Low carb passover

April 2, 2015 2:34 PM

Say I wanted to start a low carb diet after my Seder meals. Say I try to observe kosher rules during Passover and I won't eat any grains, rice, beans, soy, or derivative products like corn syrup. Say I don't like Brussels Sprouts and am trying to please three other picky eaters with meal planning. How would I survive this hypothetical situation?

I'm happy to see either specific recipes and meal plans or more general tips.

posted by bq to Food & Drink (9 answers total)

The tip is make sure what you plan to eat is on the table, along with the typical rest of a kosher feast. No one even has to know about your low carb diet, just eat what you like and let them eat what they like. At the table talk about how good the food is, not what you aren't eating. Have a great feast!
posted by Oyéah at 2:55 PM on April 2, 2015 [3 favorites]

OK, so what you're trying to do is basically the keto diet, so r/keto on reddit should be a good resource to you.

More generally, things that are your friend: soups, curries, meat, eggs, veggies, cheese. Get lots of avocados. You can use spaghetti squash in place of pasta in most pasta dishes. You can use cauliflower as a substitute for a whole bunch of stuff. You can make tacos and use a big lettuce or cabbage leaf instead of a taco shell (larb gai style). You actually WANT to include more natural fats in your diet like butter, oil, and the aforementioned avocado - they will fill you up and give you energy throughout the day.

More specifically, recipes: shakshuka, eggs baked in avocado, lemony kale and quinoa* salad.

My favorite easy salad recipe is baby spinach or baby kale with balsamic vinaigrette, feta, cranberries, and slivered almonds. Tastes like candy and most of the ingredients keep really well.

*Ugh, so quinoa's KFP status is debated for STUPID REASONS (nearly verbatim: it looks like chametz so it might confuse people) but from a position of complete non-authority I say to heck with that
posted by capricorn at 2:56 PM on April 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Kosher has prohibitions, meat and dairy at the same meal.
posted by Oyéah at 3:00 PM on April 2, 2015

Not to get into comment arguments here but "kosher" is different from "kosher for Passover" and lots of us ethnically and/or religiously Jewish people observe the two pretty differently. bq, the three example dishes I gave don't combine milk and meat and there should be plenty others that don't, if you do keep kosher overall.
posted by capricorn at 3:04 PM on April 2, 2015 [5 favorites]

Check out Linda's Low Carb for some recipes.
posted by Snazzy67 at 4:02 PM on April 2, 2015 [1 favorite]

Tuna or egg salads. Eggs in general. Eggplant. Zucchini or squash casseroles. Nut butters (not peanut).

I'm going to mention that the rules against rice/beans/corn/peas/peanuts/etc (kitniyot) are a custom and not a rule in the same way the rules against wheat and rye are, and indeed the customs are changing (see: quinoa). A lot of Ashkenazi Jews are happy to give up these customs.
posted by jeather at 4:28 PM on April 2, 2015

We're doing a second night Seder and starting Whole30 on Monday. I've been scouring the web for recipes during the past two weeks, and they've mostly been low carb.
posted by Ruki at 4:34 PM on April 2, 2015

This is an odd question. Passover rules dovetail naturally with low carb eating -- the only carb you can really eat on Passover (other than matzah) is potatoes. Matzah meal tastes nasty and is easily avoided. Most of Passover, one is by necessity eating eggs, vegetables, meat, cheese, sweet potatoes, fruit, fish, eggs, more eggs. It's an inherently low carb regimen unless you go out of your way to eat matzah and matzah meal. The only thing that'll derail you if you're not careful is delicious coconut macaroons.
posted by fingersandtoes at 10:56 PM on April 2, 2015 [3 favorites]

The thought just occurred top me: I wonder what gluten-free matzoh would taste like.
posted by Taken Outtacontext at 10:32 AM on April 3, 2015