Your Best Easy Whole Food, Lower Carb, Lower Saturated-Fat Meals

Cooking Discussions Cooking, Cookbooks, Ingredients
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Hey Onions,

After some recent blood work in our household I am looking for the Holy Grail – recipes for:

Less-processed/whole food meals
Low in saturated/animal fat
Heavy on vegetables with some whole grains or nutrient-dense carbs
Big on flavor
Low on labor (i.e., uncomplicated/not too fussy)
*Bonus: kid-friendly

I’ve found lots inspiring recipes in The Weekday Vegetarians by Jenny Rosenstrach, but many are quite involved with lots of chopping, many ingredients (usually highly perishable), and subrecipes for sauces, garnishes, and dressings.

I’m needing some less complex everyday recipes that can become go-tos on busy days. Instant Pot Miracle Healthy by Urvashi Pitre has some winners with short ingredient lists, and I’m looking forward to getting her vegetarian cookbook as well.

This seems like a tall ask, so if you have a favorite recipe that fits the bill, I’d be grateful. I’m feeling a little overwhelmed and would love to outsource to the hive mind :upside_down_face::smile:.

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I love this simple recipe from Rachel Roddy, an Englishwoman based in Rome. I don’t have access to sage leaves, so I use fresh bay leaves, which works well. I love eating these brothy beans just on their own or with wholemeal sourdough bread.

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This does involve chopping, but I don’t find it that labour intensive.

I try to make both Shchi / Russian Cabbage Soup and Beet Borscht once a month.

I don’t know if your kid would like them. I liked borscht as a kid.

One of my dining companions doesn’t feel dinner is dinner without fish, meat, chicken, egg or dairy, so vegan dishes are side dishes or a main dish with a meat/egg/dairy side at our house. Of course, it’s easy to put a fried or poached egg on top of most vegan meals.

Other dishes that could be made vegan:

Lazy cabbage rolls
Stuffed Pepper soup.

I make a dried apricot curried lentil stoop a lot.

Vegetarian pozole could work.

Feijoada could work, leaving out the fattier meats.

I have been keeping a big bowl of fruit salad in the fridge lately, which seems to help with snacking. Now that would be simple sugars. I’m not sure if you’re limiting fruit.

Beans, beans, beans….

Lentils!!!

Recipes using black-eyed peas

Healthier (however you define it) meals you’ve been making lately

Low Sodium

What’s for low carb breakfast, lunch or dinner?

Spaghetti squash pad thai

This Armenian Lentil Apricot soup was good

Re: kid friendly, the Enchanted Broccoli Forest came to mind.

It does contain a cup of cheddar cheese and 3 tbsp butter.

Good luck!

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Great topic, and I’m curious to see the replies. We’ve been leaning a lot on beans lately. Do you and your family like beans? I also hear you on the vegetable prep. My go to for my husband and I is usually to throw a huge pile of spinach in everything when I don’t have time to prep other veggies, but that doesn’t work for my daughter. I usually do a small raw veggie platter for her with hummus, which isn’t much extra work, and ensures she’s eating veggies (she prefers raw).
Weeknights especially are hard and I try to make leftovers of everything I make so that my husband and I can have reasonably healthy lunches as well. Luckily my daughter eats school lunch most days, which is more varied than I could ever provide. I sometimes do swallow the cost of pre-prepped veggies (cut up butternut squash, for example, or even celery sticks… I know… But my time is worth something!!) to get more veggies into meals without the prep time.

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I also love making thoran, as a quick and easy way to get lots of vegetables on the plate. You can adapt as needed. The main elements are a dry stir fry of shredded vegetables with grated coconut. I usually pop a tablespoonful of mustard seeds in a couple of tablespoons of hot olive oil, add the shredded vegetables, fry on high heat for a short time, add salt to taste, and then the grated coconut (I used desiccated coconut if I don’t have fresh frozen) - fry for another short period while tossing the coconut through. Add a squeeze of lime at the end if needed. I have this as a side with steamed brown rice and roast chicken.

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This is a lot of ideas, thank you!

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My easy go-to is curried red lentils, with diced protein du jour, shredded carrot, and a teaspoon of coconut oil. If I want to be fancier, I’ll add some nuts, onions, garlic, and kale.

We like all lentils, but the reds cook faster for some reason.

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I think the reds are usually split (edit: decorticated, seed shell taken off)

https://hummingbirdwholesale.com/products/lentil-red-decorticated-l160.

Lots of lentil facts here.

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Sounds like we are in similar boats. My kid has similar preferences and habits to yours. I also do the fitsful of greens in one-dish meals. And I don’t mind prepping some veg sometimes, but if I’m making a dish that’s cooked a la minute rather than slow or pressure cooked, it’s not always feasible time- or energy-wise to do a bunch of multi-step recipes.

Right now pasta and bread-based meals are out, but they could be added on the side to round out the meal for 2/3 of us. Luckily we all eat beans with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

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Do you have a rice cooker?

If so, you can make a “frittata” with any sort of good wholesome vegetables (ie carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, etc) and mix in some chia seeds for extra oomph in the micronutrients department.

Just mix all the ingredients with your whisked eggs and pour it into your rice cooker and let it do its thing.

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I don’t, but I’m guessing I could do something similar in the Instant pot on the rice setting…maybe.

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You absolutely could.

And I’m one never to advocate for more gadgets but a rice cooker is a life saver if your goal is convenience

Aside from rice, it’s great for things like oatmeal, breads, soups and even steaming vegetables or cooking potatoes.

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Use vegetable oil rather than lard. If soaking and blending dry red chiles is too much for a weeknight, you could substitute with a cup of your favorite salsa (or pico from the deli section/prepared foods section of your supermarket).

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Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

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That looks excellent, thank you!

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I just made that :smile:

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This recipe for wild rice and mushroom soup fits the bill. I made it again for lunch today. I make a few changes…

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It’s a dump and go recipe (no sauteeing). She instructs to cook everything except for the evaporated milk for 22 minutes at high pressure and let sit for another 10 before releasing the remaining pressure. I think that’s a sure way to mushy veg, so I pre-cook the wild rice separately (or buy a packet of pre-cooked microwavable/frozen). I just pressure cooked the veg and cooked rice for 4 min and quick released after another 5. Then you stir in the evaporated milk and heat through.

I subbed vegetable broth for water and added veggie Better than Bouillon (mushroom would also work). Today I added chopped green cabbage.

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This is my lunch this week:

I substituted Greek yogurt for the heavy cream called for and used avocado oil (about 1/2 the amount called for) in place of the ghee. It doesn’t call for it, but if you have dried fenugreek leaves (a teaspoon or so) that you can crumble in at the end, it takes it over the top! I am having it with brown rice.

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That sounds good, too. Thanks!

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