Lowish-carb, vegetarian-ish food/recipe suggestions

March 1, 2022 5:41 AM

I need some meal ideas and recipes for healthy, filling, low-carb meals without meat. Snowflakes within.

I need to eat lowish carb most of the time due to diabetes. I have sensory issues that are complicating my diet, particularly with meat. Mainly centered around the possibility of biting down on a bit that shouldn’t be there, like a tiny piece of gristle or bone or tendon. When this happens it gags me to the point I can’t continue eating. I do eat some meat, but usually with quite a bit of trepidation, knowing the meal could be ruined for me at any second.

Unfortunately, many of the foods I consider “safe” foods as far as sensory issues are processed foods and “junk” foods, which do terrible things to my blood sugar even with insulin, if I eat them more than occasionally.

I’d like to know of some good lowish-carb vegetarian recipes so I can eat healthier meals without so much anxiety more often. Here are some additional considerations:

• Bean soups are usually ok, but I don’t want beans every night
• Small amount of potato, rice, sweet potato, etc is usually ok, if I take insulin and the rest of the meal is low. A small amount of fruit is ok.
• I like eggs, dairy, canned tuna, canned salmon.
• I like tomatoe-y things such as spaghetti sauce (but can’t do pasta, and don’t really care for spaghetti squash or zoodles (too watery.))
• I like cooked vegetables, but I often find it aggravating how they take up so much room in the fridge but then cook down to practically nothing when I actually make them. For example, a pan of roasted veggies or sauteed spinach.
• I like cabbage, raw or cooked
• I like salads sometimes but I don’t love them as much as I wish I did. I like them with tasty stuff in them but often am not crazy about the greens themselves. I don’t like washing and chopping them, but bagged greens taste funny and go bad quickly. I don’t like spring mix, it’s bitter and has no crunch.
• I have a crock pot and an air fryer, as well as oven/stove and microwave. Thinking about getting a food processor.

I would like to hear your thoughts, ideas, food suggestions, recipes, etc for eating better given my issues with both diabetes and sensory aversions. Breakfast is covered, I usually eat eggs or tuna salad. Lunch and dinner are where I struggle. I’m especially interested in vegetarian recipes that are low-to-moderate carb and also filling/satisfying.

posted by Serene Empress Dork to Food & Drink (15 answers total)

Anything with tofu or seitan should meet your criteria.
posted by ToddBurson at 6:08 AM on March 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

I make mushroom lasagna using roasted mushrooms and replacing the pasta with daikon radish that I've sliced on my mandolin. You have to roast the mushrooms and either salt and dry or slightly dehydrate the daikon first or you end up with a very watery dish. I use a cream sauce, but you could do the same with a tomato sauce if you prefer. It's a labour intensive meal, but making a small pan of lasagna and a big pan of lasagna are about the same amount of work, so I make lots and freeze leftovers. If you'd like the recipe I use, let me know and I'll MeMail it to you.
posted by jacquilynne at 6:47 AM on March 1, 2022 [4 favorites]

saag paneer (or palak paneer, both good with tofu, too). Chana masala or paneer korma would also fit your requirements.

shakshuka

ratatouille - I like it with butter beans or gigantes or chickpeas for more bulk

spinach artichoke dip with raw or steamed vegetables of choice -- carrot sticks, celery, sliced or cherry tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower. I use a recipe from Storm Gourmet that is absurdly simple (and makes a ton) and uses all canned foods: canned artichoke hearts, canned spinach, canned cream of mushroom soup. The book also has simple ideas for canned fishes and chicken.

For stocking vegetables problems, which I completely relate to, I have two suggestions: frozen vegetables and the Tamar Adler method. Frozen vegetables are already knocked down to a more manageable size and work pretty well just thrown in things. I make a lentil soup that calls for zucchini and in the middle of winter, I'm not buying fresh zucchini (the recipes uses ground meat; you can skip it and add some extra Italian seasoning; mushrooms and/or soy crumble stuff works, too). Plus, having the frozen means if I can't make the meal for a few days, it's not a problem. In An Everlasting Feast, Adler has you buy your week's vegetables, then describes how to cook them all into a manageable state in one go: roasting, boiling, sautéing, etc. Then you have cooked vegetables to make tasty things with. The cooking can be planned around the day you get your groceries so they don't have to take up the whole fridge.
posted by carrioncomfort at 6:54 AM on March 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

You would probably like shakshuka and variations on it. Basically it's a tomato-based sauce that you then poach eggs in. My current favourite variation is from Near and Far, where you fry up some cauliflower, toss in some canned diced tomatoes to form a sauce, and then poach the eggs in it.

