Customer Reviews

The Low-Carb Gourmet: 250 Delicious and Satisfying Recipes

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If you're on a low carb diet, you might think you're stuck with burgers and veggies. Wrong! This gourmet cookbook lets you eat like a king and queen while losing weight.

Karen Barnaby begins by sharing her own trials and tribulations at weight loss, and explains how low carb diets work. She gives information on how to shop at a number of locations - Italian deli, Japanese grocery, etc. - to get food that is healthy and delicious. Then, it's on to the recipes!

For those bored with breakfast, Karen has a number of tasty solutions, from egg and sausage muffins to a deep dish pizza quiche. There are almond puff pancakes and Colin's omega waffles. Moving through the day, she offers a wide variety of appetizer, lunches, snacks, dinners, and yes, desserts.

If you're thinking these recipes will require "unusual" ingredients, think again. Sure, some do call for pine nuts or sea salt. Others, however, simply take the food you SHOULD be eating - celery, vegetable oil - and help you find new ways to make it very tasty. There are recipes for stir fried prawns, for turkey tenderloin with pesto, and for strawberry shortcakes with mascarpone balsamic cream.

The photos that are included are mouthwateringly gorgeous and really entice you to give the recipe a try. On the other hand, not every dish has a photo included - something I wish had been different. I always like to see a photo of what I'm trying to make. The instructions are straightforward and simple, and she lists both the effective carbs and total carbs for every dish, along with the fiber, protein, fat and calories. Substitutions are listed where appropriate, to help a chef that runs out of something.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has fallen into a rut with their low carb cooking. And especially if you're planning any get-togethers, this is a sure fire way to show others that low carb creates the most flavorful food on the planet!

Over the past few years, the latest "fad" in losing weight - a common problem in the United States and Canada - is the low-carb diet. In this cookbook, there are 250 delicious recipes that can satisfy your appetite while utilizing the low-carb theory.

Karen Barnaby is a chef in Vancouver. She began to have weight problems, and decided that a low-carb diet made sense to her. So, she began to use her culinary knowledge and develop wonderful tasting recipes that were low in carbohydrates. Through her efforts, she lost 70 pounds. Due to her success in weight loss, she decided to write this cookbook, her sixth book.

In this hardback book, there are color photographs which show a lot of the delectable recipes offered in here. Each recipe is also written in metric and imperial, so there are no conversions needed for a person who is accustomed to the opposite in measurements. In the introduction, Ms. Barnaby gives us a wide variety of ingredients that can help make meals flavorful and exciting. She shows us through her recipes, which prove that because you are eating a low-carb meal, it does not mean that you cannot have a wonderful meal filled with flavor!

And if you needed more information about this book, then you need to know that Ms. Barnaby has even included a section which provides the carbohydrate/fat/protein/caloric information needed for each recipe. The Table of Contents includes recipes for: breakfast, appetizers, soups, salads, vegetables, fish, poultry, beef, pork, lamb, sauces and desserts.

If you are on a low-carb diet, then you will be consuming Splenda. My doctor tells me that Splenda is actually a brand name for sucralose which is made from sucrose. It is 600 times sweeter than sugar and is not caloric. It was approved by the FDA in 1998 and is everywhere! In over 110 studies made on sucralose, there were apparently NO indication of toxic effects in humans or animals, and has been deemed safe for human consumption. From a food science perspective, when utilizing straight Splenda, and not a combination of sugar and Splenda, then baked goods will not brown as effectively. But, if you are diabetic, then I am sure that a pale cookie is no problem when you think of no cookie at all.

The recipes in this book are straight-forward, easy-to-read and easy-to-prepare. Ms. Barnaby does not use culinary terms that only a chef would understand. I would like to caution some cookbook buyers that there are some unusual ingredients that most homes in the United States and Canada do not utilize on a regular basis: tuna steaks, miso, capers, tofu, albumen powder, nori, flax (and more).

Many times, in cookbooks that offer low-fat, low-carb, vegetarian recipes, the recipes introduce us to international cuisines, or at least, international ingredients. At first, many people are not interested in taking the next step in trying the recipes, but I can assure you, that if you recover from the idea that you will be eating a daikon, then you will realize that the recipe for Daikon Radish, Chinese Cabbage and Tofu Soup is actually delicious!

There are also some vegetarian recipes in here utilizing tofu, such as Tofu-Roni and Cheese. Other delicious recipes offered in this book are: Kristine's Asparagus and Brie Frittata, Winter Vegetable Soup, Green Beans With Eggs and Nutmeg, Dark Chocolate Bars and Zucchini Cake.

