A fast Google seek for low-carb recipes will normally lead to a number of meat-based choices. This may be difficult should you’re a vegetarian like me or simply love consuming plant-based. However the excellent news is that there are many low-carb vegetarian recipes which are gentle on carbs however nonetheless filling, because of protein-packed substances, wholesome fat, and fiber-rich veggies.
With the hotter months forward, I’m positive many people are craving contemporary, wholesome meals that don’t skimp on taste. So we did some digging for you and curated a stellar listing of 18 low-carb vegetarian recipes that meet our standards. Learn on for some main cooking inspiration. Low-carb vegetarians, unite!
Featured picture by Suruchi Avasthi.
What plant-based meals are low in carbs?
It’s no secret that the magic mixture of plant-based, low-carb meals will be arduous to come back by. Many vegan or vegetarian consuming patterns can lean high-carb as a result of they rely closely on grains and legumes. Nonetheless, we will’t overlook the significance of flexibility in the case of following a food plan that helps your physique greatest. To emphasise: low-carb doesn’t imply no-carb. Lots of the vegetarian meals containing extra carbohydrates (candy potatoes, quinoa, chickpeas!) present key nutritional vitamins and vitamins our our bodies want.
That mentioned, right here’s a useful listing of plant-based meals which are low in carbs:
- Leafy greens. 1 cup = 1 gram
- Eggs. 1 massive = 0.6 grams
- Zucchini. 1 medium = 6 grams
- Cauliflower. 1 cup, chopped = 5 grams
- Strawberries. 1 cup = 11 grams
- Cottage cheese. 1 cup = 8 grams
- Tomatoes. 1 cup = 7 grams
- Plain Greek yogurt. 1 container (156 grams) = 5 grams.
How can vegetarians eat extra protein?
Ah, the ephemeral, ever-elusive query. For those who comply with a vegetarian food plan, it’s seemingly that you simply’ve been requested this many occasions earlier than. The excellent news is that there are many plant-based protein sources. Nonetheless, when evaluating animal versus plant protein, plant meals are sometimes called “incomplete” protein sources—meaning they don’t contain all nine essential amino acids. The simple solution? Prioritize variety! So long as you’re getting a healthy mix of plant-based proteins, you should have no problem working a sufficient amount of all amino acids into your diet. (For more high-protein vegetarian recipes, consult our list of favorites.)
18 Low-Carb Vegetarian Recipes That Are Bursting With Flavor
Low-Carb Vegetarian Breakfast Recipes
Strawberries and Cream Smoothie
Why We Love It: If you’re looking for a fresh and easy, grab-and-go breakfast, nothing satisfies quite like a smoothie. This strawberries and cream blend tastes just like dessert. The catch? Strawberries boast the fewest carbs of all berries and are rich in antioxidants like vitamin C. You’re getting omega-3s from the flaxseed, healthy fats from the coconut milk, and plenty of fiber from the frozen cauliflower. It’s a powerful way to start your day.
Hero Ingredient: Frozen cauliflower’s biggest secret? You can thank the cruciferous veg for this smoothie’s super creamy texture.
Savory Cottage Cheese Breakfast Bowls
Why We Love It: This protein-packed breakfast will keep you full for hours. Cottage cheese is an excellent source of protein, calcium, and vitamin B12 with just eight grams of carbohydrates per cup. You can play around with your toppings here but this recipe calls for other low-carb ingredients, avocado, chopped cilantro, egg, and kimchi.
Hero Ingredient: Be sure to use the full-fat version of cottage cheese here. Brands like Nancy’s and Good Culture are gentle in taste with a creamy texture that makes the consuming expertise really feel a lot extra luxurious and wealthy.
Strawberry Thyme Yogurt
Why We Love It: This simple sweet breakfast is perfect for summer. Strawberries are at their peak and you can bet we’ll be finding any way we can to avoid turning on the stove. The bowl calls for only seven ingredients and two easy steps. Low-carb and definitely low-stress.
Hero Ingredient: A mix of fresh, in-season berries is exactly what I’m craving at every meal. This recipe makes the most of strawberries and raspberries, giving your breakfast bowl a beautiful, vibrant color.
Yogurt and Granola Breakfast Grazing Board
Why We Love It: This grazing board is perfect for morning meal entertaining—and it couldn’t be simpler. Arrange any variety of low-carb fruits on a serving board as you please, sneaking in sprigs of mint here and there. Dollop Greek yogurt and low-carb granola into bowls to your friends to serve themselves. It’s such a simple and delightful brunch trick that’ll fulfill plant-based and non-vegetarians alike!