Salads don't need to include greens! You can just have lots of the other stuff. Or try cucumber or cabbage as the salad base. There have been several AskMeFi's about interesting salads/salad-like combos, maybe look through some of those?
posted by phlox at 6:56 AM on March 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Oh hey, I'm a vegetarian who is trying to go low carb! :) My #1 thing is I try to eat real food, not fake foodlike substances. No protein powders or meal replacement bars for me. I can do that occasionally but it makes me gag if I have to eat a protein bar twice in a single week. I am very partial to traditional recipes and traditional ingredients in foods, which means I never try to make low carb "bread" which tastes all eggy and powdery, for instance.

And I also vary my protein sources as much as possible. I don't want to eat tofu every single day, IDK, it just feels weird? So my list of "base protein" to anchor meals goes like so:

1. Eggs (omelettes, egg curry, crustless quiches, deviled eggs, etc.)

2. Greek yogurt (mainly breakfast: a bowl of plain unsweetened greek yogurt with berries and chia seeds is an every-other-day breakfast for me; I also use greek yogurt mixed in with chopped tomatoes, cucumber & herbs as a regular dip/dressing for anything else I'm eating. Very occasionally I use greek yogurt as a base for curries, but this is rare.)

3. Paneer - an Indian cottage cheese easily available in south asian grocery stores (marinate and grill for use in lettuce wraps, add to any stir fry veggie dish, also used in lots of curries including my favorite spinach & yogurt curry - palak paneer)

4. Tofu (stir fries, marinated and grilled in lettuce wraps with other veggies, coconut-based curries)

5. Beans and lentils! Chickpeas, red kidney beans, pinto beans, yellow lentils, green lentils, mung beans, you name it. Indian cuisine is excellent at finding uses for lentils and beans, and, like, hummus is a snack staple for me, as is roasted chickpeas, etc.

6. Red lentil short pasta. I don't really like chickpea pasta or yellow lentil pasta, and I can't stand any "alternative" pastas when it comes as spaghetti or other long shapes... but red lentil pasta is FABULOUS as penne or shells or spirals. I like it a lot better than normal pasta even. Add a ton of spinach, tomatoes, garlic, white sauce, and top with gruyere & parmesan... YUM.

7. Cheese. I don't do this very often because cheese is so greasy and makes me gag if used in larger quantities. But sometimes I'll do a vegetarian charcuterie board instead of a proper dinner, or I might snack on parmesan crisps, or I'll do a vegetable casserole where the main protein content is from cheese: one time very memorably I made a fabulous spinach & cauliflower au gratin, reminds me I need to make that again.

For you, since you eat fish and seafood to some extent, you have even more options!

Along with the main anchoring protein of a meal, I generally need something to act as a carb-replacement. My go to replacements are lettuce wraps for breads, and whole mung beans cooked to a mushy consistency as a rice replacement. This mung bean hack works reallllly well, better than I ever expected. I can't stand cauliflower rice because it lacks substance and chew. Just looking like rice doesn't cut it! It has to have a wonderful mouth feel as well, and whole mung beans are amazing. I'm really proud of discovering this!

The rest of the meal is easily filled in with fruits and vegetables.
posted by MiraK at 7:05 AM on March 1, 2022 [7 favorites]

Dal Makhani is so good and so simple. Made with urad dal (little black legumes). It tastes very much like butter chicken.
posted by kitcat at 7:29 AM on March 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

For the veggies space problem, you want to minimize the time they’re in the fridge in their raw state. This also helps me prevent finding mouldy or wilted and unappetizing veggies taking up space and feeling guilty for not having used them. You can minimize raw fridge time by buying vegetables when you know you can cook them soon, and minimize shopping frequency by batch cooking. I sometimes roast several of the following in the oven, same temperature, usually on separate trays, some I take out before others, all tossed with olive oil and salt:
- halved brussel sprouts
- cubed tofu, patted dry first to remove moisture, with a bit of corn starch or arrowroot powder
- cauliflower florets and cubed stems, with garlic powder, onion powder, paprika
- broccoli florets and cubed stems
- kale leaves with stems removed

I have been annoyed by the size reduction after roasting, but thanks to your question, I’ll view it as a feature to minimize needed fridge space!

