How to Work More Low-Carb Vegetables Into Your Diet

Are you eating 12 to 15-net carbs in vegetables daily?
If not, here's a horde of recipes and vegetable ideas
to get your Atkins Diet back on track! 

If you listen to the media and other anti low-carb advocates, you're going to think that the Atkins Diet (or any ketogenic diet for that matter) is nothing but:

• greasy cheeseburgers
• T-bone steaks
• full-fat cheeses
• and piles of bacon

While the foundation of a ketogenic diet is an adequate amount of protein and plenty of healthy fats, the greatest volume of food you eat on Atkins is vegetables.

The Atkins Diet in its true form was designed to be a meat-and-vegetable diet. It was never intended to be a zero-carb diet for more than the first week.

While Atkins 72 starts you off at biologically zero carbs and Atkins 20 begins at 20 net carbs, neither Atkins plan advises you to stay at those very low-carb levels for more than a few weeks.

Eating protein and fat in the same proportions as found in nature and lots low-carb vegetables is what Dr. Atkins prescribed for almost all of his overweight patients.

While insulin resistant individuals might have trouble getting into ketosis from eating too many vegetables, and inflammatory bowel conditions restrict the amount of vegetables you can eat, for most dieters, low-carb vegetables are the mainstay of the Atkins Diet.

If you haven't been eating plenty of vegetables, and you're falling short of the ANA's recommendation of 12 to 15 net carbs of vegetables per day, this post can help you make that essential course correction.

By the time you finish reading, you'll have dozens of recipes and low-carb food ideas to bulk up your meals with nutrient-dense vegetables, and thereby, get your low-carb eating plan back on track.

What Do Dieters Eat on Keto?

The Atkins Induction Diet was originally a very low-carb plan, so it used very few vegetables to get you into the state of ketosis fast. For this reason, the media and many other health-conscious individuals are confused about what most low-carb dieters eat.

Even those on low-carb diets are confused about what they should or shouldn't eat to help the body heal.

In general, those on Keto eat an abundance of the following low-carb foods:

• nuts and seeds (including nut flours and ground flaxseeds)
• low-glycemic fruits, like berries
• tons of heavy cream, sour cream, and mayo
• low-carb convenience foods
• low-carb tortillas and pastas
• low-carb flours and starches
• lots of cheeses, heavy cream, and butter
• low-carb condiments
• low-carb desserts

There is nothing wrong with using these low-carb foods. They can expand your food choices and bring better balance to your ketogenic menus.

In fact, the 1992 version of the Atkins diet gave dieters the freedom to design their own low-carb plan. We were free to eat anything we wanted to, as long as we didn't go over 20 carbs a day.

Even so, most of your carbohydrate intake during the first few weeks of the diet should come from vegetables.

Using too many low-carb products or alternative foods can actually hinder fat loss. Many of these convenience foods are extremely calorie dense and if you are not tracking your food intake, or at least eating mindfully, you might be eating too many calories.

Vegetables are very low in calories, so it is difficult to overeat them.

Low-Carb Vegetables: My Confession

I have always recognized that vegetables form a large part of a low-carb diet, but I haven't really experimented with a lot of vegetable recipes.

Hubby isn't fond of vegetables, although he will eat steamed or microwaved asparagus with cheese sauce or brussels sprouts nuked in the microwave without kickin' up a fuss.

He also likes:

• soups and stews
• egg scrambles or omelets
• an occasional lettuce salad
• cooked spinach
• sweet bell peppers and mushrooms dipped into a tasty homemade Ranch Dressing

But overall, I wouldn't call him a vegetable eater. We do eat more vegetables than the typical American, but I wouldn't say that we eat lots of veggies. Hubby tends to run in the other direction, so I've had to get quite creative with adding low-carb vegetables to our meals.

My Low-Carb Ham and Green Bean Stew
This is a simple crock-pot stew

With hubby, lots of flavor is the name of the game.

I can't get away with tossing broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots into the steamer and calling it good anymore, day after day. His tastes have changed a lot since he stopped smoking.

What he used to like (or at least, put up with) just won't work anymore.

Today, he wants his food to be colorful and tasty. That's not a bad combination, though. Low-carb food can be quite colorful when you incorporate vegetables into your meals, rather than just throwing them along side of a piece of baked chicken.

