A 'KETO' COOKING CHALLENGE

 

A ‘Keto’ Cooking Challenge

           Some readers may have noticed that in the last couple of months some of the recipes in this column have claimed to be ‘keto-friendly’. No, this cook has not gone on a diet, but has taken the challenge to help some friends during a time of incapacitating health problems to cook dinner once a week. In the past having cooked for friends and family requiring low salt, meat, fat or gluten free meals, a keto-diet did not seem an impossible challenge. After all, a keto diet is dairy, eggs, meat, fat, nuts, low carb vegetables and fruit, with low or no starch or sugar.

          Until it was time to cook the first dinner, a beef bourguignon/stew with no potatoes or flour. Carrots and parsnips with extra onions and mushrooms and a serious sauce reduction by a long simmer saved the day. Amazingly, with a lot of improvisation it is possible to come up with delicious meals without the forbidden ingredients. Unfortunately, broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower low in carbohydrates, a mainstay of keto-diets had to be avoided for digestive reasons. Improvisation has been the norm and had led to discoveries of almond flour for zucchini fritters, as well as delicata and spaghetti squash. Mostly it has been an education in the carb content of different varieties of food, such that dried legumes such as lentils, garbanzos and most beans except Adzuki, are not only high in protein, but also high in carbs.

                                     Adzuki bean chili

          Adzuki beans are small red beans and can be substituted for other beans in many bean dishes. Rinse and soak 2 cups of Adzuki beans in excess of cold water overnight. Drain and cook well covered with water, 1 bay leaf, 1 tsp. salt and ¼ tsp. ground cloves for 45 minutes more or less, to desired softness on low heat in a 3-4 qt. pot. Remove the bay leaf.

          Meantime brown 1 ¾  lb. ground beef in a pan, drain of fat and set aside. Use the same pan after pouring off the fat to sauté: 1 ½ cups chopped onion, 2 chopped stalks of celery, ½ chopped red or yellow pepper and 3 chopped garlic cloves for 5 minutes in 1 tblsp. olive oil. Stir in 1 tblsp. cumin, 1 tblsp. or to taste chili powder, 1 tsp turmeric and ¼ tsp. crushed pepper, cook for 5 minutes.  Add 1 cup crushed tomatoes, 6 oz. tomato paste, 2-3 tblsp. white wine vinegar and spoon in ½ cup of the bean cooking liquid and continue cooking for another 5 minutes. Add the vegetables and meat back to the beans and continue to simmer for 20 minutes. Adjust seasonings with salt, chili powder and beef broth if more liquid is needed. Serve hot with chopped red onion and shredded sharp cheddar.

                                          Spinach-ham-ricotta crust-less quiche

          Firm fried zucchini discs replace piecrust in this keto-friendly quiche.

Slice a medium zucchini in 1-inch-thick rounds and fry in 1 tblsp. olive oil and 1 tblsp. butter without turning until browned on one side, then brown the other side and arrange in the bottom of a 9 or 10 in. pie plate. Wash, slice 1 leek in half lengthwise removing all dirt and slice crosswise the white and firm green parts. Sauté in the same pan for 5 minutes and layer on top of the zucchini.

          Thaw and squeeze dry ½ pkg. frozen spinach or cook fresh and squeeze dry to make ~3/4 cups spinach. Slice 3 slices of deli-ham in julienne strips, cube 4 oz. Gruyere cheese and grate 1/3 cup fresh Parmesan cheese. Slice 5 sundried tomatoes in thin julienne strips. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

          Beat ¾ cup ricotta cheese with 4 eggs, 1/3 cup half and half, ½ tsp. garlic salt. ½ tsp. dry mustard, 1 tsp. onion powder and a pinch of nutmeg. Stir in the grated Parmesan.

          Layer on top of the leek ½ of the ham, spinach, ½ cheese, sundried tomato. Repeat ham, spinach, cheese. Thinly slice a Roma tomato and arrange the slices on top of the cheese and press down. Pour egg mix over all making sure all the vegetables are covered. Bake in the oven at 450 degrees for 15 minutes, turn down the oven to 350 degrees and continue to bake for 15-17 minutes. Remove from oven and cool at least 15 minutes before serving in wedges.

          There is always more one can learn about nutrition, creating delicious challenging meals.

    (I. Winicov Harrington lives in coastal Maine and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)