Ketogenic Recipes

I know there are some others here that follow a ketogenic diet. I thought it would be nice to have a thread to exchange recipes. I am always looking for new things to try, and want to share some of the things I've found that make it easier to follow a ketogenic way of eating.


The first thing I'd like to share is a terrific maple syrup substitute recipe. It's easy enough to make keto waffles, French toast, pancakes, etc. from alternate flours like coconut or almond flour, but I've always found commercial low carb syrups lacking. I made this recipe this weekend and it was wonderful, and very easy to make as well.

Keto Low Carb Sugar Free Maple Syrup

https://www.wholesomeyum.com/recipes...e-maple-syrup/

1 cup Water
1 cup Powdered erythritol
1 1/2 tbsp Maple extract
1/2 tsp Xanthan gum

Instructions

1. Whisk together the water, erythritol, and maple extract in a small saucepan.
2. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil. Simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the erythritol dissolves.
3. Pour the liquid into a blender. Sprinkle half of the xanthan gum on top (don't dump, just sprinkle lightly and evenly). Puree immediately, until no lumps remain. Repeat with the remaining xantham gum.
4. Wait a few minutes to allow the syrup to thicken further. If it's still thinner than you'd like, add a little more xanthan gum, just a tiny bit at a time (1/16 teaspoon at a time, sprinkled lightly and pureed again).

Recipe Notes

• Recipe has 0 calories and 0 grams carbohydrates, excluding erythritol, which has 0 net carbs.
• Syrup may crystallize over time if you store it, and is smoothest when warm. If crystallization occurs, heat it again (either on the stove or in the microwave), then either shake or whisk vigorously until smooth. You can reduce crystallization by using powdered (rather than granulated) sweetener.

Serving size: 2 tbsp


Personal note: I did use erythritol (in the form of Swerve brand sweetener), but I think it would work fine with Stevia, Xylitol, or whatever you like, as long as it's powdered and not granulated. If all you have is granulated, you could powder it by running it through a spice grinder for a bit.



I used the syrup on this low carb French toast, using coconut flour "Paleo Bread" from Julian Bakery. They also have an almond flour version but I tend to prefer their coconut flour bread.




Delicious!

Another thing you can do with this syrup is make a sweet treat. Many years ago, I worked in a yogurt shop, and one of the toppings was something we called "hot wet nuts" - just some Walnuts in heated maple syrup. I did that using this syrup and it tasted exactly like the "hot wet nuts" of my youth! You could use walnurts or any other nuts you prefer. The walnuts version tastes great to me, though.

You don't have to deprive yourself of favorite foods to go ketogenic. It doesn't have to be all bacon, eggs, and cheese all the time. All it takes is a little effort to seek out keto versions of your favorites and investment of a little time to learn how to make them.

Another breakfast recipe I tried recently was hash browns using jicama instead of potatoes. It wasn't quite the unqualified success that the maple syrup was, but it was decent, and I have ideas for how to improve it next time. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't quite as close to real hash browns as I would have liked.

Jicama Hash Browns

Ingredients

• 2 cups jicama peeled and grated
• 1/2 onion chopped
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 dash salt to taste
• 1 dash pepper freshly ground

Instructions

1. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat.
2. Add the onion and cook until translucent.
3. Add the jicama, salt and pepper and cook until brown.
4. Top with your favorite egg dish and breakfast is served!

This makes two servings. Here they are shown combined with a mozzarella, mushroom, spinach, and black olive omelette, sliced avocados, low carb cinnamon toast, and some blueberries.





A couple of things to improve on here: First, it tasted too onion-y. I would reduce or maybe even eliminate the onion altogether. Half an onion seems like way too much in any case. Also, it was still a bit on the crunchy side, even though I cooked it for quite some time. I think this can be solved by boiling or partially boiling the jicama before starting to fry it. One other thing I'd like to address is to make it brown a bit better. Not really sure how to accomplish that. I don't think it's just cooking it longer, because I did give it plenty of time in the skillet for the version shown above.

