The Low-Carb Gourmet: 250 Delicious and Satisfying Recipes (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Maren Caruso (Photographer)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sushi without rice, pizza without dough and bread pudding without bread? Barnaby provides recipes for all the gourmet treats that low-carb dieters crave. Though starch-lovers might find the To-Frites chewy and unsatisfying, they’re not bad as long as they’re thought of as fried spiced tofu and not as French fries. Many of the recipes are like this: great on their own, but a poor substitute for whatever they might be trying to be. The ones that stand out are those that could be found in the protein section of any carb-laden cookbook: Salmon Steaks with Ginger Butter, Slow-Roasted Spice-Cured Pork Shoulder, Winter Vegetable Soup. Barnaby does include multiple recipes for vegetables reborn in a low-carb world: rutabagas, kohlrabi, chayote, daikon, cauliflower and kale find their niche in butter and cream sauces, or disguised as rice, mashed potatoes and pasta. The low-carb eater will welcome the salad and vegetable sections as defense against the idea that low-carb diets are all about steaks and bacon. Snacks are also strong, with delicious Five-spice Sesame Walnuts and scary but familiar Crispy Chicken Skin. The dessert section includes a discussion of possible artificial sweeteners, Splenda being the most recommended. Many of the desserts are surprisingly tasty. With Splenda and almond meal in place of flour, the New York Cheesecake is as good as a more traditional cake. The growing number of low-carb dieters seeking to cook food that even their carb-chowing friends will appreciate will welcome this book, but, as many of the recipes are high in fat and odd for the traditional palate, it is unlikely to lure people to the diet.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description

"Cook well. Eat well. That's always been my philosophy," Karen Barnaby says. "I've just translated it into low-carbing." Anyone who is currently on-or contemplating embarking upon-one of the many low-carb diets will find The Low-Carb Gourmet to be a goldmine of recipes, tips, and inspiration.

The first sophisticated low-carb cookbook on the market from acclaimed chef Karen Barnaby, who has lost 70 pounds through low-carb eating.

Over the past few years, low-carb high-protein diets have changed the way America eats. But how much steak, bacon, and cheese can a person eat? Low-carbers have been looking for a cookbook that will give them the variety, sophistication, and sublime taste sensations that the true food lover craves-and yet will allow them to reap the weight-loss and health benefits of low-carb eating.

In The Low-Carb Gourmet, award-winning Canadian cookbook author Karen Barnaby, executive chef of the famed Fish House in Vancouver, applies her carb-cutting techniques to sophisticated dishes, including soups, snacks, sauces, main dishes, and even spectacular sweets. The 250 recipes range from Prawns with Peppery Garlic Vinaigrette, Guacamole, and Pancetta Wrapped Salmon with Red Wine Butter to Beef Salad with Creamy Horseradish Dressing, Daikon Radish, Chinese Cabbage and Tofu Soup, Pumpkin Cheesecake, and Tiramisu. The author reveals some secrets to low-carb shopping and offers expert
advice on meal planning for special occasions.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Rodale Books (October 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157954990X
• ISBN-13: 978-1579549909
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #466,377 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious recipes for all styles of eating, October 29, 2004

By	Lisa Shea "LisaShea.com" - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

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!

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tasty Gourmet Recipes, February 17, 2005

By	Jennifer A. Wickes "Food Writer" - See all my reviews

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!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Low-carbing never tasted this good!, January 9, 2005

By	Low-Carb Foodie (Burnaby, BC, Canada) - See all my reviews

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!).