Low[er] Carb Vegetarian Foods
Let me start by saying that I’m not suddenly promoting some low carb/no carb diet thing. I love my carbohydrates and I’d never ever give them up, but a common pitfall of vegetarianism is eating nothing but carbs. It’s happens. I’m totally guilty of it because I think bread/pasta/granola/crackers are delicious and because sometimes that’s just the easy thing.
So I started poking around the internet for some low carb vegetarian dishes but I couldn’t find much. As soon as you search for “low carb foods” you either get a link to the Atkins diet or a huge list of meat. Bummer.
After some extensive research (hah) and lots of cauliflower-substitute recipes, I put together a list of foods and recipes that can help you balance out a vegetarian diet with protein and fats. (I also found an “oatmeal” substitute that used chia, flax meal, and coconut instead of oats… which ended up being over 800 calories. What?!) The thing is, every food is made up of 3 things: Carbohydrates, Protein, or Fat. So if it’s high in carbs, then it’s lower in protein and fat. Make sense?
Here are some of my personal favorite low[er] carb vegetarian foods:
My goal is to make some new recipes containing some of those ingredients, which means more (healthy) fats and lots more protein!
If you’re interested in these types of recipes, I actually have a few on the blog already:
Avocado Egg Cups– high in healthy fats, protein, and deliciousness.
Spaghetti Squash Bake– my very favorite spaghetti swap and an easy way to use up fresh veggies.
Β Parmesan Tomato Soup– A super easy recipe for grilled cheese’s best friend.
Stay tuned for some high protein, higher fat recipes coming soon!
great list of foods for low-carb ideas. We love making low-carb recipes π But love our carbs too!
Thank you for sharing these tips Liz. I am currently transitioning from vegetarian to vegan diet and have the same concerns. I find that Thai or Indian food offer a lot of vegetable filled options. I also love making shakes, try Almond milk, some vegan protein powder, matcha powder and fruits the fiber will keep you full.
Awesome! I’m glad the tips are helpful! And I love making shakes, too π
low-carb vegetarian? hm… i really like sweet potato hasbrowns with sunny-side up eggs π
Eggs and nuts are pretty much a daily thing for me! Love!
I definitely need to start eating more eggs!
This is great. Thanks for sharing those low(er) carb veg recipes. I recently went back to eating meat at the end of my pregnancy (baby is 3 months now) and want to switch to vegetarian again. I feel ready. I was just hesitant because I’m still trying to lose weight and I’m a lazy vegetarian sometimes; I’ll eat pasta, bread etc, whatever is easiest.
Your post gave me the idea of starting my own personal “low(er)” carb vegetarian cookbook/binder. I’m going to print out some of these recipes and put them in my binder. Thanks! π
That’s a great idea! There just don’t seem to be a ton of recipes out there, so collecting them is a great idea!
Great list! I have to admit, when I was a vegetarian, I ate pretty much nothing but carbs and cheese (and I was surprised I was 100lbs overweight?!?!), but you definitely can have a sensible amount of carbs on a veggie diet.
All those recipes look amazing, will have to try the spaghetti squash recipe next week and the avocado one this weekend.. I’m always over-complicating my life with new recipes to try when the simplest ones are the best ones. π Thanks for the recommendations love and happy hump day Liz! -Iva
Holy YUM! Those avocado egg cups look AMAZING!
When I experimented with being a vegetarian I noticed that I was eating mostly carb rich foods, so I think this list is great and will be really useful for new vegetarians out there!
Whenever I feel like I’ve had too many carbs, I always have a light dinner of zoodles (zucchini noodles) and homemade tomato sauce.
For lunches, I LOVE using Flatout wraps for pizzas or wraps. I think they have like 9 carbs per wrap. Since I’m not a vegetarian, I always put pepperoni on my pizzas, but they turn out so good. Even my hardcore carnivore husband loves them. And for wraps, lots of sliced vegetables, hummus and salad greens.