as they cool. Blot excess oil off top of
the chips.
Potato Swaps:
Cauli
mash and sweet potato mash combination (maintenance levels)
Cauliflower
salad instead of potato salad (very good)
Cauliflower
tots for Tater Tots®
Daikon
(boiled or fried)
Mashed
cauliflower for mashed potatoes (try adding garlic, cream cheese and
Mozzarella cheese)
Radishes
in stews in the slow cooker are potato-like
Rutabaga
Turnips
Rice Swaps:
Cauliflower
rice
Cauliflower
rice combined with a little wild rice or quinoa
Miracle® Rice
Quinoa
(maintenance levels)
Wild
rice (maintenance levels)
Helpful Hints: When in the maintenance-level eating phase,
some people may be able to have some starches in modest amounts without gaining
weight; like rice mixed with wild rice and Dreamfield’s slightly lower-carb
pasta. Many low-carbers enjoy small
portions of quinoa (a seed, not a grain) or used in recipes. The trick is to
cook them in boiling water with some olive oil.
Drain and refrigerate. Reheating
the next day, studies show, ensures that the resistant starch formed has a lower
impact on blood glucose. Keep portions
small. People with diabetes should be
careful and also those people who have an all-or-nothing attitude and will give
up on the low-carb diet, as well as people with severe weight problems.
Sugar Swaps
Sugar
substitutes are available in abundance these days. Which one you choose really
comes down to personal preference. There
are liquid sweeteners (sucralose or stevia), erythritol, xylitol, combination
sweeteners such as Natural Mate® which has a combination of sucralose and erythritol or stevia and
erythritol and also a Monk Fruit option.
Natural Mate® comes in several forms (liquid and concentrated
powder) and even scoopable granular form which tastes great and is fantastic
for baking. There are many other
sweeteners besides: Just Like Sugar®, xylitol (this one is deadly for dogs), Swerve®, Steviva Blend®, Truvia®, Lakanto®
sweeteners (Monk Fruit extract and erythritol) to name but a few. The newest kids on the block are Monk Fruit/Allulose or Allulose on its own.
Helpful Hints: Some sugar alcohols like maltitol and xylitol
or some combination sweeteners (not sure why as the individual components such
as erythritol and stevia are not a problem) may have a laxative effect. Erythritol on its own does not seem
problematic for most people unless one has a sensitive bladder.
Wheat Flour Swaps:
Almond
flour
Carbalose® Flour (not
gluten-free)
Carbquik® (not
gluten-free)
Coconut
flour
Commercial
Low-Carb Bake Mixes
Hazelnut
flour
Homemade
Low-carb Bake Mixes
Sunflower
seed flour (alternative to almond flour for nut allergies)*
Helpful Hints: Almond flour,
coconut flour, hazelnut flour and sunflower seed flour cannot be swapped
cup-for-cup for white wheat flour. If you want to use these alternatives as a
substitute for wheat flour in recipes, it is best to follow tried-and-true
recipes to prevent wasting expensive ingredients. That is why a good low-carb bake mix is
useful as it can easily be substituted for white flour ensuring that you can
once again enjoy making your own favorite recipes. I have several homemade, low-carb and
gluten-free bake mixes, two of which would suit a very low-carb, Keto
diet. Almond flour can be
expensive. One way around this is to mix
almond flour and walnut flour (grind walnuts); walnuts are cheaper. Another way around this is to use almond meal
(ground sliced or slivered almonds without the skins) instead. Yet another way around this is to buy almond
flour online in bulk (freeze or refrigerate for longer storage).*If using
sunflower seed flour, use baking powder, as baking soda can turn the baked
goods greenish or the baked goods can have green flecks due to a chemical
reaction.
Wrap Swaps:
Cheese
wraps
Commercial
low-carb tortillas
Homemade
Low-carb tortillas (Homemade Miracle Dough® in later books)
or other homemade tortilla recipes
Large
lettuce leaves
Low-carb
Crepes for savory fillings
Meat
Roll-Ups
Omelet-style
wraps
Alcohol Swaps:
Dry
low-carb wines (2 g carbs per glass)
Dry
Martini, shaken, not stirred (0 g carbs)
Low-carb
or ultra low-carb beer (range 0.7 g to 3.2 g carbs)
Skinny
Bitch (0 g carbs; vodka, carbonated water, lime and ice)
Vodka,
gin, whiskey, brandy, tequila, rum (0 g carbs)
Helpful Hints: Drinking should always be in moderation (no
more than 1 drink a day and preferably less than that). During the weight loss
phase alcohol should be limited as alcohol can stall weight loss for many
people. Beer, even low-carb beer,
contributes to beer belly, and is therefore not the best choice, but it can be
helpful for some menopausal women for a number of reasons. Alcohol can be addictive, so if you have an
addictive nature, steer clear! Alcohol
can also be a depressant. It can also encourage one to eat more than one
otherwise would. Alcohol will usually intoxicate
low-carbers more readily.
Drinks Swaps:
Cucumber
or lemon slices in cold water
Diet
sodas in moderation
Homemade
low-carb, sugar-free drinks and shakes
Low-carb,
sugar-free hot chocolate
Smoothies
made with avocado instead of banana
Sugar-free
flavored drink mixes
Sugar-free
iced tea
Tea
and coffee with low-carb milk, or cream, and sweetener if desired
Unsweetened
carbonated water