300 15-Minute Low-Carb Recipes: Hundreds of Delicious... (PDF) (2024)

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30015-MinuteLow-CarbRecipesDELICIOUS MEALS THAT MAKE IT EASY TO LIVE YOURLOW-CARB LIFESTYLE AND NEVER LOOK BACKDana CarpenderAuthor of 1001 LOW-CARB RECIPES

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In memory of the late Dr. Robert C. Atkins, 1930–2003.Because of his fearless tenacity, millions of us live better lives today.“If I can see far, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.”—Sir Isaac Newton

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contentsIntroductionCHAPTER 1 15-Minute EggsCHAPTER 2 15-Minute Tortilla TricksCHAPTER 3 15-Minute BurgersCHAPTER 4 15-Minute PoultryCHAPTER 5 15-Minute Fish and SeafoodCHAPTER 6 15-Minute Steaks and ChopsCHAPTER 7 15-Minute Main Dish SaladsCHAPTER 8 15-Minute Skillet SuppersCHAPTER 9 15-Minute Slow Cooker MealsCHAPTER 10 15-Minute Side DishesCHAPTER 11 15-Minute SoupsCHAPTER 12 15-Minute Condiments, Sauces, Dressings, and SeasoningsCHAPTER 13 15-Minute BeveragesCHAPTER 14 15-Minute SnacksCHAPTER 15 15-Minute DessertsCHAPTER 16 15-Minute SmoothiesCHAPTER 17 15-Minute “Cereal”About the AuthorIndex

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IntroductionWelcome to the world of 15-Minute Low Carb!I’ve known for a long time that, where cooking is concerned, I have a big edgeover most of my readers. After all, I work at home. I can put something in theoven an hour or two before dinner and be here to tend to it if needed. I cansimmer a pot of soup all afternoon. I’m here.Furthermore, at this writing I have no children—only an exceedingly good-tempered and undemanding husband. In short, I never dash in the door at 6:15p.m., after a long day at the office (and add a few errands on the way home intothe bargain), to find people clamoring for me to get dinner on the table as soonas possible, and 5 minutes ago would be nice.I also never slog home after a 12-hour day, so tired and hungry that the veryidea of having to spend an hour getting dinner on the table is enough to send methrough the local fast-food drive-in, even without a family to feed.These are precisely the situations that this book is meant to help you copewith—all while keeping you on your low-carbohydrate diet and making yourfamily happy.Just What Do I Mean By 15 Minutes?I mean exactly what I say—that from start to finish, these recipes take 15minutes or less. I know this for certain because I set the stove timer when Istarted making them!Now, it is entirely possible to make these dishes take a little bit longer. Forinstance, thawing times for frozen foods are not included, so if you haven’tthought to take something out of the freezer in the morning, you’ll just have totack on however long it takes your microwave to thaw your food. (This would bea good time to sit down and have a glass of dry wine or a light beer, and maybeput out a tray of veggies and ranch dressing for the troops.) For that matter, morethan once I’ve run two or three minutes over my time limit because I couldn’tfind the darned Worcestershire sauce or whatever. I take no responsibility forkitchen disorganization, and trust me, I know all about kitchen disorganization.However, once you have your ingredients located, the 15-minute count holds forthese recipes, prep time included.

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This, of course, rules out a fair number of dishes. You’ll find no roasts in thisbook, no meat loaves—indeed, nothing that is cooked in an oven, because evenif a dish requires less than 15 minutes in your oven, the preheating time is anobstacle. While there are wonderful soups, there are none of the traditional long-simmered variety. Indeed, you’ll find that a few methods of cooking are usedover and over, simply because they are speedy—sautéing, stir-frying, grilling,broiling, and microwaving.You’ll find that these recipes generally call for foods, especially meat andpoultry, to be thinly cut, sliced, shredded, ground, or cubed. There’s no mysterywhy: The smaller the pieces, the faster the cooking time! Thinly cut pork chops—about 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick—will cook within our time limit. Inch-thick (2.5cm) pork chops, however, will not, no matter how juicy and delicious they maybe. So if you’re in doubt as you cut, chop, or slice your foods up, think “smalleris better.”You’ll also find that these recipes call for you to multitask. Quite often I’ll tellyou to start one component of the dish cooking, then use that cooking time to cutup or measure and mix other ingredients. It’s not hard, really—it’s just makingthe best use of your time. Always give the directions a quick read before you goprepping everything in the ingredients list; you might find that there’s a perfecttime for chopping up veggies and the like without adding a second to youroverall preparation and cooking time.Low-Carb Menu Planning and One-Dish MealsIn the vast majority of the dishes in this book, the biggest source ofcarbohydrates is vegetables. I trust we can agree that this is the healthiestpossible source of carbohydrates, no? Vegetables, however, are more than that—they are the most flavorful source of carbohydrates in our diet, and by cookingour very low-carb proteins with a variety of vegetables, we can create a widelyvaried, delicious, exciting low-carb cuisine. However, this will sometimes meanthat your carbohydrate allowance for a given meal is completely used up by thevegetables in your soup or skillet supper. This, then, becomes a classic one-dishmeal, and a beautiful thing it is.What about My Carb-Eating Family?No reason not to serve a carbohydrate food on the side, if your family will bebereft without it. However, I must say that many of the quickest, easiestcarbohydrate side dishes—instant mashed potatoes, quick-cooking rice, whack-em-on-the-counter biscuits and rolls—are just as processed and nutrient-

