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Substitutes for potatoes

  • 15-04-2008 5:30pm
    #1
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 30,657 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    I'm trying to cut down on carbs and potatoes have been kicked off the shopping list. The problem is, what do you have instead?! I have a lemon sole fillet, but I can't think what you'd have with it that would be tasty and fill the gap left by potatoes. It's the same with loads of things like that. Does anyone have any ideas? Vegetables can only be so tasty...


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,774 ✭✭✭Minder


    Cous cous, risotto, rice, pasta, quinoa, polenta, pulses, barley, barley cous cous, beans, root veggies, bread, bulghar, sweet potato, noodles.

    With lemon sole, I would make a risotto with a few prawns and some peas and maybe a touch of saffron.


  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 30,657 Mod ✭✭✭✭Faith


    Minder wrote: »
    Cous cous, risotto, rice, pasta, quinoa, polenta, pulses, barley, barley cous cous, beans, root veggies, bread, bulghar, sweet potato, noodles.

    With lemon sole, I would make a risotto with a few prawns and some peas and maybe a touch of saffron.

    Yeah, see, most of them are really high in carbohydrates. I want to replace it with low-carb food stuff, so no pasta, rice, bread, etc. Bulgar wheat is a possibility.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,422 ✭✭✭rockbeer


    Salads are your friend... I've done this one myself and the only thing that works for me is to make big and interesting salads. I'm not talking about those grim naked ones made from a couple of miserable butterhead or iceberg leaves and some quartered tomatoes. Go out and buy yourself bags of wild rocket and basil, heads of oak-leaf and lollo rosso, water cress, those sweet pointy peppers, cherry tomatoes, red onions... toast up some seeds to throw in, and use shavings of parmigiano reggiano or pecorino. Make lashings of a tasty dressing from good olive oil, Dijon mustard and balsamic vinegar... or use loads of mayo. One great thing about cutting back on carbs is you can forget about all that ridiculous low-fat nonsense and add in lots of things that actually taste good rather than just filling you up.

    You can eat about as much of that sort of food as you can cram in without over-carbing.

    Hope this sounds good to you, because there's not really much else I can suggest. Any direct potato alternatives are just as high in carbs.

    Good luck.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 12,089 ✭✭✭✭P. Breathnach


    Minder wrote: »
    Cous cous, risotto, rice, pasta, quinoa, polenta, pulses, barley, barley cous cous, beans, root veggies, bread, bulghar, sweet potato, noodles.

    More than half of that list is carbs!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,774 ✭✭✭Minder


    Faith wrote: »
    I'm trying to cut down on carbs and potatoes have been kicked off the shopping list. The problem is, what do you have instead?
    More than half of that list is carbs!

    :confused:

    Hard boiled eggs and walnuts


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,422 ✭✭✭rockbeer


    Minder wrote: »
    Hard boiled eggs and walnuts

    Yum, a lovely lemon sole fillet with a pile of hard boiled eggs and walnuts on the side.

    Whatever lights your candle.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,774 ✭✭✭Minder


    rockbeer wrote: »
    Yum, a lovely lemon sole fillet with a pile of hard boiled eggs and walnuts on the side.

    Whatever lights your candle.

    I googled low carb substitutes for potatoes after apparently misunderstanding the OPs question. The suggested alternatives for spuds were equally as ridiculous - eat half a potato, more veggies, a bowl of soup etc.

    If you want an alternative to rice, potatoes or wheat based foods, try beans. Cannelinis are good if cooked to tender and flavoured with garlic and olive oil. Very nice with fish. Are they low carb? Dunno, I have no understanding of GI. Faith, I think you will probably get a fuller answer on the diet & nutrition forum.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,482 ✭✭✭RE*AC*TOR


    Puy lentils maybe. Quite tasty, filling, and easy to cook.
    I can't imagine they are carb free, but their certainly not all carb like potatoes / rice / pasta.

