Tuesday 19 May 2015

"Minestrone" Soup


The sarcasm quotes in the title are because this is more of a minestrone inspired soup. It doesn't have the trademark pasta or beans, and I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it was pretty delicious, if I do say so myself.

I made mine in my pressure cooker. You can make it on the stove or in the slow cooker as well, although I find the pressure cooker is better at preserving the delicate taste of foods and needs less salt.

I made it with whatever vegetables I had on hand (I happen to have a lot of cabbage, for example), so that's what I list in the ingredients, but go mad with whatever you have or whatever you love. The carrot isn't as low carb as the rest of the veggies (Real Meal orange list) but so little of it spread across so much soup is still well below the carb limit.

I had this with a side of cloud bread (aka oopsies) but I am still trying to decide whether or not I liked them enough to post a recipe.

Low carb minestrone style soup

Makes 8-10 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 500g bacon, chopped (I used streaky bacon)
  • 1 large or 2 small baby marrows (chopped)
  • 2 large carrots (chopped)
  • 3 small leeks (sliced) - you could use celery
  • 1 green pepper (chopped)
  • 1/4 cabbage (shredded)
  • 1 large handful of green beans (chopped)
  • 1 tin chopped tomatoes
  • 1 - 2 cups chicken stock (I used 60ml concentrated chicken stock and enough boiling water to cover the veggies)
  • salt and pepper

Method

  1. Chop all your veggies. This is the labour intensive part of the recipe (or food processor FTW).
  2. Heat the oil and butter in the body of the pressure cooker or a heavy bottomed, large saucepan or pot
  3. Fry the onion and bacon until the onion is translucent and the bacon starts to brown
  4. Add the other ingredients
  5. Cook until all the veggies are soft (carrots are a good test) - in my electric pressure cooker, this took 40 minutes
  6. Taste for salt and pepper, and season if necessary

Nutritional values

(per serving, assuming 8 servings; calculated with My Fitness Pal)
Total Fat: 20g; Total Carbohydrates: 11g; Dietary Fiber 3g; Nett Carbs: 8g; Protein: 12g


Stuffed Cabbage Rolls


I have seen a few of these come across my Pinterest feed recently, and although I'm not the biggest cabbage fan, they looked quite cute, easy, and banting friendly (minus the rice).

I more or less went with this recipe from Low Carb Crock, only changing the fresh herbs for dried, the onion powder for what I had in the house, and I think their cooking time is a bit much.

I made mine in the slow cooker, as per the link, because that thing saves my life during the working week. I'm sure you can just as easily bake it in a low oven, and that there are many recipes out there that can guide you regarding times and temperatures.

As I said, I'm not a big cabbage fan, but I really enjoyed this. Hubby did too; however the kiddo steadfastly refused to eat the cabbage. Our rule is, you have to try at least one bite, but he was over tired tonight so I let it go this once. He loved the filling though.

Now the only thing I have left to do, is figure out what to do with all that left-over cabbage.

Low carb stuffed cabbage rolls

Ingredients

Wrappers
  • 1 large cabbage
Sauce
  • 1 tin chopped tomatoes
  • 2 tsp sweetener (e.g. xylitol)
  • 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tsp salt
Filling
  • 500g minced beef
  • 1 cup grated parmesan
  • 2 tsp minced garlic (about 2 cloves)
  • 1 tsp onion powder (I used Ina Paarman's Green Onion seasoning)
  • 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
  • 1/2 tsp white pepper

Method

  1. Steam or boil the cabbage for 5-10 minutes until the leaves are cooked enough to be soft and pliable but not mushy and grey
  2. Mix together all the sauce ingredients and spread enough over the bottom of the slow cooker pot to cover it in a thin layer
  3. Mix together all the filling ingredients until well combined (I prefer to do this with my hands)
  4. Carefully peel one leaf at a time off the cabbage, and roll a portion of the filling in it, tucking the ends in underneath to make a neat parcel. I got out about 8 parcels, which was perfect for the bottom of my slow cooker.
  5. Arrange the parcels in a single layer on top of the sauce in the slow cooker, then cover them with the remaining sauce
  6. Cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4-5


Sunday 17 May 2015

Banting Truffles ("Fat Bombs")