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depleted as they can be and are also among the carbohydrates with the highest,most devastating blood sugar impact. Better to serve whole-wheat pita bread;corn or whole-wheat tortillas; one of the less damaging pastas (Jerusalemartichoke pasta, widely available at health food stores, has a relatively modestblood sugar impact and tastes like “regular” pasta); or potatoes you’ve cut intowedges, sprinkled with olive oil, and roasted in your toaster oven for about 15minutes at 400°F (200°C, gas mark 6). If your family loves rice, well, brownrice is hugely superior to white rice, let alone Minute Rice, but it’s nobody’sidea of a 15-minute food. However, it reheats beautifully in the microwave. Youcould make a good-size pot of it over the weekend, stash it in the refrigerator,and use it later in the week. When you need it, just spoon out however muchyour family will need for the meal at hand, put it in a covered microwaveablecontainer with a tablespoon (15 ml) or so of water, and nuke it on 70 percentpower for a few minutes.Anyway, the point is that if your family simply insists on a concentratedcarbohydrate, serve it on the side. And because you love them, make it one ofthe less processed, less damaging carbohydrates.What’s a “Serving”?I’ve gotten a couple of queries from folks who bought 500 Low-Carb Recipesand want to know how big a serving size is, so I thought I’d better address thematter.To be quite honest, folks, there’s no great technical determination going onhere. For the most part, a “serving” is based on what I think would make areasonable portion, depending on the carbohydrate count, how rich the dish is,and for main dishes, the protein count. You just divide the dish up into howevermany portions the recipe says, and you can figure the carb counts on the recipesare accurate. In some cases I’ve given you a range—“3 or 4 servings,” orwhatever. In those cases, I’ve told you how many servings the carb counts arebased on, and you can do a little quick mental estimating if, say, you’re serving 4people when I’ve given the count for 3.Of course, this “serving” thing is flukey. People are different sizes and havedifferent appetites. For all I know, you have three children under 5 who mightreasonably split one adult-size portion. On the other hand, you might have one17-year-old boy who’s shot up from 5’5” to 6’3” in the past year, and what lookslike 4 servings to me will be a quick snack for him. You’ll just have to eyeballwhat fraction of the whole dish you’re eating and go from there.I’ve had a few people tell me they’d rather have specific serving sizes—like

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“1 cup” or the like. I see a few problems with this. First of all, it sure won’t workwith things like steak or chops—I’d have to use weights, instead, and then all myreaders would have to run out and buy scales. Secondly, my recipes generallycall for things like, “1/2 head cauliflower” or “2 stalks celery.” These things varyin size a bit, and as a result yield will fluctuate a bit, too. Also, if one of myrecipes calls for “1 1/2 pounds (680 g) boneless, skinless chicken breasts” andyour package is labeled “1.65 pounds (750 g),” I don’t expect you to whack offthe difference to get the portions exact.In short, I hate to have to weigh and measure everything, and I’m betting thata majority of my readers feel the same way, even if some do not. So I apologizeto those who like exact measures, but this is how it’s going to be for now, at anyrate.What’s With the Info about Stuff other than Carbs and Protein?You’ll notice that in places in this book I’ve included notes regarding othernutritional components of some of the recipes. Most notably, I’ve included thecalorie count if it seems quite low and the calcium or potassium count if itseems quite high. The reason for this is simple: Many people are trying to watchtheir calories as well as their carbs, and calling their attention to those dishes inthis book that are particularly low in calories seemed helpful. Likewise, my e-mail tells me that the two nutrients low-carbers are most concerned they’re notgetting are calcium and potassium. So letting you know when a recipe is a goodsource of these nutrients also seemed helpful.All of the recipes do, of course, include the carbohydrate, fiber, usable carbs,and protein counts.On the Importance of Reading LabelsDo yourself a favor and get in the habit of reading the label on every foodproduct, and I do mean every food product, that has one. I have learned fromlong, hard, repetitive experience that food processors can, will, and do put sugar,corn syrup, corn starch, and other nutritionally empty, carb-filled garbage intoevery conceivable food product. You will shave untold thousands of grams ofcarbohydrates off your intake over the course of a year by simply looking for theproduct that has no added junk.There are also a good many classes of food products out there to which sugaris virtually always added—the cured meats immediately come to mind. There isalmost always sugar in sausage, ham, bacon, hot dogs, liverwurst, and the like.You will look in vain for sugarless varieties of these products. However, you will

