Tag: Recipe

Recipe & Product Review: Fruit Vinegar-Flavored Water, the Closest Drink I’ve Found to Fruit Juice

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Left to right: Apple cider vinegar, date vinegar, and raspberry vinegar.

Before I got diabetes, I used to love fruit juice. It’s one of the things I miss most and there really are no good zero-carb substitutes. I’ve found a few kombuchas that I like, but all have at least a few carbs per cup. Not too bad, but not really worth taking medication for. 

Recently, though, I found that I could add apple cider vinegar to water to get a really great sour apple juice flavor. I tried searching for other fruit vinegars, but everything I found had significant amounts of sugar, until u/ChezLuc, on Reddit, pointed me to Supreme Vinegar. They have a huge range of different kinds of vinegars, including 12 fruit vinegars. I e-mailed the company and all have “almost no residual sugar,” except for pineapple (1 g/15 mL). I tested my blood sugar after drinking ~50 mL of the raspberry and didn’t see any rise, so I’m pretty sure they’re telling the truth.

Here’s my thoughts on the raspberry and date flavors (rest were out of stock) and a couple recipe ideas:

  • Raspberry: I really like this flavor. Basically tastes like berries with the sugar removed, though more like blackberry than raspberry. The flavor is very strong (about twice as strong as apple cider vinegar for the same ratio). Surprisingly, it wasn’t very acidic compared with the apple cider vinegar I get from Costco, even though both claim to be diluted to 5% acidity. Maybe there’s something else in the apple that makes it more sour? 
  • Date: This tasted exactly like dates with the sugar removed and was also not very acidic. Personally, I don’t love dates, so this wasn’t my favorite. If you do like dates, though, this would probably be pretty good. 
  • Recipes:
    • Basic: 
      • 20:1 volume ratio of water to vinegar
      • Mix and serve
    • Sweetened: 
      • 20:1 volume ratio of water to vinegar
      • Sweetener to taste. I use 2 drops liquid sucralose or 10g allulose

Overall, I’m really enjoying these and have been drinking a ton of the raspberry vinegar-water over the last week. I’m definitely going to order the rest of Supreme’s flavors once they’re back in stock. I’m especially looking forward to the peach.


– QD

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Recipe: Salted Caramel Toasted nuts

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I’ve been confined to my house for the past couple weeks due to the Bay Area’s “shelter-in-place” order, so I’ve been experimenting with different recipes.

I always liked caramel flavored deserts, so I decided to see if I could get the same effect with allulose.

The experiment was successful The allulose browned & caramelized just like sugar. By adding butter and salt, I got a pretty good approximation of salted caramel. I tried it mixed in with toasted walnuts and pecans. The sweet/savory and soft/crunch contrast was fantastic. I personally preferred the walnuts, but you could put it over whatever you’d like.

I also tried just pouring the caramel into molds and topping with flaky sea salt. Quite good, but I prefer it over the nuts.

Over medium heat, allulose melted, then caramelized, just like sugar.
Plain salted caramel with flaky sea salt

I’ve included the recipe below if you want to try them yourself.


Hope you enjoy it!

– QD

Toasted Nuts with Low-Carb Salted Caramel

QD
Toasted Nuts with Low-Carb Salted Caramel
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 1 minute
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 11 minutes
Servings 6 50g portions
Calories 413 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 300 g nuts
  • 100 g allulose
  • 45 g butter
  • 60 g heavy cream
  • ½ tbsp kosher salt

Instructions
 

  • Toast nuts in a skillet over medium heat until fragrant. Set aside.
  • Add allulose and stir with a wooden spoon or heat resistant spatula. The allulose will clump up, melt, foam, and then brown to form a thick, amber liquid.
  • Add the butter, stirring continuously until it’s completely melted. Then slowly drizzle in heavy cream. Note: the mixture will bubble vigorously.
  • Stir in salt, then add the nuts and mix until combined.
  • Transfer to a bowl to cool and serve!

Notes

3.8g net carbs/serving
Nutrition information calculated by adding up macros of the individual ingredients and using walnuts for the nuts. Allulose not included in total or net carbs.

