What are some good non-starchy side dishes that aren't packed with carbohydrates?

Question

I love white rice, especially Minute Rice with some powdered chicken soup mix stirred in, and all kinds of potatoes and such, but my doctor has told me to cut way down on carbs.
What other side dishes might I try? I also like steamed vegetables, but what else is there?

Answer 1

Cooked vegetables is all I can think of. You could try to make some kind of seaoned vegetable side dish.

Answer 2

Green Bean casserole is low-carb - the only carbs of any value in it is the fried onions you use in the recipe to mix in and put over the top but the rest is pretty low-carb. I take the original green bean casserole recipe, add sauteed onions and garlic to it as well as slivered almonds and small cubes of ham. It makes a whole meal.

But some low-carb veggies are brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, pea pods, lettuce, salad fixins like celery, tomatoes, radishes. The higher carb veggies are carrots, lima beans, peas, and corn.

Rice is very high carb - even brown rice. Same with spuds. But Mock Potato casserole - made with cauliflower instead of potatoes, mixed with cream cheese, chives, cooked crumbled bacon, a little butter, and shredded cheddar cheese is very good - hubby loves that for his Christmas dinner. Since the cauliflower doesn't absorb moisture like potatoes do, you just substitute cream cheese for the sour cream in the regular recipe.

You can make Hollandaise sauce for your veggies or cheese sauce - just no flour if you really want to go low-carb. I found you can use psyllium powder as a thickener in things like souffles but use only a very very tiny amount - 1/8 tsp will set up quite a bit of liquid. It is along the line of cornstarch as far as the end product - shiny like Chinese food.

On a low-carb diet, you can eat meats, veggies, and naturally salads. If you cut the carbs way down in what you normally eat, then I'm sure you can feel safe having a meal that contains more carbs than you like (within reason) once in a great while. But, it's up to your doctor and whether you are diabetic or have other health concerns.

If you have an urge for something like chocolate cake, I found you can use coconut flour in place of regular flour and it won't mess with your blood sugar. If you surf the web and type in Coconut Flour Chocolate Cake it should come up with some recipes.

Answer 3

You can replace mashed potato with mashed butternut squash. Boil the butternut, then peel it and mash it. You don't need to add any butter or sugar. Serve sprinkled with cinnamon.

Try having veggie sticks and a healthy dip as a starter (cottage cheese, roasted vegetable or hummus are good). You can include a few breadsticks or crackers: it makes you feel like you're eating starch, but you're actually filling up on veggies.

Another option is to begin the meal with soup. This fills you up without lots of carbs, and you don't feel like something's missing if you don't have a starcy side dish.

Answer 4

My favourite is to get some field mushrooms and pull the stems out, make a garlic butter and put some in the middle (enough that when it melts it will fill the mushroom so it cooks well) and put some grated parmesan on top (not the canned powdered stuff) and stick them in the oven at 180 C for 20-30 minutes.

Another great one is fresh asparagus spears, snap off the woody ends, put them on a baking dish, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with some salt flakes and bake for about 20 minutes.

Or sauteed baby english spinach with garlic and slivered almonds, you can also add some cooked cubed pumpkin to it.

Answer 5

Starchy Side Dishes

Answer 6

Non Starchy Carbs

Answer 7

Mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli are all very low carb veggies. You can over-cook cauliflower and mash it for a mashed potato substitute.

Bert

Answer 8

Spaghetti squash!