How to Work More Vegetables Into Your Low-Carb Meals

When my kids were little, I read a book about how to get your family to move from a typical American diet to one that was much more healthy. It talked about the importance of making small changes, one at a time, rather than going cold turkey.

Food is one of the most comfortable pleasures in life for a great many folks and disrupting and robbing your family of those comfort foods without giving them something of value to replace what you took will only cause rebellion.

Instead of gutting the house of everything that isn't considered healthy by the latest health standard, it's far more effective to simply jazz up your low-carb meals to look so enticing that your family will want to eat what you're eating along with you.

To do that, start by making your food and meal prep a sensory experience. Waking up the senses is vital when it comes to food.

Think about sight and color, how the food smells, taste and flavorings, food texture, and even sounds, if applicable.

Colorful vegetables can make your ketogenic meals
more exciting and fun!

For example, Mexican Food can easily be made into a low-carb feast. Just whip up a sizzling frying pan of a colorful fajita mixture, perhaps:

• chicken breast or beef slices
• sweet bell peppers
• green onions
• baby corn cobs
• avocado chunks

And Mexican spices like cumin. Serve it on a nice plate topped with grated cheese and a dollop of sour cream. It will have the taste buds so salivating that the family won't even miss the refried beans and tortillas.

Add a scoop of cole slaw or a nice side salad, some marinated cucumber slices or a few baby carrots with Ranch-style dressing. For an extra treat, thread colorful vegetables like carrot slices, zucchini, tomatoes, mushrooms, and red onion on skewers. Add a dip-sized bowl filled with sliced berries and whipped cream, and you've got a meal they will ask for again and again.

Low-carb food is as much about the presentation and sensory experience of eating as it is about what we're used to shoving in our mouths.

Low-Carb Vegetables: Tips and Ideas

Roasted Vegetables 

Encourage your family to eat more vegetables
by making them look as good as they taste.

One of the low-carb vegetable mainstays I hear about over and over again is roasting your vegetables in the oven, uncovered, and drizzed with olive oil. The vegetables come out caramelized and sweeter than they would be if just covered and baked.

But honestly?

I've never tried this method. I can't wrap my brain around eating burned vegetables.

I think I ate too many burned cookies when I was little to get much satisfaction out of roasting. The closest I've come to trying it is to cook an ear of corn still inside the husk on the grill.

However, a lot of low-carbers swear by this method, so you might want to give it a try. The heat has to be very hot. You'll need to bake them at 450 degrees to char them properly.

But if you're more like me, and really don't want to char them, you could toss them into a bake dish, cover with foil, and just bake them at 350 degrees until cooked through.

One woman who used to write for Infobarrel added some grated cheese to the top of her personalized vegetable mixture and tossed the pan back into the oven just long enough to melt the cheese.

Steamed Vegetables with Sauces 

Cheese sauce is traditional, but you can start experimenting with other low-carb sauces you might not have used when you were not eating low carb.

Lemon-Caper sauce
will improve the taste of those vegetables

Lemon sauce is very easy and tastes great over broccoli or asparagus. Just combine equal amounts of mayonnaise and sour cream, then spike it with:

• lemon juice to taste
• grated lemon peel
• basil
• minced garlic
• salt and pepper

Toss in a few capers for an extra special treat.

At 1 carb per tablespoon, a few capers can really take your lemon sauce to the next level. This sauce also makes an excellent sauce when served over salmon.

Soups and Stews

This is one of my favorite ways to work low-carb vegetables into our meals. Soups and stews are quite versatile, and you can change the flavor and presentation by just changing the type of meat and vegetables you toss into the pot.

You can even drizzle a beaten egg into the simmering liquid for a nice egg-drop soup.

To keep things simple, I use Better Than Bouillon chicken or beef paste, as it's gluten free and makes an excellent broth. It also comes in ham flavoring, but I haven't tried that one yet. If you're vegetarian, they have a vegetarian paste as well.

For an excellent oriental-style soup, combine:

• stir-fry frozen vegetables
• lots of chopped garlic
• some minced fresh gingerroot
• cubed chicken breast
• a drop or two of sesame oil

Some shredded cilantro is also good in this, but be careful that you don't use too much. If you are not sensitive to gluten or wheat, you can break up some low-carb spaghetti noodles and add near the end of the cooking time for a super good chicken-noodle soup.