Hero Ingredient: On the subject of the fruit, go along with your intestine—however the more energizing, the higher. Figs are an exquisite, low-carb choice as are berries, cantaloupe, or peaches.
Vanilla Chia Pudding with Chestnut Honey & Berries
Why We Love It: This plant-forward meal is ideal for a fast breakfast that’ll energy you thru your morning. It’s easy sufficient to get pleasure from as-is and chic sufficient to decorate up with a number of further toppings. A drizzle of peanut butter or a sprinkle of granola—something goes. Principally, no matter vibe you’re aiming for, this recipe has you lined.
Hero Ingredient: Chestnut honey is the floral and oh-so-flavorful drizzle that takes this chia pudding up a notch.
Basic Shakshuka
Why We Love It: This one-pot shakshuka recipe is the last word consolation meals meal—baked eggs in a scrumptious tomato sauce served with flat-leaf parsley is a recipe for deliciousness. Whereas it’s historically served with bread to sop up the sauce, you’ll be able to skip that and go for a facet of greens or avocado for added wholesome fat. This recipe is the last word low-carb vegetarian choice—a complete crowd pleaser!
Hero Ingredient: Cumin and paprika create a smoky profile that completely flavors that tomato sauce.
Low-Carb Vegetarian Appetizers
Mint Tzatziki With Endive, Romaine, & Sugar Snaps
Why We Love It: Whether or not you’re entertaining or headed to a potluck, tzatziki at all times delivers. It’s contemporary, tangy, and screams summer season. Serve alongside sugar snap peas, sliced cucumber, zucchini, or any seasonal veggie you like. This recipe defines low-effort, high-reward.
Hero Ingredient: I’ll take all of the chopped, contemporary mint you’ve received.
Cauliflower Nachos
Why We Love It: Sure, nachos made the low-carb vegetarian minimize. That’s proper, cauliflower can do all of it—and right here, the much-loved veggie takes the place of tortilla chips. They get roasted with a crave-worthy mixture of spices: cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, and a few dietary yeast for a plant-based, tacky taste. Then, load them up with your whole basic nacho faves: tomatoes, black beans, jalapeño, cilantro, and vegan mozzarella. It’s a sheet pan recipe, making it low-fuss and doubles as each a wholesome dinner or a easy appetizer. Win-win!
Hero Ingredient: I’ll say it once more: cauliflower does all of it.
Paneer Tikka Kebabs
Why We Love It: For those who haven’t began cooking with paneer, now’s the time. Paneer is a non-melty cheese with an addictively chewy texture. Whereas it doesn’t have a lot taste by itself, this recipe boasts a tangy, yogurt-based marinade that packs loads of spice. Let the paneer absorb all of these scrumptious flavors in a single day and grill alongside slices of pink onion and a mixture of bell peppers. It’d simply be probably the most colourful summer season dish you’ll eat this season.
Hero Ingredient: The marinade’s spice combine is unmatched. Turmeric, chili powder, coriander, cumin, and garam masala carry the warmth.
Low-Carb Vegetarian Soups and Salads
Inexperienced Fruit Salad with Ricotta and Herbs
Why We Love It: When summer season hits, you’ll be able to wager we have now salads on repeat. However in an effort to maintain ourselves from becoming bored, we prioritize a mixture of colourful substances, quite a lot of textures, and a dressing that ties every thing collectively. The herbed ricotta cuts the fruits’ sweetness completely and brings a pleasant creamy aspect to the combo. We advocate serving this alongside your favourite veggie burger.
Hero Ingredient: You’ll wish to double your batch of herbed ricotta, belief me. It’s unbelievable unfold over crusty bread with a drizzle of olive oil or used as a dip for crunchy, uncooked veggies.
Southwestern Superfood Salad
Why We Love It: Does it get any prettier than this salad? This scrumptious dish is mainly a rainbow on a plate. It’s bursting with every kind of good-for-you substances. Tomatoes and peaches carry the vitamin, fiber, and antioxidant punch, and avocado has all the nice fats that additionally makes this salad satisfying sufficient for the principle course.
Hero Ingredient: Since each salad’s received to have some crunch. Right here, a handful of almonds provides texture and prompt layers of taste—to not point out a plant-based supply of protein, vitamin E, and potassium. Plus, they solely have seven grams of carbohydrates per 1/4 cup.
