Column Reprint: The Low Carb Garden

?The Low Carb Garden

Hey, look! The days are getting longer! Spring is coming! For many of us, that means it’s time to start thinking about the vegetable garden. Especially if you like to start your own plants from seed, it’s not a moment too soon.

What to plant in a low carb garden? Let’s start with cool-weather crops, the ones that can be planted as soon as the soil is soft.

All varieties of lettuce are low carb and wonderful, and need to be planted early. Garden-fresh lettuce is a tremendous luxury. Spinach is not only very low carb, but unbeatably nutritious, and it’s good both raw and cooked. It can go in at the same time as your lettuce does. So, for that matter, can endive, arugula, kale, and collards –– low carb all.

Cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and my standby, cauliflower, are all low carb, and should be planted early. I don’t bother planting cabbage, since it’s always cheap at the grocery store. I may plant Brussels sprouts this year, though!

Peas are a cool-weather crop, but are high carb as vegetables go, with 21 grams per cup, 7.4 grams of which are fiber, for a usable carb count of 13.6 grams. If that’s something you can fit into your program, peas are undeniably better when garden fresh.

Snow peas are much lower carb than green peas. One cup of chopped snow pea pods has 7.4 grams of carb, with 2.5 grams of fiber, for a usable carb count of just 4.9 grams. Snow peas are great stir-fried, of course, but I also like to snip them into 1/2" lengths and steam or microwave them very lightly, to use in place of green peas in salads. This is another vegetable that should go in early.

More unusual, pea shoots -- the actual stems and leaves that come up in the garden from regular or snow peas -- make a delicious and very low carb vegetable in their own right. Our permaculture pro neighbors, Keith and Peter, introduced these to us last year, and with a quick Asian-style dressing we found them addictive.

Have you tried fennel? It has an enchanting licorice-like flavor. Fennel is wonderful braised, or in slow cooker dishes, and makes an unusual salad vegetable. One bulb of fennel –– at least enough for two people -- has 17 grams of carbohydrate, but 7 grams of that is fiber, for a usable carb count of 10 grams. Fennel seed can be planted with your other early crops.

Many other low carb vegetables will need to be planted after the last fear-of-frost date in your region. Starting them indoors well in advance is a great idea.

Tomatoes, to my mind, are the best argument for home gardening. There is nothing quite so ambrosial as a home-grown tomato still warm from the sun. One medium tomato has 4.8 grams of carbohydrate, with 1.5 grams of fiber, for a usable carb count of 3.3 grams. They’’re also full of lycopene, a powerful antioxidant being researched for its anti-cancer properties –– a heckuva bonus.

Cucumbers are quite low carb –– 1 cup of cucumber slices has just 3.8 grams of carbohydrate and 0.5 grams of fiber, for a usable carb count of 3.3 grams. I love all sorts of cucumber salads, from creamy versions to hot-and-spicy Thai style.

All peppers are low carb. I grow banana peppers and jalapenos –– sweet peppers are easy and cheap to buy in the summer. A medium banana pepper has 2.5 grams of carb, with 1.6 grams of fiber, for a usable carb count of just 0.9 grams. Your average jalapeno has 0.8 grams of carb, with 0.4 grams of fiber, leaving just 0.4 grams of usable carbohydrate –– a real deal, considering how much flavor a jalapeno can bring to a dish!

Zucchini and other summer squashes are low carb. Small zucchinis, perfect for grilling, have 4 grams of carb each, with 2 grams of fiber –– just 2 grams usable carb. Only plant one zucchini plant, or you will be sorry!

Snap and wax beans are low carb. You’ll need to plant them after the soil warms up, but don’t start them inside –– they don’t transplant well. One cup of cut-up beans has 7.9 grams of carbohydrate and 3.7 grams of fiber, leaving 4.2 grams of usable carb. I particularly like to grow wax beans, since they’’re hard to find in the stores.

Here’s a dressing to toss with those first delicate leaves thinned from your lettuce!

Big Italian Restaurant Dressing
This is my clone of the dressing from a popular Italian restaurant chain –– minus the sugar, of course.

1/2 cup white wine vinegar
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup olive oil
1/4 cup Splenda
2 1/2 tablespoons grated Romano cheese
2 tablespoons beaten egg (feed the rest to the dog!)
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tablespoon minced parsley
1 pinch dried oregano
1 pinch red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon guar or xanthan (optional)

This one's really easy: Just assemble everything in your blender, and run the sucker for 10-15 seconds. Keep in an airtight container in the fridge.

Note: If you’re worried about that 2 tablespoons of raw egg, you can use egg substitute, or pasteurized eggs, instead.

1 1/2 cups, or 12 servings of 2 tablespoons, each with: 62 Calories; 6g Fat; 1g Protein; 1g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber, 1 gram usable carb.

(Reprinted with permission from 500 More Low-Carb Recipes, 2004 Fair Winds Press)