(Haven’t read Tamar Adler’s method; it may boil down (ha!) to the same.)
posted by meijusa at 7:33 AM on March 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Stir-fry is my default. The trick it's sadly taken me years to learn is to cook every vegetable at very high heat for less time than seems reasonable, so they're still crisp. 5 minutes for carrots (radish), 3 minutes for broccoli (gai lan, yao choi, various kinds of cabbage, mushrooms, etc), 1 minute for snap peas (sprouts). My default sauce is mostly half and half dark and light soy sauce, with a tiny bit of rice vinegar, a few drops of fish sauce, possibly some mirin which may not be suitable for you, lots of seared garlic, occasionally oyster sauce. If you feel the need to partner it with something else, lentils are worth a try. The combination is weird, but I personally like it.

Some of the Asian soy/veggie pastas might also be worth a look. I've never tried them with spaghetti sauce, but it seems plausible.
posted by eotvos at 7:44 AM on March 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Have you tried quinoa? If you like it, it can do a lot for you, since it is protein rich, easy to cook, and easy to combine in all sorts of recipes, for instance replacing rice or other grains. At the bottom of the linked page some other "pseudo-grains" are mentioned, among them buckwheat which is used in soba noodles and buckwheat crêpes.
BBC Good Food has tons of recipes with quinoa, and most of them look really good. I can get pouches of ready-made quinoa, and they are good for a quick lunch thing.
Also, carrioncomfort is so right about the frozen vegs, though some are better than others. Spinach and peas are often better frozen than fresh. Spinach because we rarely see the full grown mature leaves in the supermarket, and the little "baby" spinach leaves have no or little taste. So frozen spinach is better and easier to use. Peas because they are best when they are very fresh, as in picked the same day. That too is hard to get, unless you buy them from a roadside stand, whereas fine peas or petits pois are frozen the day they are picked. Broccoli can be fine frozen as well.
I don't do this as much today, when my daughter is a great help in the kitchen, but when she and her sister were small, a bag of frozen "wok-mix", cooked with a pre-made curry paste and a small can of coconut milk was a lovely easy dinner. Remember lime or lemon for seasoning. If you like them, you can throw in a handful of frozen shrimp, too, at the very last minute before serving.
For "cream of" soups, you can use squash instead of potato as a partial thickener. Since you are not vegan, you can still add a little cream.
To get back to peas: they are really good for you, and tasty, try something like this: Quinoa salad with sweet spring peas, creamy feta and red onion, or eat a serving of buttered, warm peas with this cauliflower salad recipe: separate a head of cauliflower into little florets. Save the stalk for making a creamed soup. Finely chop a small onion or large shallot, and mix it with half a cup of mayo and half a cup of greek yogurt. Season the dressing to taste with mustard, lemon juice, salt and white pepper. Let it rest for 15 minutes, then mix in the cauliflower florets. Let rest again for 30 minutes. Decorate with little halved cherry tomatoes. I have never met anyone who didn't like this salad.
You can also make a salad with peas and tuna, and very thin slices of celery. You can dress it with either a mayo-based dressing or a oil and lemon juice style salad.
Caponata is a dish where you can make a good portion and keep it for days in the fridge. The linked article has several variations, so you can see how you can adapt it to your taste and dietary needs.
posted by mumimor at 8:14 AM on March 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

I do a lot of meal prep, generally on the lower carb side, and I really have no time for shrinky vegetables. We eat a LOT of broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, zucchini, mushrooms (tip: slice or quarter and gently boil them in tasty broth/water for 10 minutes, they barely shrink and retain a firm but non-gristly bite in soups, stews, curries etc), cabbage both cooked and raw, and then a bit of sweet potato, frozen spinach (so it's pre-shrunk), and occasionally eggplant though it is a shrinker.

Mostly we roast these in the air fryer, either fully roasted to browned or I kind of par-roast them and finish in a curry or stew. Cauliflower and zucchini halfmoons or chunks, together or separate, are my go-to substitutes for tomato-type pasta sauces, but actually broccoli is also great with tomato sauce.

Feel free to make your salads with cabbage, since you like it! For one thing, it keeps forever even already-cut, and I just buy a big head and shred it and keep it in a Produce Saver. I serve stuff just over a handful of it like edible garnish, dice it to go into things, make a salad, make a slaw, and once a month or so I make curtido.

