The Keto Roll

Japanese food - usually thought of as a lean choice, but that craving for sushi flavors could not be squelched.

We've posted before about low-carb sushi.  Where I come from, the strong Mexican influence means sushi contains many non-traditional ingredients like avocado, cream cheese, and spicy mayo (actually my three favorite sushi ingredients - guess I am not into authentic sushi!).  Do those ingredients sound familiar?

A crab salad is used to boost the fat and proved to be the trickiest ingredient.  Beware of canned crab (added sugar) or crab sticks (full of carbs!).


Ingredients:


spicy crab salad:

114 g cooked blue crab
40 g musa olive oil mayo
5 g sesame oil
5 g cholula hot sauce

50 g avocado
50 g philadelphia cream cheese (or waitrose)
2 sheets nori
rice vinegar

10 g soy sauce (carrefour)
1 g wasabi


Start with your cooked blue crab.  I buy Ocean Isle Premium Claw Crab Meat from Morrison's which is pre-cooked and very convenient.  Any cooked crab will do, so use what works for you!

Add the mayo, sesame oil, and cholula hot sauce.  Cholula hot sauce is an authentic Mexican brand of hot sauce.  I was shocked and pleased to find it in a UK supermarket.  Also one of the few hot sauces with detailed nutritional information.

Weigh your avocado and cream cheese.  Divide them in half, along with your spicy crab salad, since you are making 2 rolls.

Take one sheet of nori.  Brush on rice vinegar to moisten the nori.  This will make it easier to seal and cut later.  Make sure you do not use seasoned rice vinegar, this has added sugar.  Rice vinegar is similar to wine vinegars, but slightly less acidic.  Since you are using a small amount of something very low-carb, I considered it negligible in the calculations.

Spread your crab salad along the length of the nori down the center.  Place half inch thick strips of avocado and cream cheese down the center also.

Roll up your sheet of nori, sealing with more brushed on vinegar if needed.  I do this without bamboo sushi rolling mats, so it can be done.  It's not particularly easy though!  Don't over work the roll.  It is very soft and moist from the crab salad and will tear easily.

Repeat with 2nd sheet of nori.

Slice into inch thick slices.

In a small dish, put 1 g wasabi and 10 g soy sauce.  My soy sauce has 3.2 g of carbs per 100g.  If yours is more carb-y, try watering it down with a little water - it may just be stronger.  Or you can also use less soy sauce.  The roll does not absorb much when dipped, and invariably there is some left behind in the dish - so don't stress!

fat:  63.1 g, protein:  26.8 g, carb:  3.1 g

ratio: 2.1:1

Dining out: Rio Grande Valley style

I have mentioned in previous posts the concept of 'borrowing' protein from one meal so that I can have more flexibility for the next. Generally speaking it's not something which I should be doing often and never with more than 4-6g of protein. There are occasions however, such as when eating out, when this is the only way to go.

Two such dining-out events which would lure me into this breakfast of self-sacrifice are lunchtime trips to two of my favourite restaurants in McAllen: 'Taco Palenque' and 'Kumori'.

Unfortunately, and no doubt very much to the chagrin of the scientist lying beside me, I will be exposing the unscientific nature of my calculations when eating out in these places, and apologise in advance to those of you that thought me completely infallible.

Taco Palenque

Living in the Rio Grande Valley, there are no shortage of taco joints. They are as ubiquitous as you would expect for an area of the US which has an (unofficial) 95% Mexican population. The family are very clear however that none are better than Taco Palenque, and I was lucky to savour the full experience, tortilla and all, in November before I started my wacky diet. A distant memory though that may seem now.

Things are different nowadays obviously, but there are still plenty of elements to Mexican food which  allow me to put together a fairly balanced Tristan-approved meal. I tend to order a sizzling beef fajita  plate or a couple of beef, chicken or 'carnitas' (pork) tacos, which provide me with about 85g of meat and a side plate of guacamole (45g). Though I don't weigh them exactly, I am starting to get an eye for these things and put together a salad from the side bar, made up of lettuce (35g), green cabbage (25g), cilantro (10g) and a few slices of pickled jalapeño peppers (25g). I obviously eat these without the tortillas, beans or rice and drench the salad in olive oil (45g) to bring the meal up to scratch.

fat:  63 g, protein:  25.3 g, carb:  3.1 g

ratio:  2.2:1

Kumori

My visits to Kumori are probably the closest I come to a pure 'cheat meal', in that it is impossible to calculate the precise amounts of the ingredients in the various rice-less 'sushi' rolls on their menu. Yes, 'rice-less' and 'sushi' rolled into one, well rolled into three options actually at this pseudo-sushi restaurant in McAllen which panders to the (un)exotic tastes of Valley diners. 

The 'San Francisco' (pictured at right), 'Golden' and 'Paradise' rolls all contain cream cheese, avocado, spicy crab, salmon, 'fresh' shrimp and white fish in varying amounts, held together by soy paper or cucumber. With only limited amounts of these ingredients in each roll, I feel I cannot be far from the mark when it comes to protein and carb content, and since all three are served slathered with what must be high fat 'spicy mayo', I don't need to go crazy on the coconut oil when I get home. I will say that these rolls are about as far removed from actual sushi as it is humanly possible to produce, however if I close my eyes and dip them into a soy sauce and wasabi mix, I am transported, even if just momentarily, back to my sushi-eating days.

Realizing that there are undoubtedly carbs in home made mayo and the soy paper and also no real way of knowing what exactly Kumori is labelling as 'white fish' or 'spicy crab', I have lately been tempted away from the dark side and have ordered the 'fresh tuna salad', served with cucumber strips and green onion and drenched in sesame oil and ponzu sauce. This seems to banish the raw fish cravings with a more controlled list of ingredients, surely keeping me within the meal's prescribed carb and protein limit. I do, however, still need to supplement the meal with a tablespoon or two of coconut oil when I get home in a bid to hit the required fat levels but consider this just a small price to pay for a delicious raw tuna meal.

Stir Fry Chicken Salad with Soy Lime Dressing

This is officially Tristan's new favorite meal, so definitely a must-share.  Asian foods are some of the hardest to do on this diet and what Tristan had been missing most, so I was determined to come up with something.  This salad really hits the spot.

Ingredients:

35 g spinach

15 g mung bean sprouts

5 g green onion

20 g salted roasted macadamia nuts

5 g fresh basil

75 g chicken thigh (cooked weight)

stir fry oil for cooking

Dressing:

4 g soy sauce

4 g lime juice

5 g toasted sesame oil

10 g stir fry oil

25 g olive oil

1 g truvia

Arrange spinach, bean sprouts, and chopped green onion on your plate.

Chop the macadamia nuts to desired fineness and sprinkle over your salad.

Cut fresh basil leaves in strips and scatter over salad.

Cut raw chicken thighs into 1 inch strips and fry in stir fry oil until fully cooked with crispy bits.  Stir fry oil is a combination of usually soybean oil, ginger oil, garlic oil, and sesame oil.  This is essentially to give the salad ginger and garlic flavors without adding the extra carbs.

For the dressing, just combine all ingredients and pour over salad.

fat:  62.9 g, protein:  24.2 g, carb:  3 g

ratio:  2.3:1

We ate this salad warm, but Tristan suspects it would be equally, if not more, yummy served chilled, so make a double batch and try it both ways!