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find that there is quite a range of carb counts because some manufacturers addmore sugar than others. I have seen ham that has 1 gram of carbohydrates perserving, and I have seen ham that has 6 grams of carbohydrates per serving—that’s a 600 percent difference! Likewise, I’ve seen hot dogs that have 1 gram ofcarbohydrates apiece, and I’ve seen hot dogs that have 5 grams of carbohydratesapiece.If you’re in a position where you can’t read the labels—for instance, at thedeli counter at the grocery store—then ask questions. The nice deli folks will beglad to read the labels on the ham and salami for you, and they can tell you whatgoes into the various items they make themselves. You’ll want to ask at the meatcounter, too, if you’re buying something they’ve mixed up themselves—Italiansausage, marinated meats, or whatever. I have found that if I state simply that Ihave a medical condition that requires that I be very careful about my diet—andI don’t show up at the busiest hour of the week!—folks are generally very niceabout this sort of thing.In short, become a food sleuth. After all, you’re paying your hard-earnedmoney for this stuff, and it is quite literally going to become a part of you. Pay atleast as much attention to your food shopping as you would if you were buying acar or a computer!Appliances for 15-Minute MealsThere are a few kitchen appliances that you’ll use over and over to make therecipes in this book. They’re all quite common, and I feel safe in assuming thatthe majority of you have most, if not all, of these appliances.A microwave oven. Surely everybody is clear by now on how quickly theseboth thaw and cook all sorts of things. We’ll use your microwave over and overagain to cook one part of a dish while another part is on the stove—to heat abroth, steam a vegetable, or cook the bacon that we’re going to use as a topping.It is assumed in these recipes that you have a microwave oven with aturntable; most of them have been made this way for quite a while now. If yourmicrowave doesn’t have a turntable, you’ll have to interrupt whatever elseyou’re doing and turn your food a few times during its microwaving time toavoid uneven cooking.Also, be aware that microwaves vary in power, and my suggestions for powersettings and times are therefore approximate. You’ll learn pretty quickly whetheryour microwave is about the same power as mine or stronger or weaker.One quick note about thawing things in the microwave: If you’re cominghome and pulling something right out of the freezer, you’ll probably use the

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microwave to thaw it, and that’s fine. However, if you can think of what you’dlike to eat ahead of time, you can thaw in the fridge or even on the counter.(Wrap things in several layers of old newspaper if you’re going to be gone formany hours and the day is warm. This will help keep things from going beyondthawing to spoiling.)A good compromise is to thaw things most of the way in the microwave andthen let them finish at room temperature. You retain more juices this way, butsometimes there’s just no time for this.A blender. You’ll use this, or a stick blender, once in a while to pureesomething. You could probably use a food processor, instead. For that matter,while I use a standard-issue blender with a jar, there’s no reason not to use one ofthose hand-held blenders.A food processor. Chopping, grinding, and shredding ingredients by handjust doesn’t fit into our time frame in many cases. If you don’t yet own a foodprocessor, a simple one that has an S-blade, plus a single disc that slices on oneside and shreds on the other, shouldn’t set you back more than $50 to $75.An electric tabletop grill. Made popular by former Heavyweight ChampionGeorge Foreman, these appliances are everywhere. Mr. Foreman’s version isquite good, but you can buy a cheaper version for all of 20 bucks. The burgerchapter of this book assumes you have one of these appliances, but you can cookyour burgers in a skillet instead or in some cases under the broiler. However,since these methods don’t cook from both sides at once, you’ll spend a few moreminutes cooking this way than you would with the grill.A slow cooker. What, I hear you cry, is a slow cooker doing in a book of fastrecipes? Answering reader demand, that’s what! I’ve gotten bunches of requestsfor slow cooker recipes from readers. Obviously, none of the slow cooker recipeswill be done in 15 minutes. Instead, they require 15 minutes or less prep time,and that’s including both the time to assemble the ingredients in the pot and thetime to finish the dish and get it on the table when you get home.If you don’t have a slow cooker, consider picking one up. They’re notexpensive, and I see perfectly good ones all the time at thrift shops and yardsales for next to nothing. Keep your eyes open.TechniquesThere are just a few techniques that will help you get these recipes done in 15minutes or less.The Tilted Lid. Many of these recipes are cooked in a skillet. Covering theskillet will speed up cooking, but it also holds in moisture, which is not always