    Maybe cook the lentils in vegetable or chicken stock (glass of white whine wouldn't go astray either).
    First sweat of a finely sliced onion in a little oil (don't brown the onions, just cook gently until soft and translucent).
    Then stir in the lentils.
    Then add the liquid. Some herbs wouldn't go astray at this stage - a bay leaf, a sprig of rosemary (retrieve at the end). A touch of salt (careful not to add too much as the liquid will reduce / concentrate - you can always season at the end).
    Should cook in about half an hour, or as per the instructions on the packet.
    Then you can place the lemon sole on top, squeeze of lemon, bit of sea salt. Nyom nyom.


  • Registered Users Posts: 4,537 ✭✭✭joseph brand


    The answer must be veg.

    People need these carbs from potatoes/pasta/bread, allbeit in small doses.

    Maybe eat small bit of mash, and cut carbs from other meals, eg. toast??

    I just hate to see the humble spud get a roasting, eh . . .. I mean a hard time.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 984 ✭✭✭cozmik


    Faith wrote: »
    I have a lemon sole fillet, but I can't think what you'd have with it that would be tasty and fill the gap left by potatoes. It's the same with loads of things like that. Does anyone have any ideas? Vegetables can only be so tasty...

    Drizzle nut oil on your veggies it will really give them a new lease of life. Tesco and Fallon & Byrne both have some nice oils. The extra fat will also help keep you satisfied.


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  • Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 30,657 Mod ✭✭✭✭Faith


    Thanks for the replies, guys. I thought about putting this is N&D but A) they're sick of me, and B) I wanted a more creative culinary reply from the wonderful cooks on this forum!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,422 ✭✭✭rockbeer


    People need these carbs from potatoes/pasta/bread, allbeit in small doses.

    It depends on what they're doing. This sort of food is great for toiling in the fields or an intense work-out, but there's only one place it will end up if you don't do something really active to burn it off. Loading up on this stuff and then sitting at a desk is asking for trouble.

    I think about it in these terms: are large quantities of these foods available in the wild? No, they're the direct product of agriculture. The effort required to gather large quantities of these kinds of food from the wild would outweigh the benefit, therefore it seems probable that we've evolved to thrive on a much less carb-intensive diet than is predominant nowadays. None of our closest animal relatives eat carbs like we do, and they don't have an obesity problem.

    The main things pasta/rice/spuds/bread have going for them are that they're relatively cheap and easy to produce in large quantities, rather than being especially healthy or nutritious.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,184 ✭✭✭neuro-praxis


    rockbeer wrote: »
    The main things pasta/rice/spuds/bread have going for them are that they're relatively cheap and easy to produce in large quantities, rather than being especially healthy or nutritious.

    I disagree. They're all nutritious, in the right forms. Wholewheat pasta, brown rice, new potatoes and wholegrain bread are very good for you. The problem with the Irish diet is the quantity that we tend to eat.

    Some people get bloated - fine - avoid those foods. But it is a myth that you can't lose weight and eat these foods, and it is a myth that they are not nourishing.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,139 ✭✭✭olaola


    You can make 'tagliatelle pasta' out of strips of courgettes (use a potato peeler and keep stripping) - and use aubergine as pasta sheets in lasagne.

    Rattatoulie is a tasty side instead of spuds. I also keep a block of grana padano in the fridge (M&S one is really good) and finely grate it over hot broccoli/cauliflower/carrots.

    Bean stews and salads?

    Are you looking for low-gi or low-carb suggestions?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,104 ✭✭✭Swampy


    stuffed peppers. I saw jamie oliver do this the other night.

    Half peppers stuffed with cherry tomatoes, courgette, red onion and goats or feta cheese, salt & pepper. Any thing really.

    in a hot oven covered for 20 mins(so it will softer the veg) then 10 uncovered to brown it up.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,422 ✭✭✭rockbeer


    But it is a myth that you can't lose weight and eat these foods, and it is a myth that they are not nourishing.

    You can lose weight eating any foods in any quantity if you're active enough. The issue is how active can people realistically expect to be. As I say, as fuel for intense physical activity they're fine.

    As for nourishment value, you can get everything you need more efficiently from other sources, unless you happen to need lots of raw energy for immediate consumption.

    The myth is that eating large quantities of excessively starchy foods is somehow essential to good health.


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