300 15-Minute Low-Carb Recipes (56 page)

Yield:
Figure this for 16 servings, each with 17 calories, trace fat (20.9% calories from fat), 1 gram protein, 3 grams carbohydrate, 1 gram dietary fiber, and 2 grams usable carb.

Did you know that ketchup has more sugar than ice cream does? You can buy no-sugar ketchup, but it's pricey—and it's not worth it when making your own is such a snap. And once you've got ketchup in the fridge, you can make steak sauce and cocktail sauce. Clearly it is in your best interests to put together a batch of ketchup today!

Commercial barbecue sauce is, I'm sorry to say, even more syrupy than ketchup; so much so that it's very hard to fit most commercial barbecue sauces into your diet. You'll find a recipe for barbecue sauce below, but it's a bit more trouble than the ketchup. There are a few low- or no-sugar barbecue sauces on the market. My favorite is Stubb's, out of Austin, Texas, which has about half the sugar of most commercial barbecue sauces yet tastes at least as good, if not better. It's worth checking your grocery store condiment aisle for it. Walden's is a brand marketed directly to the low-carb market; low-carb e-tailers (online retailers) carry this. I like Stubb's better, but Walden's is lower carb. Atkins also makes a barbecue sauce, but I haven't tried it yet.

Dana's No-Sugar Ketchup

This great-tasting ketchup has all the flavor of your favorite brand, without the high carb count. The guar or xanthan isn't essential, but it makes your ketchup a little thicker and helps keep the water from separating out if you don't use it up quickly.

1 can (6 ounces, or 170 g) can tomato paste

2/3 cup (160 ml) cider vinegar

1/3 cup (80 ml) water

1/3 cup (8 g) Splenda

2 tablespoons (20 g) finely minced onion

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon salt or Vege-Sal

1/8 teaspoon ground allspice

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon guar or xanthan

Assemble everything in a blender and run the blender—you'll have to scrape down the sides because this mixture is thick—until the bits of onion disappear. Store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.

Yield:
Makes 1 1/2 cups (360 g) of ketchup, or twenty-four 1-tablespoon (15 g) servings. Each serving will have 2.25 grams of carbohydrates, a trace of fiber, and a trace of protein.

Low-Carb Steak Sauce

If you have
Dana's No-Sugar Ketchup
on hand, this is a cinch to make. It's nice to have on hand if you're having a simple broiled steak, and it's indispensable with steak and eggs.

1/4 cup (60 g) Dana's No-Sugar Ketchup
see previous page

1 tablespoon (15 ml) Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Simply combine the ingredients well. Store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.

Yield:
Makes five 1 tablespoon (15 g) servings, each with 2.25 grams of carbohydrates, a trace of fiber, and a trace of protein.

Cocktail Sauce

If you like shrimp, frozen, cooked, peeled shrimp are a terrific convenience food—but it's nice to have something to dip them in. Commercial cocktail sauce, like so many other condiments, is full of sugar; you'll save quite a few carbs by making your own.

1/4 cup (60 g)
Dana's No-Sugar Ketchup
see previous page

1 teaspoon prepared horseradish

Just stir together and dip!

Yield:
The whole batch has about 9 grams of carbohydrates, a trace of fiber, and no protein.

Reduced-Carb Spicy Barbecue Sauce

Ketchup is bad enough, but barbecue sauce has even more sugar! Make your own. This is, I confess, the only recipe in the book that takes more than 15 minutes—the idea is to have it hanging around in the refrigerator, ready to call on for making Slow Cooker “Barbecued” Ribs (see
page 226
) and the like. However, if you can find Walden's, Stubb's, or any other reasonably low-carb commercial barbecue sauce, I'll understand if you ignore this recipe.

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 small onion, finely minced

4 tablespoons (55 g) butter or oil

4 tablespoons (6 g) Splenda

2 teaspoons blackstrap molasses

1 teaspoon salt or Vege-Sal

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 1/2 cups (355 ml) water

1/4 cup (60 ml) cider vinegar

1 tablespoon (15 ml) Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon (15 g) prepared horseradish

1 tablespoon (15 ml) liquid smoke
^*

1 can (6 ounces, or 170g) tomato paste

^*
Most big grocery stores carry this. A company called Colgin makes it.

In a saucepan, cook the onion and garlic in the butter or oil for a few minutes. Stir in the Splenda, molasses, salt, dry mustard, paprika, chili powder, black pepper, water, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and horseradish. Let it simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Then whisk in the tomato paste and smoke flavoring, and let it simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes. Store in a jar in the refrigerator.

Yield:
This makes about 2 2/3 cups (625 g) of sauce, or about twenty-one 2-tablespoon (32 g) servings, each with 3 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of fiber, for a total of 2 grams of usable carbs, no fiber, and no protein.

Marinating things, simple though it may be, actually takes us well beyond our 15-minute time limit. So why include these two recipes from
500 Low-Carb Recipes
? Because both of them are good when used in our quick cooking, too. Brushing a little
Tequila Lime Marinade
over a chicken breast before sautéing it and then spooning a little more over it as it cooks adds a lot of flavor. You could also use the
Tequila Lime Marinade
to flavor sautéed shrimp. As for the
Teriyaki Marinade
, why not use it with some ribs, chicken, or pork loin in your slow cooker? You'll find a recipe in the slow cooker section where you do exactly that.

Tequila Lime Marinade

This is great for boneless, skinless chicken breasts, fish, and shrimp. If you don't have time to marinade, you could pour a little into a skillet while sautéing.

1/3 cup (80 ml) lime juice, bottled or fresh

1/3 cup (80 ml) water

3 tablespoon (45 ml) tequila

1 tablespoon (1.5 g) Splenda

1 tablespoon (15 ml) soy sauce

2 cloves garlic, crushed

Combine all of the ingredients and refrigerate until use.

Yield:
This makes roughly 3/4 cup (175 ml)—enough for a dozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts or a couple of pounds (900 g) of shrimp. The whole batch has 13 grams of carbohydrates and 1 gram of fiber, for a total of 12 grams of usable carbs, no fiber, and no protein. But since you drain most of the marinade off, you won't actually get more than a gram or two of carbs.

Teriyaki Sauce