Something I really missed when going on a keto diet was pizza - but there is a solution! Fathead pizza!


https://www.ditchthecarbs.com/fat-head-pizza/


Fathead Pizza

Ingredients

• 170 g pre shredded/grated cheese mozzarella is the best or Edam/mild cheese
• 85 g almond meal/flour
• 2 tbsp cream cheese
• 1 egg
• pinch salt to taste
• ½ tsp dried rosemary/ garlic or other flavourings optional
• your choice of toppings such as pepperoni peppers, cherry tomatoes, olives, ground/mince beef, mushrooms, herbs etc

Instructions

1. Mix the shredded/grated cheese and almond flour/meal in a microwaveable bowl. Add the cream cheese. Microwave on HIGH for 1 minute.
2. Stir then microwave on HIGH for another 30 seconds.
3. Add the egg, salt, rosemary and any other flavourings, mix gently.
4. Place in between 2 pieces of baking parchment/paper and roll into a circular pizza shape (see photos above). Remove the top baking paper/parchment. If the mixture hardens and becomes difficult to work with, pop it back in the microwave for 10-20 seconds to soften again but not too long or you will cook the egg.
5. Make fork holes all over the pizza base to ensure it cooks evenly.
6. Slide the baking paper/parchment with the pizza base, on a baking tray (cookie tray) or pizza stone, and bake at 220C/425F for 12-15 minutes, or until brown.
7. To make the base really crispy and sturdy, flip the pizza over (onto baking paper/parchment) once the top has browned.
8. Once cooked, remove from the oven and add all the toppings you like. Make sure any meat is already cooked as this time it goes back into the oven just to heat up the toppings and melt the cheese. Bake again at 220C/425F for 5 minutes.

Recipe Notes

Fat Head pastry can also be made by replacing the almond meal/flour with 1/4 cup (4 tbsp) coconut flour.

Personal note: The almond flour version seems a bit heavy to me. I tried the coconut flour option and liked it better. Here's one I made, topped with spinach, sauteed mushrooms, and spicy Cajun mango sausage. It was really good!

Another low carb pizza crust option is making the crust from chicken...


https://www.ketoconnect.net/no-carb-pizza/


Ingredients

• 10 oz Canned Chicken
• 1 oz grated parmesan cheese
• 1 large Egg

Instructions

1. Thoroughly drain the canned chicken, getting as much moisture out as possible.
2. Spread chicken on a baking sheet lined with a silicon mat. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes to dry out the chicken.
3. Once chicken is done baking for 10 minutes remove and place in a mixing bowl. Increase heat of oven to 500 degrees.
4. Add cheese and egg to the bowl with chicken and mix.
5. Pour mixture onto baking sheet lined with a silicon mat and spread thin. Placing parchment paper on top and using a rolling pin makes this easier.
6. Optional: With a spatula press the edges of the crust in to for a ridge for the crust. This is beneficial is you're using topping that may slide off(i.e. eggs).
7. Bake the crust for 8-10 minutes at 500 degrees.
8. Remove crust from oven. Add desired toppings and bake for another 6-10 minutes at 500 degrees. Toppings will dictate final cook time.

I've tried this one, once, and it turned out fine. I liked it, just not as well as the Fathead pizza, but preferences will vary. This makes more of a thin, crispy type of crust, where the Fathead is more chewy. It is also lower in carbs than the Fathead pizza crust, so it has that going for it.

Wow Spanky! Didn't know you could throw down in the kitchen. All this looks really good!

Wow Spanky! Didn't know you could throw down in the kitchen. All this looks really good! Originally Posted by Parttimehobbyist

Thanks! I really couldn’t, until I realized that if I want to do this keto thing for real. I have to stretch a little and put some effort into making it varied and interesting. Keto can easily be extremely boring if you just limit yourself to the basics. This kind of stuff helps me make it a reasonable, sustainable lifestyle, I think, and not feel deprived when doing it.

Thanks! I really couldn’t, until I realized that if I want to do this keto thing for real. I have to stretch a little and put some effort into making it varied and interesting. Keto can easily be extremely boring if you just limit yourself to the basics. This kind of stuff helps me make it a reasonable, sustainable lifestyle, I think, and not feel deprived when doing it. Originally Posted by SpankyJ

Hell’s yeah! That’s awesome. I’m gonna check some of these recipes out cause I’m getting bored of cooking the same stuff every day. I need to spice things up more!

I admire your determination! I love carbs way too much to ever be able to stick with keto.

You can also make a cheese crust pizza. Just melt and brown off cheddar cheese in a large skillet. Remove and let cool till it crisps up then build your favorite pizza on top.

You can also make a cheese crust pizza. Just melt and brown off cheddar cheese in a large skillet. Remove and let cool till it crisps up then build your favorite pizza on top. Originally Posted by Nukeman69

Good idea, I'll try that too.

This is not so much a recipe as an observation. I didn't think I liked Brussels sprouts because I had only had them steamed, but I decided to give them a chance by roasting them in the oven, and they were good! I think I will try this with some other vegetables I don't think I like. Eating vegetables is very important on a ketogenic diet and I think it's an area that's easily neglected - I know I did for a long time, except those few vegetables that I already liked.