For protein without suspicious bits, identify which of your local stores carry the lowest-carb meat substitute crumbles and patties. I keep my preferred soy burgers (Aldi, but most other brands are okay), crumbles (I like every brand I've tried), and meatless meatballs (Aldi had the best and most economical, but they disappear for months at a time) on hand for quick meals - fake chicken is harder because it's pretty much always breaded but we still treat ourselves to Lightlife's tenders occasionally because they're SO good. Look for the patties that are extremely processed, so there's not beany "texture" bits in it.

See also sausages, especially chicken sausages as they tend to be made from paste. I keep a range of nice sausages in the fridge and freezer for quick meals, and as long as you aren't buying one that boasts chunks of anything you should be able to eat them without anxiety. You can also dissect one first to affirm in advance that there's nothing in there that's going to be distressing. Frozen cooked meatballs, ones with a modest carb count from the least amount of fillers, are another option - again they tend to be made from paste so the only texture is a slightly rougher outside from cooking, but I can confirm from my most common use that if you microwave them covered or cook them in a soup/stew/sauce/curry they are basically homogenous in texture outside and in.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:13 AM on March 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

The chicken sausages I get are notorious for surprise bones. I’m guessing this varies by brand. What about ground meat? If you cook it on the stove, you’ll be able to see that there are no surprises.

No protein, but you could try lower-carb root vegetables like parsnip, turnip, or rutabaga.
posted by Comet Bug at 9:52 AM on March 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

This may be too much prep, but we've started using Lacinato kale for our salads and it is super filling. You need to rinse and de-stem it, but I do that as soon as we get home and it keeps through the week in our produce keeper, so after the initial prep it's like a bagged salad. You may also want to "massage" it with a bit of oil and salt right before dressing it to make the leaves more tender.

We've also started tossing edamame in our salads. We buy bags of the frozen shelled kind from the grocery store. Sometimes I'll saute some garlic in oil and toss in a bag of edamame, but plain is tasty too.

Right now my favorite salad is kale (shredded cabbage would work too) +ginger vinegarette (I make mine with whatever citrus I have on hand + soy sauce and sesame oil, but a store bought low sugar one would work too)+ diced cucumber + diced bell peppers + edamame + protein of choice. Canned salmon would work, but I've also used tofu, tempeh or shrimp. I'll buy frozen cooked shrimp when it's on sale, so it's an easy thing to thaw and add (if you eat shrimp).

Kelp noodles are a decent low carb option. I like it better as a sub for rice noodles or in soups, but they'll also convey tomato sauce ok.

I'll also use roasted or steamed broccoli instead of zoodles/pasta. If I'm making a baked "pasta" dish then I'll undercook the broccoli before mixing in my tomato sauce of choice and topping with cheese. Then toss into the oven until bubbly. Sometimes I'll even add a handful of pasta if I'm not doing super low carb. I've also added beyond Italian sausage and it worked out well, but that may be too high carb?
posted by ghost phoneme at 10:50 AM on March 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

Canned vegetables. They come in small sizes, relatively cheap compared to fresh ones, and doesn't wilt or shrink or whatever when cooked... as they're already cooked!

As for bits of bone and whatnot... I find that the cheaper brands seem to have more of that problem, instead of the more expensive brands.

Though I do wonder... If you cook like ribs and such and you can remove the meat off the bones, and the meat's shredded, do you still have problems with that?

I know you can get deboned chicken or you can get chicken thighs and debone it yourself quite easily. You may be able to find shredded chicken that has no bones either.
posted by kschang at 10:52 AM on March 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

How could I forget this, I had it yesterday: Italian-Style Eggplant Parmesan (Melanzane alla Parmigiana) Recipe
No carbs, peak deliciousness. (The Italians don't bread the eggplant). It is good to eat hot and at room temperature, and it keeps well.
posted by mumimor at 11:00 AM on March 1, 2022 [5 favorites]

I just recently started grinding meat at home because I have that same issue with finding bits in it. Makes me sick. I’ve had acceptable experiences in home meat grinding using a little 3 cup chopper/food processor.

The texture isn’t exactly the same as if you used a traditional meat grinder, but it does seem to be ground meat, and it pleases me to know the meat is verified gristle- and bone-free.
posted by bananana at 6:26 PM on March 3, 2022 [1 favorite]