I post lots of pictures on social media of my snacks, dinners and lunches, most of which contain some sort of carb replacement and I often get asked questions about it. I try to avoid white and processed carbs but I’m not totally carb-free. I have porridge every day and I love slow release carbs like quinoa. I even had pizza for dinner last night but these are the reasons why I avoid carbs as much as possible.
I’d much rather have a gorgeous slice of wood fired oven bread than an average slice of supermarket bread which is why I never eat supermarket bread. I’ve been a carb-avoider for about 15 years so that I can occasionally indulge and eat really good carbs rather than average ones. Here’s my definitive list of the 5 best healthy carb replacements.
Cauliflower
You can make cauliflower fried rice, cauliflower pizza and cauliflower mashed potato. Cauliflower will also add a bit of bulk to vegetable bakes if you’re looking for something less starchy to replace potatoes.
I’ve had a lot of people ask me about protein bread since I started eating it about a year ago and I get asked the same question again and again.
Does it taste like regular bread?
No. There will never, ever be a healthy replacement for delicious, fluffy, fresh baked, zero nutritional value sour dough. It’s just not happening so don’t expect that of protein bread. It’s 100 calories for 2 very thin slices that are quite yummy when toasted, it’s a handy vehicle for eggs and avocado and it’s also quite pleasant when dunked in soup. It’s not going to taste like Sizzler’s cheese toast so just get your expectations in check before you start bulk ordering the stuff. I buy mine from here.
Zucchini Noodles
When I want a big bowl of spaghetti bolognaise, I make the meat sauce and serve it on lightly pan heated spiralized zucchini noodles. Again it doesn’t taste anything like pasta but it’s not too shabby an alternative if you don’t have the type of metabolism that can cope with massive amounts of refined carbohydrates every day. It’s better than nothing.
Lettuce
San chow bow is one of my favourite meals so I’ve taken to using lettuce as an accompaniment to almost all of my Asian meals that I make at home. Vegetable stir-fry is delicious when wrapped in a crisp lettuce leaf rather than served on stodgy rice and it means you get a few extra greens in your meal too.
Eggs
If I’m a having meal that’s low on carbs like a salad or some streamed vegetables, I’ll often add a poached or boiled egg. It totally fills me up adds that carb ‘bulk’ to my meal without adding the carb calories.
Are you a carb avoider? Or do you not really care much?
P.S I’ve written something else very brainy and wordy over at Origin this week. It’s about France and environmental law. It’ll be nice to show the grandparents I can write about things that aren’t my own boobs.
P.P.S Do you live in Adelaide?