300 15-Minute Low-Carb Recipes (50 page)

Crunchy cheesy bits.
If you're used to putting shredded cheddar or the like on your salads, try this: Spray a microwaveable plate with nonstick cooking spray and throw a good handful of cheese—cheddar, Monterey Jack, Parmesan, or any natural, unprocessed hard cheese—on it. Use maybe 1/3 to 1/2 cup (38 to 58 g). Microwave on High for 1 minute. (The time may vary a bit, depending on your microwave.) It will melt into a disc that will be crispy as it cools. Crumble it over your salad for crunchy, crouton-like bits that have all the full flavor of cheese! This also makes a great snack.

Another thing to consider on busy nights is foregoing salad in favor of cut-up vegetables with dip. One real benefit of this is that—according to my sister Kim, The World's Best Second Grade Teacher—children will eat virtually anything if you give them Ranch dressing to dip it in. Put out a plate of celery sticks, pepper strips, cut-up broccoli and cauliflower, and some baby carrots (which you'll go easy on, right?), along with a bowl of Ranch dressing while you're getting the rest of the meal on the table. You know—do this while the family is starved and looking for something to eat right now. You may be surprised how many vegetables you can get into them this way (especially if you hide the chips) and with almost no work.

Salad bars aren't as common in grocery stores as they were 10 to 12 years back, which is a darn shame—but you can still find grocery stores that have these exceedingly useful features. If you're a reluctant cook, it is worth your while to seek out a local grocery store that does have a salad bar.

Why? Well, obviously it will let you make salads easily. But more than that, it's a great source of prepared ingredients. Do you use chopped onions a lot? Buy a container of prechopped onions from the salad bar, enough for 3 or 4 days, and stash 'em in the fridge. Do you need sliced peppers for a stir-fry? Hit the salad bar! Heck, I remember being at the salad bar at Sunset Foods in Highland Park, Illinois, on the day before Thanksgiving many years ago, and watching all the local women buying the onions and celery and such for their turkey stuffing. I was dumbstruck with admiration for their cleverness.

So check out the local salad bar and see what pre-prepped ingredients it offers you!

When you're in a hurry and in the mood for a simple, plain cooked vegetable, you have a couple of choices. Fresh vegetables, although wonderful, will generally be the most work, although you can find some of them (most notably broccoli and cauliflower) cut up and ready to cook in your grocery store's produce section. But if you're trying to do minimal cooking, you probably won't want to take the time to, say, top and tail a whole pound (455 g) of green beans or trim the stems and leaves of several dozen Brussels sprouts.

This leaves you with canned or frozen. Personally, I much prefer frozen vegetables. I consider them superior to canned both in taste and texture, not to mention nutrition. (The canned-good manufacturers insist that canned vegetables are just as good, nutritionally, as frozen or fresh. This is apparently so—provided you consume all the water in the can, and who ever does that, except when making soup?) I'd go with the frozen vegetables, of which your grocery store freezer section has an ever-expanding variety.

The most important thing to know about frozen vegetables is the fastest, easiest way to cook them to get superior results, both for eating quality and
nutrition. That method is microwaving. You've probably noticed the repeated use of the microwave in the recipes here. This is because the microwave is one of the very best ways to cook vegetables, yielding results that are better than boiling or steaming vegetables on the stove, and—because very little water is used—retaining more vitamins, too. Almost all frozen vegetables now come with microwave instructions on the package. Use them!

Another important tip: No matter what method you use to cook your vegetables, when they are done to your taste, uncover them. Do not keep the lid on them while you finish preparing the rest of the meal. I know you're just trying to keep them warm, but what you're actually doing is letting them continue cooking. That's how they end up gray and mushy and icky, and your kids grow up hating vegetables. Better to remove the lid to let out the steam, and then—if the rest of dinner is going to take another 5 to 10 minutes—put the lid back on, leaving a 1/2-inch (1.3 cm) crack. This will hold in heat without overcooking your veggies. If the meal is seriously delayed, you can always reheat your vegetables for a minute or two, which is a lot better than cooking them to a pulp.

