Lazy cooking hacks for low carb meals
Tip! You don't have to eat low carb to appreciate these cool ideas
Currently, I’m following a low carb diet. I’m pre-diabetic, ‘this close’ to diabetes and need to reign it in. I’m not on the keto diet, and perhaps I should be, but let’s not make this all about dietary restrictions. What I will say is that I quite like eating low carb. One of the great things about it is “not being sugar’s bitch” all the time. Frankly, the fewer carbs you eat, the fewer carbs you crave.
It’s like that with caffeine too. I went 100 percent decaf about five years ago and I don’t think I’ll ever go back. I still love the ritual of coffee, the social aspect of it, and I enjoy the taste of it. Like anyone else, I need my coffee, but what I don’t need – or get, these days – is the caffeine-induced peaks and troughs of energy throughout the day.
But back to carbs.
I do eat some carbs, in the form of some vegetables, my beloved dairy, and minimal fruit. I tend to not bother with rice, pasta, bread or other foods containing grains.
Eating low carb, as with switching to any diet preference, causes you to redesign your home cooking menu. But it doesn’t have to make things more difficult. And I actually find that substituting some carb-laden foods with vegetable alternatives makes the dish taste better. Think about it; pasta doesn’t really have that much flavour. It’s all about the sauce, no? So when you switch out the pasta and use a vegetable instead, not only are you getting more flavour, you’re getting a double whammy on the nutrition. That kind of dual-purpose substitution screams ‘lazy cook’.
Here are some ways I substitute carbs:
Cauliflower rice
Honestly, if you haven’t given this a go yet, try it next chance you get. The only time cauliflower has an offensive flavour is when it’s over-cooked. You could make your own cauliflower rice, but why would you? You should be able to find ready-made cauli rice, even cauli-broccoli rice, in any store. Some have it in the fresh produce section but for me, the best is the packs I get in the freezer section.
Why is cauliflower rice good for a lazy cook?
Well for starters, you don’t have to boil a pot of rice on the stove that’ll require washing up later. In fact, you don’t have to cook cauliflower rice separately at all, in the microwave or on the stove. When I make a curry, I just pour it in at the end and give it a few minutes to soften. Sometimes I make a baked chicken and vegetable dish and once they’re done, I take them out, leaving the juices in the pan. I saute the cauliflower rice in the juices and it takes on all the flavour of the dish. (See main picture.)
Steamed vegies
You really won’t appreciate the versatility of vegies until you use them in place of pasta. Like I said, pasta doesn’t have that much flavour, so what difference does it make if you use cauliflower, zucchini or cabbage instead? When I crave good pasta with sauce, I ditch the pasta, make a great pot of sauce that cooks itself after about 10 minutes of prep, and swamp a bowl of steamed cauliflower with it. Then I stick it in the oven covered in mozzarella and I swear, it’s like the easiest lasagne you’ve ever made!
Why are steamed vegies good for a lazy cook?
Don’t sweat it. Or do, because that’s what steaming is. Get yourself a foolproof method of steaming that you can live with for its ease of use. Me, I use a Tupperware Micro Steamer (pictured above) that I bought about twenty years ago and it’s still going strong. You might prefer an electric food steamer or a simple in-pot steamer gadget. When I get home with my fresh produce, I cut up the vegies into the size I want for cooking, steam them and put them in containers in the fridge. That’s pretty much the only proper meal prep I ever do. Once I’ve made my sauce, I pull out of the fridge whatever vegies I want to use, sauce them, bake and devour! Don’t forget, zoodles (zucchini noodles) are also an excellent alternative to pasta.
Bunless, breadless wraps, sandwiches and burgers
I don’t keep bread in the house and I’m certainly not going to run out and grab some if I want a burger, a sandwich or a wrap. There’s nothing wrong with using lettuce instead. It adds those all-important leafy greens to your meal, it’s convenient, crunchy and so fresh. Plus, it doesn’t ‘water down’ the flavours of all those other tasty ingredients, like meat, egg, dressings, cheese, coleslaw or whatever you’re using.
For a bunless burger, you don’t even have to ‘wrap’ it. Below is a picture of a superb bunless burger in a bowl, with lots of rocket (arugula) as its bed. I’d already chopped it all up before taking the photo, soz.
Why is lettuce good for a lazy cook?
When you have a lettuce in your fridge, you have a multipurpose all-rounder. Look beyond salad and consider it an easy peasy substitute for all things bread-related. Sure, you can’t toast it, but you can spread it with peanut butter if that floats your boat. Having lettuce on hand means you don’t have to find ways to keep bread fresh and you don’t have to constantly buy fresh bread that you may or may not get around to eating. And hey, lettuce is awesome for Thai larb parcels Chinese san choy bow. Use it as a vessel for tacos, burritos, meatball ‘subs’, egg salad ‘sandwiches’, Vietnamese banh-mi and Korean bulgogi. And do not miss trying a bunless burger. You can thank me later.
If you’re not following a low carb or keto diet, absolutely please yourself, but these are a few great ideas for lazy cooking that don’t require a store cupboard full of wheaty, grainy, go-stale-quickly staples.