Red potatoes contain less starch than brown or white potatoes, but will still cost you almost 30 carbs for a medium-sized tuber. Turnips are fairly low carb and make a great substitute for potatoes in soups. Although, turnip is a root vegetable, one medium turnip will only set you back about 8 carbs.

Additional soup combinations include:

• ham
• green beans
• chopped tomatoes
• onion
• and bacon

Toss in some shredded cabbage and you won't be able to eat just one bowlful.

Kabobs 

Kabobs can be baked or grilled.
Try whole mushrooms, jumbo black olives,
even a cube or two of fresh pineapple.

Thread various meats and vegetables onto skewers and bake or grill. I like them basted with barbecue sauce, but marinading the meat in Teriyaki sauce is also good. Just be sure that the meats and vegetables you choose take about the same length of time to cook.

Mixing chicken breast and pork, for example, won't work out well. Neither will zucchini and mushrooms unless you like your zucchini squash to be on the crunchy side.

Think of unusual combinations.

Fresh pineapple chunks and sausage disks are great together, as are olives, mushrooms, and colorful onions.

Salad Bar Salads 

When it comes to salad, don't fall into the trap of serving the same vegetable combinations everyday. Keep your salads interesting by thinking about what you like to top your salad with when eating at a salad bar. Try:

• steamed cold broccoli
• cold canned green beans
• sunflower seeds
• dried cranberries
• sliced strawberries
• marinated cucumber slices or chunk
• grated cheese
• hard boiled eggs
• bacon crumbles
• frozen peas
• baby corn cobs (only 4-1/2 net carbs per cup)
• black or green olives
• raw or cooked mushrooms
• fresh jalapeno slices
• sliced red cabbage
• artichoke hearts
• baby spinach leaves
• cherry tomatoes
• summer squash
• cold asparagus
• dill pickles

Even sauerkraut can turn that same-old salad into something special. For additional salad ideas and recipes for making your own salad dressing at home, check out our guide on how to make the perfect low-carb salad.

Chicken, Tuna, Egg or Ham Salad 

Before low carb, tuna and chicken salad sandwiches didn't need a lot of vegetables to make them tasty. The type of bread I used (multi-grain) went a long way to perk up the flavor. Without the bread, flavor really matters, so try to think outside of the box. Add:

• nuts
• green onions
• leftover vegetables
• freshly minced jalapeno
• finely grated cheeses
• frozen peas
• cooked or raw broccoli
• bell peppers
• cold asparagus
• cucumber chunks
• shredded spinac
• raw or cooked mushrooms
• bacon

Also vary the meats. Chicken and tuna are traditional, but jazz up your summer dinner plate with ham salad, shrimp salad, or a nice and tender beef-steak salad.

Lettuce Wraps 

One of my favorite sandwiches is a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich. When you use large lettuce leaves to hold your sandwich filling, the lettuce is already taken care of. Plop your tomato, bacon, and mayo down the middle of the leaf and fold it over to eat it similar to a taco.

Lettuce leaves are great for ham and cheese sandwiches, tuna or chicken salad sandwiches, taco meat with grated cheese, egg salad, or any other sandwich filling you like. Just load the filling up with tons of vegetables and you'll have a filling that unique, as well as tasty.

Omelets, Scrambles, Quiche and Muffins 

Use up those pesky leftover vegetables
in your scrambled eggs, omelets, and muffins.

Eating vegetables in your omelets, scrambled eggs, crustless quiches and egg muffins can help you get extra vegetables into your meals. Great omelet fillings include:

• mushrooms
• green onions
• broccoli
• green chilies
• hot or sweet peppers
• tomatoes

I like tossing leftover veggies from the night before into my scrambled eggs. Quiche recipes are usually low-carb if you leave off the crust.

Egg muffins are simple and quick. You simply pour your scrambled egg mixture into well-greased or paper lined muffin cups and then bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Egg muffins make a great on-the-go breakfast idea that you can make chock-full of vegetables, meats, and cheeses.

Meat and Vegetable Stir-fries

Stir-fries are another great way to work more low-carb vegetables into your meals. You can buy frozen stir-fry vegetables or toss in whatever you have. Even veggies that are on their way out are useable in soups and stir-fries.

