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Zombie brain and other low carb options

Taxus

Member
Messages
24
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I am always searching for low carb options that suit my T2 diet and which, if possible, my other half and two young kids enjoy. One winner is celeriac (as chips or boil and then mash with butter using a stick blender), it's this knobbly looking veg my daughter calls zombie brain.

For a spaghetti/noodle alternative we have tried barenaked noodles from Tesco (we score it as 3 out of 10), Oomi noodles from Sainsbury's (our score 6 out of 10) and today we discovered soy bean spaghetti at Aldi, it's produced by 'The Foodie Market'.

I would like to stress that I have no financial/business or other links with any of these supermarkets or food companies, but the Aldi product is looking interesting.

Just £1.70 for 200g, and the packet says only 2.1g of carbs per 100. I was sceptical, surely something made of beans could not be low carb, but we gave it a try today for lunch. Everyone liked the taste and texture, and my blood reading was 5 just before lunch and two hours later was 4.9. Our family score .... a good 9 out of ten. Has anyone else tried this product? Aldi also do a black bean spaghetti by 'The Foodie Market' which claims to have only 1.6g carbs per 100g. We will give it a go later this week.
 
I'm T2, vegan and attempting to keep the carbs low. The Aldi products sound very tempting, thank you.
 
I will definitely be paying a visit to Aldi, sounds good.
 
Taxus said:
One winner is celeriac (as chips or boil and then mash with butter using a stick blender), it's this knobbly looking veg my daughter calls zombie brain.
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Thank your daughter from me, I'll now forever refer to celeriac as zombie brains! My favourite ways of eating zombie brains are:
- Sprinkle thick slices of zombie brains with a bit of oil, put in hot oven. When they're halfway done, put slices of cheese on top and some smoked paprika and chilli powder. I like them soft and done but that's personal preference. You can either count it as vegetable or as meat replacer, just what you prefer. I can never remember how long I leave them in the oven, but they always turn out nice
- Grate raw zombie brains, mix with mayonnaise, salt and pepper. Traditionally eaten on a slice of bread, but it works out fine on a cabbage leaf, rolled up in a slice of ham or just use a spoon.
 
I’ve never tried celeriac. What does it taste like?
 
My wife and I eat the Aldi 'black bean' noodles. To me it doesn't taste much like traditional noodles, but it's OK and makes a change from Cauli 'rice/mash'. .
 
I've never had celeriac, but have heard it;'s decent.

For mash I like cauliflower mash. It';s a little wet compared to mashed potato...or at least I haven;'t found a way to get a smooth mash without added liquid.

For noodles, I see 2 sub-cases. For spaghetti I have not had anything to date that really works. Spaghetti squash comes closest. Everything seems to shed water ruining the sauce. The other case is a ramen noodle type of food. For that I love spiral zucchini. I might even prefer that to rice noodles, especially in a soup.
 
I've enjoyed zombie brains but I've had issues with my hands and now find them harder to "massacre", but I've seen suggestions for cooking them whole in the microwave to soften them up, and I've one waiting for this new kind of treatment so I can mash it up for fish pie topping.
 
I spiralised a courgette for the first time on Friday and made a ‘pasta’ bake. I deliberately left the sauce rather thick to allow for flooding and it was yummy. I was very pleasantly surprised, both by the end product and by the good job my cheapie twizzler device made of it!
 
Celeriac is one switch I'm happy to make but when time is very short for me (often) it's a pain to prepare!
 
Roggg said:
For mash I like cauliflower mash. It';s a little wet compared to mashed potato
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Have you tried roasting it in the oven rather than boiling/steaming? Or even drying it out in the oven after cooking another way..? Leads to a drier mash but don't forget the butter.
 
I love roasted cauliflower, but never really thought of mashing at after roasting. That's something I may try.
 
I bought Mrs NMD one of these a while back. She nearly lost a finger tip and nearly (not quite) ruined a whole plateful of courgette as a consequence!
 
I am probably the only one that thinks cauliflower rice is awful has a weird texture and no substitute for the real thing so I only eat cauliflower cheese
 
Pinkorchid said:
I am probably the only one that thinks cauliflower rice is awful has a weird texture and no substitute for the real thing so I only eat cauliflower cheese
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I don’t like it either although I love cauliflower cheese.
 
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