The Brussels sprouts were super easy to cook - coat them in some olive oil, throw on some pink Himalayan salt, roast in a 400 degree preheated oven on the center rack for 20 minutes or so. The outermost leaves got crispy so I just pulled those off and the rest of the sprouts inside were tender and tasty.

Here are the ones I made as a side for "Surf & Turf": a grass-fed ribeye with some pan-seared sea scallops. I'll definitely be adding roasted Brussels sprouts into my vegetable rotation. They'd probably also be good sautéed in some butter or bacon grease.

This is not so much a recipe as an observation. I didn't think I liked Brussels sprouts because I had only had them steamed, but I decided to give them a chance by roasting them in the oven, and they were good! Originally Posted by SpankyJ

There was a German restaurant here (that has since closed--for some reason German restaurants don't seem to do well here) where I ordered a sausage plate that had roasted Brussels sprouts as the side dish. I grit my teeth and figured I probably wouldn't finish that side, and was pleasantly surprised as you were.

Another vegetable I never cared for when young was asparagus (again, I think because my mom tended to use canned asparagus and basically heated it in the packing liquid). My Great And Good Friend got onto a roasted fresh asparagus kick, and I tried that out and loved it. Really simple too... IIRC (use Google for a more exact recipe; I'm lazy right now) snap the woody ends off as many asparagus stalks as you need, lay them in a baking pan (I tend to use a broiling pan), drizzle with olive oil and season with salt (I use sea salt in a grinder, but kosher salt works well too) and freshly ground pepper, then roast at 350° for about 10-15 minutes or so (IIRC; Google a recipe for the exact time).

If any of y'all have access to a sous vide rig, I've had really good luck with cooking some vegetables sous vide. Radishes (1 lb radishes, about 3 tbsp. butter, 1 tsp. sea salt and 1/2 tsp. or so freshly ground black pepper; seal in bag and cook sous vide at 180° for 45 minutes) and corn on the cob (I don't know if that's strictly keto friendly, sorry if it isn't; seal as many shucked ears as will fit in the bag with 2 tbsp. unsalted butter per ear and salt to taste, then cook at 183° sous vide for 30 minutes) are my favorites.

Cheers,

bcg

Another vegetable I never cared for when young was asparagus (again, I think because my mom tended to use canned asparagus and basically heated it in the packing liquid). My Great And Good Friend got onto a roasted fresh asparagus kick, and I tried that out and loved it. Really simple too... IIRC (use Google for a more exact recipe; I'm lazy right now) snap the woody ends off as many asparagus stalks as you need, lay them in a baking pan (I tend to use a broiling pan), drizzle with olive oil and season with salt (I use sea salt in a grinder, but kosher salt works well too) and freshly ground pepper, then roast at 350° for about 10-15 minutes or so (IIRC; Google a recipe for the exact time).
Originally Posted by bluffcityguy

Yes, asparagus is definitely another vegetable where it's all in the cooking method. I was the same as you, I hated it as a kid because all we ever had was the mushy canned stuff. Some nice oven-roasted asparagus is heavenly though. I also like it grilled. Super easy - just toss in a bit of olive oil and salt (again, I like the pink Himalayan but anything will do), throw it on the grill for maybe 5 minutes then turn the stalks over and grill another 4-5. I have an electric indoor grill I use for this so it's easy and convenient. I never really keep track of the time, they just have a certain look when they're done, or I'll just sample a stalk when I think they are getting close. Super delicious, and very keto friendly.

If any of y'all have access to a sous vide rig, I've had really good luck with cooking some vegetables sous vide. Radishes (1 lb radishes, about 3 tbsp. butter, 1 tsp. sea salt and 1/2 tsp. or so freshly ground black pepper; seal in bag and cook sous vide at 180° for 45 minutes) and corn on the cob (I don't know if that's strictly keto friendly, sorry if it isn't; seal as many shucked ears as will fit in the bag with 2 tbsp. unsalted butter per ear and salt to taste, then cook at 183° sous vide for 30 minutes) are my favorites. Originally Posted by bluffcityguy

Hmm, I have always detested radishes...wonder if I might like them done like this.

Corn on the cob isn't necessarily keto unfriendly. I wouldn't eat it often as it's going to be around 17 net carbs for an ear of corn and many keto folk try to keep below 20g per day or so (though some people can go 20-50g after they get keto adapted). It might knock some out of ketosis if it's not the only carb they eat that day or close to it, but I don't see anything wrong with it as an occasional indulgence.

Make bacon wrapped asparagus bundles and grill.

Make bacon wrapped asparagus bundles and grill. Originally Posted by Nukeman69

Sounds great!