Easy low-carb vegetarian snacks and meals?

September 6, 2011 6:13 PM

Any recommendations for very easy low-carb ovo-lacto vegetarian snacks or meals other than egg dishes or tofu stir fries?
posted by shivohum to Food & Drink (15 answers total)

cottage cheese with peaches/applesauce/melon/tomatoes

if there is a trader joe's near you, I love their new(ish) peanut flaxseed butter, especially with bananas.
posted by shrimpsmalls at 6:32 PM on September 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

hummus and veggies
apples and peanut butter or apples with sharp cheese
guacamole and apples, baby carrots
goat cheese spread on a romaine lettuce leaf, put on some sliced tomato and roll up
wasabi peas or wasabi almonds
tzatziki (shredded cucumber + plain thick yogurt) and wasa crispbread
pineapple chunks and cottage cheese
posted by flex at 6:42 PM on September 6, 2011 [5 favorites]

I have tried all these foods, and they are all really good.

Sensato High Fiber Cereal tastes a bit like grits. The Butter Pecan is spectacular. Just add water. I often mix in almond butter as well.
Chocoperfection Dark Chocolate Bars, melted down, add salted almonds, freeze, and then break off into delicious chunks.
Chocolite protein bars are somehow only 100 calories but fill me up for hours.
Vegan Jerky
Bran crispbreads with soy nut butter or almond butter or egg salad, in case you're not already tired of it.
Jalapeno poppers minus the bacon
Stuffed Bell Peppers
Mashed Cauliflower tastes like neato, nutty mashed potatos
Ina Garten's roasted broccoli

So you'll have to order many of these foods from Netrition.com (or some other low carb website).


cottage cheese with peaches/applesauce/melon

Fruit is not low carb, at least not in the beginning of Atkins. Primal diets allow it on occasion.
posted by zoomorphic at 6:48 PM on September 6, 2011 [3 favorites]

Bean and veggie (1" cubes of eggplant or slices of peppers) casserole made with veggie pasta (I get mine at Whole Foods; not sure who else sells it). Layer everything together, spice to taste (I used curry, salt, pepper, and red pepper), and add a can of something liquidy (I used coconut milk and then added a can of water for good measure, but you could use mushroom soup or something similar too) and then bake for an hour, covered. This makes a large number of portions, so it takes a bit of time to prepare initally but then you have ready-made meals all week.
posted by DoubleLune at 6:52 PM on September 6, 2011

Definitely not high-protein, but I made myself a caprese sandwich for dinner. Fresh tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella cheese, and balsamic vinegar. Took all of 3 minutes to make it and it was totally awesome. Replace the bread with a low-carb version (ezekiel is usually the one I hear recommended by low-carbers) or lettuce and you'll have yourself a super quick meal.
posted by zug at 6:59 PM on September 6, 2011

There are a bunch of threads on here that were helpful when I first started eating low carb, and in them are linked several good websites with lots of menus. If you can be more specific about the meals, I will try to be helpful on those.

Here are my answers for snacks:
I eat a lot of nuts, especially almonds and hazelnuts. Beware of the carb counts on cashews.
Celery is my go-to for putting spreads on (that I used to use crackers for) so celery and hummus, guacamole, goat cheese, almond butter, etc.
String cheese or hard cheese (e.g. aged gouda, parmigiano reggiano, dry jack.) Cheese generally.
Avocados are generally awesome as low carb snacks.
Hard-boiled eggs, which are egg dishes, but good for snacks.
Almond butter on a spoon. I've gotten good at eating things on spoons that I used to eat on crackers or apples or other high carb things.
Full-fat greek yogurt, if you have fridge access for your snacks.
Small amounts of good dark chocolate.
posted by gingerbeer at 7:05 PM on September 6, 2011 [2 favorites]

Roasted broccoli, brussel sprouts, and or cauliflower (add some curry powder, then either just eat, or stir into some coconut milk for a quick soup/stew dish). Kale chips are a fabulous snack.
posted by rtha at 7:06 PM on September 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh, and this is a good, quick one: sautee a tremendous amount of chard (you know how it cooks down) with some onion and garlic; when it's nearly done, chuck in some cubed feta and stir. It gets kind of creamy and is delicious.
posted by rtha at 7:09 PM on September 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

I am a big fan of yogurt and peanut butter for snacks -- separate, together, etc.
posted by grobstein at 7:17 PM on September 6, 2011

Honey crunchy soynut butter drizzled or dipped on air-popped popcorn. Call me crazy, but I be crazy for it. It's got a rather nutsy name to boot...ok, I'll stop there. But it's good. So good.
posted by xiaolongbao at 9:17 PM on September 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'd highly recommend having a look at CarbGenie - they've analysed over 30,000 low carb foods from major supermarkets. Makes finding new options easy!
posted by scottybowl at 4:38 AM on September 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

Full-fat greek yogurt with sweetener, cinnamon and slivered almonds for crunch. I sometimes add a couple tablespoons of blueberries which adds just a few carbs.

I also sometimes flavor plain greek yogurt with just sweetener and a couple packets of True Lemon.

Celery and cream cheese is a nice filling snack.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 5:07 AM on September 7, 2011

A couple meals that I have on heavy lunch-time rotation recently:
Cucumber with mint and feta "salad"
Carrot with ginger and radish "salad"

One of the AskMe threads I go back to is about non-salad salads. After you omit the bean-heavy salads, there is still a lot to choose from.
posted by whatzit at 10:10 AM on September 7, 2011 [2 favorites]

Roasted chickpeas are a great snack, but they do have some carbs. You can add all kinds of different spices the change them up.
posted by annsunny at 10:16 AM on September 7, 2011

Have you tried making your own Lara bars (or if you are in the UK, nak'd bars)?
They're usually just nuts and dates or dried apples with almonds. There is never any gluten, added sugar, or dairy (or soy in most cases I guess).

Examples include this over at Edible Perspective or this at Chocolate Covered Katie.

Of course you can just buy the bars themselves.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 1:24 PM on September 7, 2011 [1 favorite]