Huge Inexperienced Immunity-Boosting Vegetable Soup
Why We Love It: The wonderful thing about soup is that you could range your substances relying on what you might have within the fridge or pantry. For this one, we like to stay with all inexperienced veggies as a result of it turns the soup such an exquisite colour. Suppose asparagus, broccoli, spinach, kale, sugar snaps, celery, broccolini… the sky’s the restrict. However should you actually wish to throw in some carrots or pink bell pepper? We gained’t cease you. Get able to be a lean, inexperienced, feeling actually good machine with this spring-ready soup. It could simply turn into your new favourite Sunday afternoon cooking challenge.
Hero Ingredient: Oh, ginger. The way it by no means fails to shine by means of. Within the case of this soup, it’s packing taste and anti inflammatory goodness.
Feta Salad With White Beans and Lemon Relish
Why We Love It: This straightforward salad is such a simple no-recipe recipe that you simply’ll fall in love with on the primary chunk. It requires crusty bread, however you’ll be able to go away it out to maintain this one low-carb. And with all of the flavors from salty feta, creamy white beans, and zesty lemon relish, you gained’t miss the bread. Belief me.
Hero Ingredient: Lemon relish is the zingy end that I would like on all of my salads.
“Creamy” Vegan Butternut Squash Soup with Ginger & Coconut Milk
Why We Love It: This deliciously easy butternut squash soup will take you to Flavortown with its spicy kick because of the combo of ginger, garlic, and turmeric. Whereas this vegan soup is ideal when your physique craves a reset, you’ll be able to belief that it’s removed from boring. Butternut squash serves because the candy and savory base with carrots to enhance its taste. The aforementioned mix of aromatics does its work and the juice of an orange is added on the finish to carry a shiny citrus taste to all of it. Good? It simply could be.
Hero Ingredient: Sautéed garlic is the perfect candy and buttery counterpart to heat and spicy ginger.
Buffalo Cauliflower Chopped Salad
Why We Love It: One other cauliflower celebrity, this chopped salad is able to fulfill all of your buffalo-flavor cravings. Whereas I usually discover it tough to recreate my takeout faves at house, this recipe is straightforward and can remodel your definition of salad. The selfmade buffalo sauce takes an in any other case boring head of cauliflower to new heights. And all of the crunchy veggies give this salad loads of crunch.
Hero Ingredient: One of the best buffalo sauces carry slightly sweetness to the combo. This recipe requires a tablespoon of honey that seals the deal on its deliciousness.
Low-Carb Vegetarian Most important Dishes
Mushroom, Spinach, and Goat Cheese Frittata
Why We Love It: Not solely is that this meal deliciously low-carb, however it’s additionally filled with nutritious protein because of the eggs, mushroom, and goat’s cheese. All you really want to whip up a scrumptious frittata are eggs and veggies. And we do imply any veggies. We’re speaking no matter random substances you might have left within the veg drawer of your fridge: cauliflower, wilted greens, onions, sliced potatoes, these lifeless asparagus spears on their final legs. The world is your err… frittata!
Hero Ingredient: I simply can’t rave about mushrooms sufficient. They’re nutritious, flavorful, and go nicely with nearly every thing. Particularly the spinach and goat cheese on this frittata.
Zucchini Noodle Pesto Pasta
Why We Love It: Clearly, we’re maintaining this vegetarian by forgoing the rooster breast. The result’s a lightweight summer season dish that makes for an ideal simple lunch when the climate warms up. Whereas zucchini noodles could not be the low-carb darling of our social feeds, we nonetheless search for alternatives to work the useful hack into our summer season meals. To sneak much more taste into this summer season pasta, make your personal (vegan!) pesto—you’ll wish to eat it on every thing.
Hero Ingredient: Grated parm checks all of the containers. It’s wealthy, tangy, nutty, and sharp—with the proper trace of fruity taste.
Stuffed Roasted Eggplants
Why We Love It: Eggplant is an ideal ingredient for carb-conscious consuming. Not solely is it low in carbs, however it’s additionally excessive in fiber, and loaded with vitamins. Additionally, you will eat this recipe along with your eyes first because of the number of colourful substances and nuts. This one does name for some quinoa which isn’t low-carb, so be happy to skip that and swap in additional greens or some protein like diced tofu or tempeh.
Hero Ingredient: Recent mozzarella and figs are a match made in heaven. And after they high this roasted eggplant, every thing falls into place.
This submit was initially revealed on March 29, 2021, and has since been up to date.