I really enjoyed this book. I prefer to cook from fresh ingredients, rather than cans or packages. I like trying new ingredients and expanding on my current menus. If you are looking for a gourmet cookbook that is low-carb, then the so-titled book, The Low-Carb Gourmet is for you!

Karen Barnaby's "Low-Carb Gourmet" represents a winning combination of recipes and cooking (and eating) tips and would be an excellent addition to any low-carber's library.

Considering that this is a low-carb cookbook and not a low-carb how-to manual, the author very clearly introduces and explains the basics of low-carbing. To name just a few examples, in the book, she explains the effects of caffeine, alcohol, and water on the low-carb diet, explains how to calculate true carb counts, provides excellent examples of low-carb shopping lists and ingredients, provides a list of ideal low-carb snacks, suggests low-carb substitutes for high-carb ingredients, demystifies artificial sweeteners, teaches us how to spot hidden carbs in foods, and lists essentials for low-carb baking. She has also made the book an excellent culinary how-to guide in general by scattering throughout the book little side notes and suggestion boxes where she covers topics such as useful kitchen gadgets, how to store parsley to keep it fresh longer, making flavoured butters, tips for stabilizing whipping cream, and how to peel tomatoes (and yes, she teaches us that there IS more than one way to do this!).

Besides providing us with a useful reference book for following a low-carb lifestyle, most importantly, however, Karen Barnaby shows us that low-carbing isn't just about eggs, bacon, and a big slab of steak - it's about healthy, tasty, and varied foods that are not just great for a low-carb lifestyle, but for a healthy lifestyle in general. No matter what your food preferences are, there is something in this cookbook for everyone. For example, among the many recipes in this book, she even includes recipes creatively influenced by international cuisines such as Italian ("Flat Roasted Chicken with Prosciutto and Green Olives"), Chinese ("Daikon Radish, Chinese Cabbage, and Tofu Soup"), Japanese ("Cucumber Salad with Umeboshi and Bonito Flakes"), Thai ("Simple Chicken and Coconut Milk Curry"), French ("Braised Fennel with White Wine and Parmesan"), and Middle Eastern ("Lamb, Feta, and Olive Meatballs"), just to name a few. And although the book contains an impressive number of recipes, what's more impressive is the fact that the author gives suggestions for modifying the recipes and their ingredients to make all new dishes, thereby making the low-carb possibilities endless (and all delicious!).

Readers will be happy to see that every recipe in the book includes a carb count and other nutritional details per serving and will be even happier to find at the back of the book a handy summary chart of nutritional information for every recipe, ranked from the lowest carbohydrate count to the highest count. There is no doubt that readers will appreciate this convenient addition to the book as it allows low-carbers to easily calculate at a glance carb counts of meals they are interested in making. As well, the chart makes it easier for readers to determine which recipes may be appropriate for them at a particular stage of low-carbing (e.g., for Atkins followers, the chart makes it super easy to figure out which recipes are best during the induction phase). And if that's not enough, the author even gives us numerous ideas for low-carb entertaining! And before all you NON-low-carbers raise your eyebrows in suspicion, I can tell you that I have impressed more than a few low-carb skeptics with Karen Barnaby's "Shepherd's Pie with Mushrooms, Smoked Cheddar, Bacon, and Sour Cream". Superb!

I've made numerous recipes from this cookbook, and all of them were easy to follow for the novice chef and were absolutely fantastic! I highly recommend Karen Barnaby's "Low-Carb Gourmet". If she doesn't win you over with her amazingly delicious low-carb recipes, she'll win you over with her engaging and entertaining writing style which made the book a joy to read (AND to use!).

I love this book! I have been low-carbing for just over a year now, with great success in the weight-loss department. But I was bored and generally disappointed with the recipes from diet books, such as The South Beach Diet (all 3 books): a few of the recipes were good, some were bad and most were boring.

I was so excited when I found this book. I was already familiar with Karen Barnaby - her first book, Pacific Passions, is one of my alltime favorite cookbooks. So I was sure her recipes would be great tasting. And they were! So far, I have made about 1/2 the recipes in the book and I LOVE THEM ALL! Even my non-low-carb husband enjoys them.