But try not to rely on the same old vegetables you always use. While diagonally sliced carrots, celery, and sliced onions are traditional, don't forget about:

• pea pods
• shredded cabbage
• mushrooms
• baby corn cobs
• green beans
• eggplant
• asparagus
• spinach
• broccoli
• water chestnuts
• bamboo shoots
• colorful sweet peppers

Season the mixture with soy sauce (San-J is gluten free), garlic, minced fresh ginger, and sugar substitute. Sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds also add a nice flavor to stir-fries.

Bean and Vegetable Salads

When growing up, mom always made a salad she called 3-bean salad. It was made with kidney beans, green beans, and yellow wax beans.

If you substitute a can of black soy beans for the kidney beans and use sugar substitute in the dressing, the salad is low carb. Add additional vegetables to the mixture, and toss in a few herbs and spices. Allow the mixture to marinate in the refrigerator overnight, and you'll have a wonderful, flavorful, low-carb salad that will rival any side-salad you can dream up.

Bean Salad Dressing is easy:

Just combine equal amounts of oil and vinegar, then toss in enough sugar substitute to dull the tartness of the vinegar. Add herbs and spices, similar to what you'd use in an Italian dressing. I like:

• Mrs. Dash Herb and Garlic Seasoning Mix
• dried basil (fresh would be great!)
• seasoning salt
• seasoned pepper
• lots of chopped garlic

Simple Low-Carb Vegetable Ideas

Asparagus pieces can be nuked
in the microwave for 5 minutes.
Just add a little water and cover.

Sometimes, all it takes is just the courage to try a new vegetable you haven't eaten before, or to look at what other low-carbers have come up with.

Low-carb foods and dishes don't have to be fancy or time consuming. They can simply be adaptions from similar dishes you used to eat.

The following ideas are simple, but tasty ways to work even more vegetables into your low-carb meals:

• Canned green beans heated in bacon grease and tossed with bacon crumbles and green onion
• Lasagna made in the normal way using sliced partially-cooked eggplant for the noodles
• Fried cabbage with sliced sausage or chopped bacon and onions
• Chicken and frozen broccoli baked with Alfredo Sauce
• Stuffed mushrooms: stuff with sausage, cream cheese, and crushed pork rinds; then bake
• Hot poppers: jalapeno peppers sliced, gutted, filled with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon; bake
• Stuffed zucchini: hallow out the center leaving a shell; stuff with sausage and crushed pork rinds; bake
• Cauliflower salad: make as for potato salad, using cauliflower or cooked turnips instead of potatoes
• Sauteed mushrooms and onions
• Steamed Articokes, dip leaves in mayonnaise
• Wilted spinach seasoned with butter, garlic, and lemon
• Spinach meat balls in a creamy sauce or mustard sauce served over french-cut green beans
• Meatballs with a tomato sauce or dill white sauce served over spinach
• Knockwurst steamed with sauerkraut
• Corned beef and cabbage with turnips and carrots
• Asparagus with creamy sauce: cream cheese, mayo, and chopped hard-boiled egg, heated
• Raw veggies and homemade dip

Vegetables are nature's bounty. They are low in carbohydrates, low in calories, low in fat, low on the glycemic index, and loaded with vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and healthy antioxidants.

Current medical thought is that we need at least 5 servings a day, with a serving equal to about 1/2 cup of cooked vegetables or 1 cup raw.

That's pretty close to what Dr. Atkins recommended in 2002 as a starting point for his revolutionary diet.

Low-Carb Vegetables: One Exception

The only exception to all of these vegetables is if you are severely insulin resistant and need to go down to a very low level of carbohydrate in order to correct your metabolic defect.

But, insulin resistance generally isn't that extreme and a very low-carb diet doesn't include a lot of extras.

The type of insulin resistance I'm referring to are those who must stay well below 10 grams of carbohydrate a day due to the degree of metabolic damage. A typical Keto diet that includes lots of low-carb vegetables will generally correct most metabolic problems and help you get your life back on track.

You do need to be patient though.

The body is hard-wired for survival and it can only process and use a finite amount of body fat per day to fuel the body. Fat losses are often masked by water retention, so don't jump to conclusions that and think you are sensitive to vegetables just because weight loss is slower than you would like it to be.

Give low-carb a fair chance to work before you start doing any tweaking.

Additional Vegetable Recipes and Ideas:

Fake Honey Mustard Sauce
How to Make the Perfect Low-Carb Salad and Homemade Salad Dressings
Fresh Cucumber and Tomato Salsa
Yummy Spinach Pie
Tangerine-Walnut Coleslaw