I've been trying to find a few nice recipes for something sweet and satisfying to have while banting. There are a lot of recipes out there for fat bombs, but I've got a few problems with them.
  • The name. Eugh.
  • They use so much coconut oil. That stuff is super expensive!
  • Some have other weird and wonderful ingredients I just don't have, and don't plan to buy just for one recipe.
I've tried out a few recipes. The chocolate ones have been too dark and bitter; the lemon ones don't taste of anything but butter (I guess that's why they use so much coconut oil). The choc fudge ones wouldn't set. I am still experimenting but here's the first batch I thought wasn't too bad. In fact, they were finally good enough to give as a gift to some fellow banters. If you are using Stevia or some sort of liquid sweetener, you can skip the melting phase. It's just to dissolve the xylitol granules I use so they aren't crunchy in the truffles.

To set your truffles, there are a number of options.
  • You can use small paper liners, like in the photo. This is the least effort, and prettiest, option. Put them in a mini cupcake pan or cake pop pan, or on a flat plate that you can transfer easily.
  • You can chill it until almost set and roll into balls, then roll in cocoa like normal truffles
  • Chill it in a buttered dish and cut into blocks
  • Use a cake pop tin, ice cube tray or mini cupcake pan. Remember to butter or spray it first - it might be a bit harder to get them out of these shapes as they don't set completely like chocolate.
May I suggest spooning the finished mixture into a piping bag or zip seal bag with a small corner cut off, and piping it into your container(s). It isn't runny enough to pour, and using a spoon will get messy. You can see the swirls in the picture where I piped mine into my papers; maybe next time I'll keep the tip still so they don't look so much like... well, you know.

I think you could reduce the cocoa a bit, they still taste quite dark; I want to keep trying to perfect the recipe. It's a tough life :)

Banting chocolate truffles

Ingredients

  • 125 g coconut oil and/or butter - I used 75g coconut oil and 50g butter
  • 25 g cocoa powder
  • 1 Tbsp sweetener (e.g. xylitol)
  • Half a tub (about 113g) cream cheese

Method

  1. Melt the xylitol in 50g of the oil by microwaving in short bursts, until dissolved (careful that you don't burn it though)
  2. Soften the rest of the oil if necessary, in the microwave, in VERY short bursts
  3. Mix together all the ingredients. Whisk well until it's all dissolved, slightly set and glossy
  4. Transfer into your container(s) of choice (see above), and allow to set in the fridge or freezer. Keep chilled at all times.


Friday 15 May 2015

Bobotie (In a Pumpkin)


For our first banting dinner, I was inspired by two things. The first was half a pumpkin that was sitting in my fridge, and the other was this video by Suzelle DIY on how to make bobotie in a pumpkin.


After googling a bit for a low carb bobotie recipe, I decided on this one that was shared by a listener on RSG. I changed it a little; some things I didn't have to hand, and some things because I'm pretty sure it's a typo - 500g of butter is a whole block :)

I had a little filling left over after stuffing the pumpkin, and baked it separately for lunch the next day. I was quite pleased with how it turned out, and it makes a great centre piece to present to guests. I made a little basmati rice for the kiddo who liked it as well (except for the onion, which I had to pick out by hand... you've got to learn to pick your battles - no pun intended - especially when he ate all his pumpkin).

Banting bobotie

Ingredients

  • 2 Tbsp oil, butter or coconut oil
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 500g minced beef
  • 2 tsp curry powder or garam massala
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1 apple, grated
  • 6 Tbsp (90ml) unsweetened desiccated coconut
  • 1 Tbsp sweetener (e.g. xylitol)
  • 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 sachet or Tbsp of concentrated beef stock (or salt to taste)
  • 4 eggs
  • ½ cup cream
  • 1 small or half a large pumpkin - optional (I used a boerpampoen, or white pumpkin, which isn't too watery)

Method

  1. Preheat your oven to 180o C
  2. Heat the oil over medium heat
  3. Sautee the onions, then add the mince and brown
  4. Add the spices and saute until they get fragrant
  5. Add the vinegar, apple, sweetener and coconut
  6. Cover and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes
  7. Place in either a greased oven dish, or the hollowed out pumpkin (remove the seeds, but not the flesh, unless there isn't enough space)
  8. Beat the eggs and cream together and pour over the filling
  9. Bake for 1.5 hours (or half an hour if using an oven dish). If using a pumpkin, test by checking if the pumpkin flesh is soft with a skewer or toothpick. If not, check if the egg custard topping is set.