Contrary to popular belief eating a low-carb diet doesn’t have to be bland and boring. You don’t need hours of prep time or specialty foods at gourmet prices. Eating a low-carb diet is easy. And to show you how easy I remade a few of my favorite recipes to create low-carb Italian dishes that you will love.
What is a Low Carb Diet?
A low-carb diet is a diet that looks to cut out carbohydrates like bread, tortillas, rice, potatoes, and pasta. People following a low-carb diet often look for ways to remake their favorite foods without heavy carbs. For example, enjoying a tasty burger, but instead of a bun, you wrap that burger in lettuce. Or a yummy spicy chicken burrito, but instead of a tortilla, you make it a burrito bowl.
With a little creativity and a little know-how in the kitchen, you can make any meal a low-carb meal.
Benefits of a Low-Carb Diet
So why do people choose to eat a low-carb diet? Well, it is usually about losing weight and lowering blood sugar. Carbs are meant to power the body, but they turn to fat if we overeat and don’t burn them. The American diet is carb-heavy, and most of us, even those that go to the gym regularly, aren’t able to burn off all the excess carbs.
There are reasons to eat a low-carb diet besides just losing weight. Here are a few other benefits of a low-carb diet.
- Fewer carbs and more protein will keep you full longer and reduce appetite.
- Reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
- Control blood sugar and insulin levels.
- Lower triglycerides and lipid profiles.
- Reduce skin flare-ups like acne and rosacea.
- Increase your endurance.
These are great reasons to try a low-carb diet. The best way to get started on a low-carb diet is to choose a few recipes that you like and look for ways to make them into healthier low-carb versions.
Remaking Classic Italian Dishes
Italian food is my favorite food. It’s delicious and is the ultimate comfort food. I have three low-carb Italian dishes that I remade into healthy low-carb versions of their traditional form. The first two are vegetarian, and the last one is a bit meatier.
1. Low-Carb Italian Dish: Cauliflower Gnocchi
Gnocchi is a pasta traditionally made from potatoes. It comes from Northern Italy, where potatoes are a staple, especially in the cold winter months. This version replaces heavy starch potatoes for cauliflower. These cauliflower gnocchi are pillowy and delicious. You won’t miss the potatoes, trust me.
Gnocchi
5 cups fresh or frozen cauliflower
⅔ c. of flour
1 tsp sea salt
Boil the cauliflower for 5-8 minutes. Drain and mix with the flour and salt in a food processor or blender. Knead into a dough, then separate into four parts. On a floured surface roll it out into long ropes and cut into gnocchi pieces, making them around an inch in size. Heat up a saute pan with olive oil and fry the gnocchi pieces until golden. Add your favorite sauce. You can use a simple red sauce or a pesto. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Or if vegan with nutritional yeast flakes.
This is a simple low-carb dish. If you are pinched for time, you can buy frozen cauliflower gnocchi at the most supermarkets.
2. Low-Carb Italian Dish: Grilled Eggplant Parmesan with Zoodles
Eggplant is one of those vegetables that not many home chefs use. It’s a little intimidating and can sometimes taste bitter. The trick to taking the bitterness away is to cut the eggplant horizontally into round steaks. Lay them out on a cookie sheet, sprinkle sea salt on both sides, and let them sweat for 20 minutes. Then, rinse the eggplant pieces, and they are ready to go.
Traditionally, eggplant parmesan is breaded, but we will skip the breading and just grill the eggplant to make this low-carb Italian dish.
Eggplant Parmesan
1 large eggplant or two smaller ones
1 egg
12 oz. tub of Ricotta
½ c Parmesan
2 c. mozzarella
⅓ c. parsley
1 jar of your favorite red sauce
After rinsing the salt from the eggplant, pat them dry and place them on a cookie sheet with a bit of olive oil. Bake them in the oven for 10 minutes then flip them for another 10 minutes on 450 F. While they are baking, mix the ricotta, egg, and parsley in a bowl. Then in a 9×12 baking dish. Layer the eggplant pieces, the ricotta, mozzarella, and red sauce. Repeat the layers two more times. Bake covered at 400 F for 35 minutes. Then remove foil and bake for another ten minutes.
Serve this on a plate of zoodles (zucchini noodles.) If you have a spiralizer, you can make your own or purchase some zoodles from the freezer section of your supermarket.
This deliciously cheesy eggplant parmesan is low on carbs but high on taste.
3. Low-Carb Italian Dish: Spaghetti Bolognese
To make this classic Italian dish, we need to replace the spaghetti with zoodles. The bolognese sauce is a meaty red sauce that often serves double duty in Italy. It works with spaghetti, rigatoni, and even lasagna.
Bolognese sauce
1pound ground turkey
3/4 c. of chopped celery
½ a white onion
¾ c. of chopped carrots
1 16 oz. can crushed tomatoes
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried basil
Sea salt to taste
To make the sauce, start by browning the onions, carrots, and celery in olive oil. Remove the veggies and brown the turkey in olive oil. Then add back the veggie mix with the addition of a can of crushed tomatoes. Simmer for twenty minutes, stirring occasionally. While it’s simmering, add a teaspoon of oregano and basil with a pinch of salt.
Serve over a bed of zoodles.
There you have it, three classic Italian dishes remade for the low-carb dieter. If you are new to the low-carb journey, it is easier than you think. You may need to get a little creative, but there are many ways to make low-carb delicious.
What’s your favorite low-carb dish?
Keri Anne Johnson
Keri has been teaching English and ESL for the past twenty years. She loves learning about new places and perspectives. She is an ex-expat and a mother to a teenager and toddler. She is slowly readjusting to life in the Pacific Northwest after twenty years in Mexico.