You'll serve your veggies with butter and a little salt and pepper, no doubt, but don't forget that there are easy things to do with vegetables, too. A little lemon juice is wonderful on many vegetables, especially broccoli and green beans. Garlic is good, too, and you can buy garlic-infused olive oil to drizzle over vegetables to great effect. (You can also make your own by putting a few cloves of crushed garlic or a few teaspoons of jarred, minced garlic in a squeeze bottle and filling it with olive oil.) Lemon-pepper is good on many veggies, and how about Cajun seasoning? It doesn't take a lot of work to do something a little different and good; it just takes remembering to do it.

Of course, to keep within our 15-minute time limit, we won't be making slow-simmered soups. But I think you'll be surprised at just how good a soup you can make in so little time. One word of advice: Do buy the best-quality canned or boxed broth you can get. It makes a big difference.

Cream of Salmon Soup

One person who sampled this soup pronounced it the best soup they'd ever had. And it's so easy!

1 1/2 tablespoons (21 g) butter

1/4 cup (40 g) finely minced onion

1/4 cup (25 g) finely minced celery

2 cups (475 ml) heavy cream

1 can (14 ounces, or 410 g) salmon, drained

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

In a heavy saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat and add the onion and celery. Sauté the vegetables for a few minutes until the onion is turning translucent.

Meanwhile, pour the cream into a glass 2-cup (475 ml) measure or any other microwavable container big enough for it and from which you can pour. Place it in the microwave and heat it at 50 percent power for 3 to 4 minutes. (This just cuts the time needed to heat the cream through—you can skip this step and simply heat the soup on the stove top a little longer, if you like.)

Pour the cream into the saucepan and add the salmon and thyme. Break up the salmon as you stir the soup—I found my whisk to be ideal for breaking the salmon into fine pieces. Heat until simmering and serve.

Yield:
4 servings, each with 5 grams of carbohydrates, a trace of fiber, and 23 grams of protein.

Mexican Cabbage Soup

This is great on a nasty, cold, rainy night! This is not hot, despite the chilies in the canned tomatoes—feel free to pass the hot sauce at the table if you want to spice it up. With all these vegetables, this is a complete meal, but if the family insists, you could add some corn tortillas for them.

1 quart (950 ml) beef broth

1 can (14 ounces, or 410 g) diced tomatoes with green chilies

1 pound (455 g) ground round or other very lean ground beef

1 tablespoon (15 ml) oil

1/2 cup (80 g) chopped onion

1 teaspoon minced garlic or 2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon ground cumin

2 teaspoons oregano

2 cups (180 g) bagged coleslaw mix

In a large, microwaveable container combine the beef broth and canned tomatoes. Microwave on High for 8 to 10 minutes.

While the broth and tomatoes are heating through, start browning and crumbling the beef in the oil. Use a large soup kettle or heavy-bottomed saucepan. When the beef's about half browned, add the onion and garlic. Continue cooking until the beef is entirely browned. Add the cumin and oregano, stir them in, and then add the heated beef stock and tomatoes. Stir in the coleslaw mix and bring the whole thing to a simmer. Cook for another minute or so and serve.

Yield:
4 servings, each with 9 grams of carbohydrates and 2 grams of fiber, for a total of 7 grams of usable carbs and 24 grams of protein.

Oyster Stew

This is a classic recipe that simply started out fast, easy, and low-carb. My husband prefers me to cut really big oysters into quarters. Since you can do this as the cream and half-and-half are heating, it doesn't add any time to the recipe—indeed, since the pieces of oyster cook faster than whole ones, it cuts the cooking time a bit.

5 tablespoons (70 g) butter

1 cup (235 ml) half-and-half

1 1/2 cups (355 ml) heavy cream

1/2 cup (120 ml) water

1 1/2 pints (680 g) oysters

Salt and pepper

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

Put the butter, half-and-half, heavy cream, and water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. As it comes to a simmer, add the oysters and stir. Simmer until the oysters are cooked, about 5 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste, add the cayenne, and then serve.

Yield:
4 servings, each with 8 grams of carbohydrates, no fiber, and 11 grams of protein. Despite the modest protein count, this is filling because it is so rich.

Stir-Fry Soup