1001 Low-Carb Recipes: Hundreds of Delicious Recipes From Dinner to Dessert That Let You Live Your Low-Carb Lifestyle and Never Look Back (69 page)

Olive oil

Mix together everything but the catfish and the olive oil in a bowl big enough to hold the catfish nuggets. When the marinade ingredients are blended, add the catfish nuggets and stir them up so they’re coated.

Let them marinate for at least 30 minutes— during which time you can be soaking 3 or 4 bamboo skewers in water so they won’t catch fire on the grill.

Okay, start your fire; you’ll want it at medium or a little lower. Skewer the catfish nuggets, doubling the long ones if necessary to avoid floppy, dangling bits. Pack the nuggets fairly closely to avoid drying. Brush the kebabs with a little olive oil and make sure the grill is well oiled, too. Now grill the kebabs for about 4 to 5 minutes per side or until flaky and then serve.

Yield:
3 to 4 kebabs

Assuming 3 servings, each will have 2 grams of carbohydrate (actually less, because you won’t eat every drop of the marinade), a trace of fiber, and 25 grams of protein.

Hey, we all grew up on tuna casserole. Here’s one with no noodles for the low-carb grownups we’ve become.

1 can (6 ounces, or 170 g) albacore tuna, drained and mashed

1 teaspoon oil

1 cup (115 g) shredded Cheddar cheese

3 slices (1½ ounces, or 42 g) processed American cheese

3 eggs

3 tablespoons (20 g) ground flaxseed meal or low-carb bake mix

1 teaspoon garlic powder

½ to 1 teaspoon salt

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C, or gas mark 6) and grease a 9-inch (23-cm) pie plate with the oil.

In a large bowl, combine the tuna, cheeses, eggs, flaxseed meal, garlic, and salt. Mix well.

Pour the tuna mixture into the prepared pie plate, pat down firmly, and bake for approximately 30 minutes or until browned and bubbly.

Yield:
3 servings

Each with 5 grams of carbohydrates and 3 grams of fiber, for a total of 2 grams of usable carbs and 38 grams of protein.

The quantity of relish is small here to keep the carb count low—just enough to point up the flavor of the fish.

2 pounds (910 g) tuna steaks

1 ripe peach

1 tablespoon (15 ml) lime juice

¼ teaspoon orange extract

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon (1.5 g) Splenda

½ tablespoon soy sauce

Olive oil

First peel the peach, cut it in half, remove the stone, and dice it small. Stir in the lime juice, orange extract, garlic, Splenda, and soy sauce. Set this aside—indeed, you can do this a few hours in advance if you like and refrigerate the relish until dinnertime. If you do this, get the relish out of the fridge before you get ready to grill the fish—it will have more flavor at room temperature.

When it’s time to cook, either light a charcoal fire and let the coals burn down till they’re ash-covered or set your gas grill to medium. Cut the tuna steaks into serving portions and rub each one lightly with olive oil. Make sure your grill is well oiled and grill the tuna no more than 3 to 5 minutes per side—it should still be red in the middle. (I learned this the hard way. Cook a tuna steak until it’s pink all the way through, and it will be dry and tough.) Divide the relish between the portions and serve.

Yield:
4 servings

Each serving will have 4 grams of carbohydrate and 1 gram of fiber, for a usable carb count of 3 grams; and 53 grams protein.

This makes a quick and different supper out of simple canned tuna. You can make this into a few big tuna burgers, if you prefer, to cut a few minutes off the cooking time, but we really like these as little fritters.

12 ounces (340 g) canned water-pack tuna, drained

1 stalk celery

6 scallions

½ green pepper

2 tablespoons (7.6 g) chopped parsley

1 egg

1 tablespoon (15 ml) spicy brown mustard or Dijon mustard

cup (30 g) rice protein powder

4 to 5 tablespoons (56 to 70 g) butter, divided

Plunk the celery, scallions, pepper, parsley, egg, and mustard in a food processor with the S-blade in place and pulse until the vegetables are chopped to a medium-fine consistency. Add the tuna and rice protein powder and pulse to mix.

