Simple List of Low-Carb Flour Alternatives and Where to Get Them

Need a low-carb flour alternative?
There are many low-carb flours to choose from.

Traditional flours, including whole-grain flours, are especially high in carbohydrates. For example, whole-wheat flour will cost you 22 to 24 grams of carbohydrate per quarter-cup serving.

For that reason, many low-carb products take advantage of wheat flours that have had the starch portion removed or modified:

• resistant wheat starch
• vital wheat gluten
• oat fiber
• whey protein
• modified corn starches

These are common low-carb flour alternatives that are high in protein and used in low-carb baking mixes, bread mixes, and other specialty baked goods.

Most of these are not available at your local grocery store, but since they are popular among low-carb dieters, you can easily purchase them online at netrition.com or Amazon.

So what else can you use at home?

Low-Carb Flour Basics

Whether you’ve sworn to avoid all forms of wheat or just want to know how to cut the carbohydrates in your diet, there are a wide variety of low-carb flour alternatives and keto substitutes to choose from.

Some of these substitutes are gluten free, while others are not.

Which low-carb flour is best for you depends on your budget, carbohydrate allowance, food sensitivities, and the texture you’re looking for, as well as personal taste. Product availability, or whether you have the ability to grind your own nuts, seeds, pork rinds, and other keto choices also matters.

For those who don't have the capability to grind pork rinds and nuts, however, online sources like Amazon or VitaCost often sell low-carb meals and flours already ground up for you.

Like other forms of gluten-free cooking and baking, mixing more than one flour type together can often give you a better result than using a single flour on its own. However, this practice depends on what you’re using the flour alternative for.

Breading chicken strips or fish, and thickening a sauce won’t be as critical as trying to bake a loaf of bread or a low-carb cake.

When breading a piece of chicken
you only need one type of flour or meal.  

While many people find breads made with vital wheat gluten far too spongy, don’t be too quick to dismiss potential alternatives, as breads made with large amounts of wheat protein or wheat starch make acceptable bread crumbs or cubes for turkey dressings and bread puddings.

Of all the possibilities, coconut flour, a nice gluten-free option, is the most difficult to work with.

Recipes that call for coconut flour use a lot of eggs because it will soak up the amount of liquid in a recipe quickly and make the finished product come out dry. For that reason, you cannot substitute it one for one with wheat flour.

Standard substitution for substituting coconut flour for almond flour is 4 to 1. For all other applications, it takes quite a bit of experimentation, unless you’re using a tried-and-true recipe created by someone you trust.

The same thing could be said for flaxmeal (ground flax seeds) or oat fiber. They will soak up a lot of the liquid ingredients, so you’ll want to start with just a little bit, or follow a recipe you can trust.

Coconut flour does work especially well for breading chicken or fish, alone or in combination with other flours. And if you don’t want to use vegetable gums to thicken your stews and sauces, almond flour, coconut flour, oat fiber, and dried parmesan cheese make good alternative thickeners.

Grinding Your Own Low-Carb Flours and Meals

Commercial nut flours, soy flour, and coconut flour have had some of the fat removed, so if you try to grind them yourself, you’ll have to take that into account.

Many people say that homemade ground coconut is far too greasy to use and that nut flours can easily turn into nut butter if you’re not careful.

I’ve never had almonds turn into almond butter, but when I tried to grind coconut, and use it, the bread did come out a greasy mess.

Trying to grind whole almonds in
your coffee grinder? Sliced works better!

I purchased a few bags of almonds from Walmart a few years ago that were so difficult to grind they burned out the motor of my brand new coffee grinder, even though I'd only used it a couple of times, so I just don't grind my own nuts anymore.

The price at Costco for fine almond flour is much less than what it costs for me to grind my own into a chunky meal, anyway.

To grind your own flours, you can use a:

• blender
• food processor
• strong coffee grinder

They also make a special grinder just for nuts that would work well. You simply throw your oats, flax seeds, nuts, pork rinds, or whatever you want to process into the machine and whirl it until it’s as fine as you want it.

But almond meal is as fine as you’re going to get almonds ground at home. There is no way to make your own almond flour.

If you’re on Atkins 40 or eating a moderate level of carbs, you can also use a wheat grinder to grind your own dried corn, white beans, or brown rice. You can also grind dried black soybeans, which are super low in carbs. But a wheat grinder won’t work for nuts or coconut because the oil will ruin the machine.   

List of Low-Carb Flour Substitutes

The following list includes many of the typical low-carb flour substitutes that most keto bakers use, but it’s certainly not all-inclusive:

• vital wheat gluten (wheat protein isolate 8000)
• wheat protein isolate 5000
• resistant wheat starch
• almond meal or flour (flour is a finer grind)
• pecan, walnut, hazelnut, or other nut meals
• soy flour
• coconut flour
• carbalose flour
• Carbquick baking mix
• cocoa powder
• crushed pork rinds
• dried parmesan cheese
• hemp protein powder
• soy protein powder
• whey protein powder
• konjac flour (glucomannan)
• flaxmeal (ground flax seeds)
• oat fiber
• oat flour (ground oats)
• wheat bran

Although there are nutritional controversies surrounding some of these meals and low-carb flours, personal taste will be a matter of experimentation. Most people find yellow soy flour far too strong, but we like the ground black soybeans, which are quite mild.

Gluten free status of a flour alternative will depend on the manufacturer and whether the item, like nuts, were processed on the same equipment as other products that contain gluten. Soybeans can be contaminated in the fields, and many companies have gone to machine-sorted oats instead of using a gluten-free protocol.

Brands of Low-Carb Flour Mixes

In addition to the single flours above, there are many companies that make low-carb baking mixes, bread mixes, cookie and brownie mixes, pie crust mixes, and pancake mixes. 

• Bob’s Red Mill
• Atkins’ Nutritionals
• Dixie Diner
• NOW
• Tova
• LC Foods
• Nutiva

Most mixes are not gluten free, but low-carb gluten-free varieties are becoming more popular.

Warnings

Many low-carbers find that using too many low-carb products causes their weight loss to stall.

The same goes for many of the breads and dessert recipes floating around the web. Staying within your personal carbohydrate tolerance is important, but there are many additional factors involved in weight loss than just carbohydrate restriction.

Originally, a low-carb diet was not designed to include any of these types of foods.

Dr. Atkins did allow soy flour recipes for those who had it available in their area, and many of the creative cooks who were following a low-carb diet in the early 2000s learned how to use protein powders and almond meal to make muffins and other baked goods.

Used sparingly, these products and recipes can help to make your low-carb diet more enjoyable. But if you try to use them to replace the type of diet that got you fat in the first place, it could easily backfire.

Where to Get Low-Carb Flour and Mixes

This is a list of online companies that I like to use because they have great shipping rates:

• Vitacost
• iHerb
• Netrition
• Amazon

In addition, many health food stores also carry low-carb flours such as:

• almond flour
• flaxmeal
• coconut flour
• oat fiber
• protein powders

Standard grocery stores often have a health-food section where you can also find some of these low-carb flours. Our local grocery has a huge Bob’s Red Mill display, as well as a gluten-free section.

Most stores don’t carry specific low-carb flours such as:

• Carbalose
• Carbquick
• resistant wheat starch

These types of flours can only be ordered online. 

But health food stores and health sections in your grocery store do carry whatever health enthusiasts in the area are looking for. You can often find vital wheat gluten in the regular baking aisle. 

Sometimes, if you ask the store manager for a particular low-carb flour product, they can order it for you.