Some of the best of the best are:
* Mom's Cauliflower Salad - I made this for a party and everyone raved about it, several people asked for the recipe.
* Chilled Cucumber & Avocado Soup - quick, easy & great on a hot day
* Scalloped Savoy Cabbage - my husband does not usually like cooked cabbage, but he loved this.
* Twice-Baked Cauliflower - so good I could eat it every single day.
* Oven-Fried chicken - nearly as good as the "real thing".
* Turkey Snackin' Cake - all the traditional Thanksgiving flavors in one easy dish.
* Shepherd's Pie with Smoked Cheddar - one of the best recipes in the book. My husband said it was the best shepherd's pie I'd ever made, much better than the potato-topped kind. And he is a HUGE potato lover!
* Keema - I made this with ground lamb! I noted in the book to always make a full batch or there aren't enough leftovers.
* Donald's Deep Dish Pizza Quiche - I was a bit skeptical, but this was quite fabulous. Really cures pizza cravings, and it's quite quick to make.

The list goes on and on, but these are some of the best recipes I tried, low-carb or otherwise. Some of the recipes are very "gourmet" (KB is a restaurant chef, after all), but most are fairly easy to make and don't require a lot of hard to find ingredients. If you're bored with other low-carb cookbooks, give this one a try!

Also, check out Karen's website. She herself is a low-carb success story.

Karen was the visiting cook at the Pacific Club in Hong Kong where I am a member.
I had the great pleasure to go to the club those 2 weeks and taste a variety of dishes done by Karen. She also, taught 2 classes. I went to one of the classes.
Her dishes are delicious. It is amazing how her dishes taste. You never think you are eating low-carb. Many times it tastes better than the original dishes.
I recommend this book because I was so tired of eating things that are not the same and you have to acquire a taste for.
Karen's Fried Rice made out of Cauliflower and the Mash Potatoes are out of this world. Also, the desert section is unreal.
Now that she is back in Canada I've asked the club to keep some of the basic recipes on the menu.

This cookbook is a winner! This isn't subsisting on diet food; this is truly dining. The recipes are low carb done right: no use of ingredients that are best avoided, synergistic use of artificial sweeteners, wholesome ingredients with healthy fats and carbs. But more than just being low carb, these recipes are for dishes you'd be proud to make and serve even if you weren't low carbing. This one belongs in your low carb kitchen!

For years I subscribed to cooking magazines and enjoyed trying new recipes...then about a year ago, I found out how much healthier I am eating low carb. Especially important to my health is avoiding wheat and gluten. I have appreciated basic cookbooks focusing on low-carb cooking (especially by Dana Carpender), and am now comfortable cooking this way for my husband and me. Lately, I have been making the same meals over and over. They're winners, but cooking hasn't been feeling like a hobby. When I opened this book and started reading through it, almost every page looked like something I would mark in a Bon Apetit magazine to definitely try. In the last 2 weeks I have tried a couple dozen recipes and only in one would I do anything different (add more sweetener to the chocolate pudding). There's very few ingredients that I wouldn't find in my neighborhood grocery store, and the recipes are not complicated. I recommend this book for anyone who is feeling bored or limited on their low-carb diet. I'm looking forward to trying more recipes in this book and repeating the ones we have already tried.

This is an amazing collection of recipes. They truly look like gourmet dishes when prepared and taste like them too.They are extrememly easy to prepare and honestly taste like you're "cheating" on your low carb lifestyle. I am SO happy I bought this book. You will be too. I promise.

As stated previously by other reviewers, the recipes in this book are awesome. I have purchased many low-carb cookbooks over the years (at least 15), but this is by far the most used cookbook I own. The instructions are clear, the ingredients are easy to find and the flavors are great! I have found that many of the low-carb cookbooks that I own focus on getting the carb counts within a certain range without really paying attention to the ingredients being used. Fortunately, this is not the case with this book. Every recipe that I have tried has turned out wonderfully. I still have plenty of recipes that I need to try out! The dessert recipes are a standout for me because most of the ingredients used are those you can find in a well stocked supermarket (you can find almond meal at any Trader Joe's or from an online source). I definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for new ideas and really tasty food. This is definitely worth every penny; it is the most expensive low-carb cookbook I own, but also the most used!
Just an aside: the recipes really do work. There were times when I was skeptical about some of the ingredients or the amounts used, but every time I have made a recipe, it has turned out wonderfully. Give this book a try!

I just got this book from a book club and even though I didn't pay $35 for it, I think it would be worth $35 just for the Donald's Deep Dish Pizza Quiche recipe! I made it today, and it's outstanding. Both my daughters were begging for slices. I was just getting so sick of scrambled eggs for breakfast, and the author suggests several alternatives on the breakfast main page, including recipes from other sections of her cookbook. There are a number of recipes I'm looking forward to trying, like Brussels sprouts with cream cheese and nutmeg (she swears it'll make a sprouts eater out of anyone) and Chicken with bacon cream and thyme.