Spray a large, heavy skillet with nonstick cooking spray and place over medium-high heat. Melt 2 to 3 tablespoons (28 to 42 g) of butter in it and drop in the tuna mixture by the tablespoonful. Fry until brown, turn, and brown other side. It takes two batches to cook all of this mixture in my skillet; add the rest of the butter when you make the second batch. Serve with Easy Remoulade Sauce (page 476), which takes all of 2 or 3 minutes to make.

Yield:
4 or 5 servings

Assuming 5 servings, and not including the Easy Remoulade Sauce, each will have 5 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of fiber, for a total of 4 grams of usable carbs and 32 grams of protein.

This is convenient because as the name strongly suggests it uses seafood you’ve got sitting in your pantry. If you’ve got seafood sitting in your freezer, you can use it instead—just let it cook an extra 30 minutes or so to make sure it’s thawed and cooked through.

1 can (6 ounces, or 170 g) tuna, drained

1 can (6 ounces, or 170 g) crab, drained

1 can (6 ounces, or 170 g) shrimp, drained

¼ cup (45 g) roasted red peppers jarred in oil, diced small (about 1 pepper)

cup (20.3 g) chopped parsley

1 cup (70 g) chopped mushrooms

¾ cup (180 ml) chicken broth

¾ cup (180 ml) dry white wine

2 tablespoons (20 g) minced onion

2 teaspoons dried dill weed

½ teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon hot pepper sauce

1 cup (240 ml) Carb Countdown dairy beverage

¼ cup (60 ml) heavy cream

Guar or xanthan

Combine the red peppers, parsley, mushrooms, broth, wine, onion, dill, paprika, and hot pepper sauce in a slow cooker. Cover the slow cooker, set it to low, and let it cook for 3 to 4 hours.

When the time’s up, stir in the Carb Countdown and cream and thicken the sauce to your liking with guar or xanthan. Now stir in the tuna, crab, and shrimp and let it cook for another 15 to 20 minutes.

Now you have a choice: You can eat this as a chowder or you can serve it over Cauliflower Rice (page 212) or low-carbohydrate pasta—or even over spaghetti squash. It’s up to you.

Yield:
4 servings

Each with 33 g protein, 4 g carbohydrate, 1 g dietary fiber, 3 g usable carbs.

1 pound (455 g) raw shrimp in the shell

½ cup (115 g) butter

¼ cup (60 ml) olive oil

3 cloves garlic, crushed

¼ cup (60 ml) dry white wine

¼ cup (15.2 g) minced fresh parsley

Melt the butter with the olive oil in a heavy skillet over medium-low heat. Add the garlic and stir it around.

Add the shrimp to the skillet. If they’re room temperature, they’ll take 2 to 3 minutes per side; frozen shrimp will take 4 to 5 minutes per side. Be careful not to overcook them.

Add the wine and simmer for another 1 to 2 minutes. Serve garnished with the parsley and put out plenty of napkins!

Yield:
3 servings

Each with 3 grams of carbohydrates, a trace of fiber, and 31 grams of protein.

Feel free to increase this recipe to however much your skillet can hold. This makes a great fast-and-easy company dinner; just add a salad and some crusty bread for the carb-eaters and call it a party.

If you can’t find andouille, just substitute the lowest-carb smoked sausage you can find.

2 cups (260 g) shelled, deveined, medium-size shrimp (41/50 count)

12 ounces (340 g) andouille sausage, sliced ½ inch thick

¼ cup (60 ml) olive oil 1
cups (215 g) chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 large green pepper, diced

1 can (14½ ounces, or 410 g) diced tomatoes, including liquid

1 cup (240 ml) chicken broth

1 teaspoon dried thyme

6 cups (900 g) Cauliflower Rice (about one good-size cauliflower; page 212)

Salt and pepper

Hot pepper sauce

In a Dutch oven, start browning the andouille in the olive oil. When it’s lightly golden on both sides, add the onion, garlic, and green pepper. Sauté the vegetables until the onion starts getting translucent.

Add the tomatoes, chicken broth, and thyme and bring to a simmer. Let it simmer for 20 minutes or so, uncovered, to blend the flavors.

Add the “rice” and simmer for another 15 minutes or until the cauliflower is starting to get tender.