Nutrition

Serving: 50gCalories: 413kcalCarbohydrates: 7.3gProtein: 7.8gFat: 42gFiber: 3.5g
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was in the comments

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Recipe: Super Simple Smoked Pulled Pork with Easter Carolina Vinegar Sauce & Roasted Romanesco Cauliflower

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Smoked Pulled Pork with Easter Carolina Vinegar Sauce & Roasted Romanesco Cauliflower

Made this for dinner last night. It was really good and incredibly easy to make, so I thought I’d share.

For the pulled pork, I used Costco smoked pulled pork, but if you wanted to make from scratch, this recipe from Kenji Lopez-Alt is really good (I omit the brown sugar to make it low-carb, but you could also sub with allulose+10 wt% molasses)).

For the sauce, I adapted the recipe from Mastering Sauces, replacing the brown sugar with allulose+10 wt% molasses. 

The cauliflower was seasoned with olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste and roasted at 475 °F for 40 min. 

The sauce in particular turned out great; a good mix of sour, sweet, and spicy that really brought out the flavor of the pulled pork.


Hope you enjoy it!

– QD

Keto Easter Carolina Vinegar Sauce

QD
Keto Easter Carolina Vinegar Sauce
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 2 minutes
Total Time 2 minutes
Servings 0

Ingredients
  

  • 120 g apple cider vinegar
  • 30 g allulose
  • 3 g molasses
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 0.5 tsp red pepper flake
  • lots of black pepper (to taste)

Instructions
 

  • Mix all ingredients together until the sugar is dissolved, then serve.
  • Can be stored sealed in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was in the comments

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Request for Requests: What recipes should I develop next?

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I’ve had a lot of fun developing my low-carb chocolate-chip cookie, low-calorie protein muffin, and ice-cream recipes and I hope other people have been enjoying reading about the development process (and, of course, the actual recipes).

I’m not sure what to work on next, so I thought I’d see what other people are interested in.

What recipes would you like to see me work on next? Let me know in the comments or by e-mail (see sidebar).

Some ideas I had to get the discussion started:

  • A low-calorie biscuit (oat-fiber?)
  • Cookie-dough ice cream
  • Indian sweets (besan burfi, kaju katli)
  • Savory pastries (meat and/or vegetable fillings)


– QD

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Recipe: Low-carb Flourless Chocolate Cake

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u/Kubla_Khan on Reddit asked for recommendations for low-carb cake recipes, so I thought I’d share a flourless chocolate cake I made for my birthday last year. I wasn’t blogging then, so I don’t have any pictures available.

I adapted this from a recipe in The Best of America’s Test Kitchen (don’t remember which year), with the following modifications

  • Replaced bittersweet chocolate with 100% dark chocolate
  • Replaced sugar with erythritol
  • Added glucomannan

If I were to make this again, I’d probably replace half to all of the erythritol with allulose.


Hope you enjoy it!

– QD

Low-carb Flourless Chocolate Cake

QD
A low-carb adaptation of America's Test Kitchen's flourless chocolate cake
Print Recipe
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 45 minutes
Servings 0

Ingredients
  

Cake

Whipped Cream

  • 118 g heavy cream, cold
  • 2 tsp erythritol (can substitute allulose)
  • 0.5 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions
 

Cake

  • Preheat oven to 275 °F and spray 9″ springform pan with oil of choice.
  • Combine chocolate and butter in a bowl. Melt in a microwave at 50% power, stirring occasionally, ~4 min. Let cool for 5 min.
  • Whisk together eggs, erythritol, water, glucomannan, vanilla, and espresso powder. Whisk in in chocolate mixture until smooth and slightly thickened. Filter through fine-mesh strainer into pan, then gently tap pan on counter to remove air bubbles.
  • Let cake mixture sit for 10 min. to let air bubbles rise to the top. Pop bubbles with a fork, then bake for 45-50 min., until edges are set and center jiggles slightly when shaken.
  • Let cool for 5 min., then run a paring knife around the sides of the pan. Let cool on a wire rack until barely warm, ~30 min., then cover, poke holes in top, and refrigerate for at least 6 h.
  • Remove sides of pan and use an offset spatula to separate cake from bottom tray. Let stand at room temperature for 30 min., then serve with whipped cream.

Whipped Cream

  • Whisk together all ingredients in a stand mixer on medium low for 1 min, then high until stiff peaks form, 1-3 min.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was in the comments

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