BellaOnline Forums Food and Wine Low Carb Rice substitutes

My Japanese background makes it hard to give up rice and noodles. Even a tiny bit of white rice makes my blood sugar spike so I need to do my best to avoid it.

Low carbers use cauliflower, grated, as a rice substitute. I saw a recipe that used raw, grated cauliflower in a fried rice recipe. I can see that being very tasty. Sliced, fried bacon, onion, soy sauce, garlic, green onions, a bit of sweetness from agave or Splenda, scrambled eggs.

Have you tried this? I will try it tonight.

I like quinoa. It's not quite as hard on the blood sugar. Quinoa makes a great veggie pilaf.

Lori, I used an Atkins recipe to make mashed potatoes with cauliflower. It was okay and I know it could be better with s little bit of work. But that doesn't solve your rice problem.

Lori, my parents are both diabetic & recently bought a newly cultivated brand of Indian Basmati rice made by Laxmi brand (which is a good brand)! It has a much lower glycemic index, almost half the GI of regular Indian Basmati rice. I actually tried it myself & it's pretty good. It feels much less dense than regular Indian Basmati & you don't feel as stuffed after eating it. The taste is the same! In fact, my son now prefers it! It cooks up with very separate grains (less starch) so it's great for pulaos & pilafs. My parents both say their fasting sugars are well below 100 every morning, so it works when eaten in moderation (of course)! It's available in any Indian grocery store. My mom also eats brown rice, since it has a lower GI.

I started eat low carb last year or so & am now down to a happy size 6 jeans :-) Also, a good thing with diabetes in my family with both parents - YIKES!

We have a spiced minced cauliflower dish called Gobi Kheema (usually made with minced meat, I have a few recipes on my site) but if you want one for Gobi Kheema, I have that too :-)

I also eat Joseph's Pita bread made with oat bran & flax seeds, each 6" pita has a net of just 4 carbs! They are soft & delicious too :-)

For my noodle fix, I eat shirataki noodles -- they're are made from tofu. Their texture differs slightly from regular noodles but I like them :-)

Hope this helps!

I've tried cauliflower in place of mashed potatoes and found it to be pretty tasty. I'll have to try Lori's recipe because I, too, still eat a good bit of rice.

Sadhana - Thanks for the Laxmi rice info. I found it on Amazon.com, too. I'll have to try it. On a side note - I really like your Avatar.

Thanks Sandra, she's a cutie!

The things we used to serve over rice, we now serve over a variety of other veggies. The rice was really just a "carrier" of the flavor before, so it's a matter of training the brain to look at the item as a carrier as well. I used to eat a ton of rice, and now I don't eat it much at all. I don't miss it either. I'm just as happy to have my curry over, say, cauliflower as the carrier.