Hi guys,

Can anyone recommend a good low carb sauce to make bolognese with (or even your own recipe)? I love bolognese on top of shirataki noodles (zero carbs), and the Paul Newman sauce I use at the moment is great but I'm wondering if anyone has a lower carb alternative.

Cheers

Hi Melbgal,

My Bolognese type sauce these days is way less tomatoey than it used to be pre LC.

For 2 of us, I brown about 400g or so of mince (the regular, of course - it's cheapest apart from being highest in fat ), add some chopped onion, or spring onion if I want to use fewer carbs, whichever herbs and spices I'm in the mood for, maybe some chopped bacon and then the tomato. I use only ½ a 400g can of chopped tomatoes. It didn't seem to have enough tomato at first, but now we're both used to it. I must admit here that I'm lucky with my SO - he's pretty happy with anything I plonk in front of him.

Sometimes I'll add some chopped zucchini and mushrooms, then serve as is sprinkled with grated parmesan. Other times I just serve it as "meat" with some other vegies or salad. And sometimes I make up a casserole by placing various chopped vegies into a buttered casserole dish, add my "bolognese," top with grated cheddar or mozzarella cheese then bake in a mod oven for ½ hour or so.

Hmm, think I've got off the beaten track a bit. Never mind, maybe I'll give someone an idea or two.

HTH (a little? )

Roz

We use dip believe it or not. Most brands are ok, the Palmyra Bacon and Cheese flavour is nice with cheap mince. My g/f and I share a 200g tub which equates to us consuming 5grams each. Tends to turn out thicker than the old tomatoes. We have 300g mince each, half a brown onion each (tastes better than green cooked) and a clove of Garlic. We found all the canned sauces were anything from 15grams each to 30!

Rosebud,

What brand of tinned tomatoes do you use. I seem to spend half my life looking at the nutritional label on tomato products. Today I bought 'Annalise' tinned tomatoes and tomato puree which has no sugar listed under the ingredients. They have 4.2g and 4.6g carbs per 100g.
By the way do all the different types of tomatoes (Roma, Plum etc.) have the same carb counts?

Zedgirl

G'day Zed,

I usually use Coles' Campagna, but as you say, it's just a matter of reading labels. Annalise sounds fine.

According to Diet Club, ordinary tomatoes have 2g carbs per 100g, while Roma tomatoes have 2.5. But the tins only seem to use Roma tomatoes, so it's a matter of taking what's available, I guess.

And as I said, my Bolognese is way less tomatoey than it used to be. I used to use heaps of tomato paste, now I do sometimes add a little (again it's just a matter of staring at labels...).

Cheers, matey, hope that helps a little.

Roz

Thanks Rosebud

I'm going to try your bolognese sauce sometime this week. I haven't eaten any since I started lc'ing as I couldn't imagine having it without the spaghetti. I might try it over some julienned zucchini.

Hi I like the sound of those shirataki noodles? Can you tell me where to find them?
Thanks

yep, i just bought a bunch from an asian shop at the Quenn Victoria Market, it is on the row of shops just up from McDonalds. If you know where the organic section of the market is, the shops are near there.

Or you can go to Fujimart in Toorak Rd south Yarra, they sell them there too.

Just ask the shop assistants for shiritaki noodles, they will know what you want. the packets from the market are in all in japanese but you can read the word konnyaku on them.

Many thanks I will do that. Don't you just get the best tips and ideas from this forum!

Hi Melbgal!

For a low carb tomato sauce and to be honest I haven't actually tried it yet as my health food store hasn't gotten it in stock however, empower foods have released a low carb tomato sauce and according to their website:

www.empowerfoods.com.au

it only has 0.9 carbs per serving! So you may want to check it out. To see if you can purchase this in your local area use the following link:

http://www.empowerfoods.com.au/outlets/

I hope this helps!

Kirria

Sounds good and there's actually an outlet in SA ..amazing. I'm thinking the satay sauce would make a good stir fry with some savoy cabbage, bok choi, brocoli, cauliflower and diced chicken breast.
Thanks

Hi Kirria,

Melbgal was looking for a low carb pasta type tomato sauce - what the Americans call "tomato sauce."

The Empower Foods tomato sauce is what the Yanks call "ketchup," not a sauce to use with noodles.

Thanks for the Empower Foods link though. Others have used them in the past, but found them to be VERY expensive. Still nice to have the option of choosing some LC foods.

Cheers,

Roz

I know when I first started looking at low carb foods that I found them expensive, however, when I realised that your actually using a much smaller portion than you usually would I realised that in the end cause it's usually an occassional treat it's not that expensive.

For example with the cookie mix, it cost me $10.50 and I got 15 cookies out of it so that's pretty pricey. However, I realised cause I was freezing the cookies and I wasn't going to be scoffing down 5 at a time, that the price was irrelevant cause it would be the same as going out and buying a cookie or a muffin - we don't do it everyday we just do it as a treat.

So I think if you look at prices this way, it doesn't seem that bad

Kirria

Hi Kirria,

I do take your point that they are no dearer than buying readymade ones, but considering they are homemade, they are way more expensive than high carb mixes or starting from scratch. Making your own from scratch is much cheaper. Have you looked at our recipe forums here for cookie/biscuit or muffin recipes?

I make almond biccies form the Low Carb Luxury site (recipe here) which I suspect are similar to the Empower almond biccies I saw...and much cheaper.
I can also recommend these muffins: http://forum.lowcarber.org/showthread.php?p=943795

Cheers.

Roz

Hi Roz!

Yes, I have looked at the recipe forums, however for me a packet mix is usually easier only because of the whole new baby thing. But thanks for pointing me back there, when I have more time i'll start cooking up a storm!



Thanks
Kirria