Lately I have been trying to eat less carbohydrates not only because I do feel better and less exhausted but also because I have noticed that my older boys eat a lot of carbohydrates at lunchtime. They eat at school and whenever I ask them what they had for dinner, they usually respond they had rice or pasta or potatoes or even all of them on the same plate! Sometimes they don’t have the meat or fish which is being served because they say they don’t like it! So dinner time is a chance to get all the vegetables and proteins they didn’t get at lunch!
Needless to say I am having to be creative and to find ways of replacing the popular dishes I usually prepare without carbohydrates. One thing I have been successful at is to prepare pasta alla carbonara without the pasta. Once I tried with shredded white cabbage and it worked well!
https://goo.gl/photos/q9g8JUQFRciQEL9Z8
https://goo.gl/photos/5Robe8uPSJoMQdf26
Then my sister-in-law visited us from China and she brought back a spiralizer! I spiralized zucchinis in no time and we had zucchinis alla carbonara which was super good!
https://goo.gl/photos/8qze4yMWKecpk2NFA
Although it can be repelling at first to have to peel, cut, shred and/ or spiralize the vegetables, it doesn’t take that long and it is then easier and faster to cook them than pasta because there is no need to boil them. You just add them to the pan and they cook in five minutes!
My version for the carbonara sauce is the following:
- Cook the lardons in a pan until crispy and brown. You don’t need to add extra oil because the lardons release enough fats already.
- Add some cream (single or double), around 200 g (depending on how creamy you want your sauce to be!). Personally, I use crème fraîche bien sûr! Let it cook for one minute or two.
- Meanwhile in a bowl, mix 2 eggs with 100 g cream, a squeeze of lemon juice, salt and pepper.
- Once you have added the pasta or the vegetables to the lardons and cream mixture, add the eggs, cream and lemon mixture et voila!
https://goo.gl/photos/8szKk4UpHKgKEjCx8
By the way, this site is great to get inspired with vegetables: http://inspiralized.com/recipes/
So far I have a small spiralizer which can only spiralize zucchinis but I am now thinking of buying the real thing!
What about you? What is your favourite low carb dish?