Brussels Sprouts- taken away from their momma way too soon

Another from the cabbage family, in this case, the from the kiddy table. Speaking of kiddy tables, when I was a child, I hated this vegetable with almost the same passion that I hated beets. When I grew into my adult taste buds, I still hated beets, but I love me some Brussels.

When we'd have Brussels Sprouts, my dad would say how cruel we were for eating little baby cabbages. I would insist that we send them back to their momma, but we never would. This is the only food I did the old slip into the napkin trick. My mom caught onto this trick and would search the garbage to make sure no errant Brussels made it in there. I resorted to sticking them in the cellar. When my cache of petrified Brussels were found, it was not a happy day in our household, I kid you not. I didn't have to hide beets because they make me violently physically ill, so my mom learned to not sully my plate with them.

When I was just starting out in the adult world, I was a cashier at a large supermarket. It had just come to town, so we were inundated with a bunch of exotic new produce choices. Our old grocery store was a bit skimpy on the produce selection. Sure, there was always stuff in it, but it was usually what was in season and very basic vegetables and fruit. For example, people who were raised in larger towns were shocked to learn that for the most part, we couldn't get oranges during the summer or apples during the spring. And we definitely didn't get Brussels in their natural form. I was shocked the first time a customer brought a "Brussels tree" through the line. I guess I really believed they were baby cabbages.

Enough of my personal relationship with Brussels. They are on the Induction list in the "more carby than lettuce" section. So they can be eaten, but be careful with the portions. They are a winter vegetable (depending on your region). After their season is over, they are an excellent frozen food choice. If you haven't tried them recently, revisit them. They can be overcooked, which turns them bitter and slimy. Cooked properly and well seasoned, they are almost creamy, mild, and an excellent compliment to meat. My in-laws like them with gravy, but I prefer butter or cheese. In fact, they're on the menu tonight.

Just check out the vitamins in these little buggers according to the Nutritional Data website.

Take me to your leader: Cauliflower

Ok, I have this thing about vegetables. A lot of them are weird looking. My money's on the invading race of hostile aliens looking more like a stalk of Brussels Sprouts than a blob of green jelly or a super intelligent shade of any colour. It's not just vegetables, but fruits and plants themselves as well. I mean, have you ever really looked at a strawberry?

One of our oddest botanical treasures is cauliflower. It not only looks weird (and to me, the different coloured ones look even weirder), but smells strongly as well. It can also make those who eat it excrete funny smells. But it's all worth it because it is a yummy, versatile part of a low carb diet. Heck, even those eating high carb diets should consider the wonders of this veg.

Cauliflower is sort of like broccoli. Actually, they are the same species of plant. This surprised me because other than them being shaped sort of similarly and the smell issue (but different smells, really), they aren't that alike to me.

You might not like cauliflower. Or, I should say, you might think you don't like cauliflower. Now, don't I sound like your mum? "How will you know you don't like it with your new, sensitive, low carb taste buds if you don't try in in various dishes and with different preparation styles? Hmmm?" It is true, most vegetables will taste different to you as your body adjusts to low carb. Furthermore, we often have only had vegetables that were poorly prepared. Then in turn, we cook those vegetables in horrendous ways and make our kids learn to hate them.

I can't stand overcooked cauliflower. I have come to learn that that's pretty much all I've eaten before Atkins. Cauliflower that has had the life boiled out of it. Or raw cauliflower. Before I started this way of eating, I often said "I can only eat cauliflower raw or if it's covered in cheese." Now, I've found, I still like it raw or covered in cheese, but also fried, baked, steamed, or lightly boiled. It can replace potatoes or rice in recipes, but it's also a wonderful vegetable in its own right.

It's a winter vegetable. The season that it's at its peak will vary from country to country, but here in the UK, it's a mid-winter to early spring veg. I am going to be a bit heretical here. If you want to enjoy this veg (or almost any other veg) outside the season, by all means do, but get it frozen. Yes, yes, fresh is better, but old cauliflower from halfway around the world isn't fresh.

When preparing fresh cauliflower, remember that the outer leaves and any bits you throw away can stink up a kitchen if left to their own devices. It's best to empty your compost or bin soon after you prepare it.

You can eat it raw, in stir-fry, as an addition to ground beef (or a topper instead of potatoes for cottage or shepherd's pie), mashed up like potatoes, in curries and soups, smothered in cheese, or steamed with a bit of salt, pepper, and butter. I would say I now use this vegetable second only to tomatoes and spinach in frequency, and I have come to just love the flavour without the heavy cheese coating. One of the things I've found that's wonderful about it is that it doesn't really take that long to cook. I guess I always thought it did because most people I know overcook it (see above).

Cauliflower. Just don't think too much about the alien thing.

Nutritional Information You can find out what the USDA says about a cup of raw cauliflower here.


Photo CC Attribution 2.0 licence by Flickr user Sophiea

Celery root/celeriac (don't judge a root vegetable by its covering)

You might not have ever had celery root. It's not that popular in North America and in the UK. Usually, it seems people blame its lack of popularity on the fact it's hard to clean. I don't buy it. Most people don't even get far enough to clean it.

It's an ugly looking veg. It's got wrinkles, hair, and tough skin. When I was picking some up for the first time, my husband advised me to get the smallest one, a total case of lookism.

We got our first celery root from Sainsbury's. The top was already chopped off, as were most of the roots. It was shrink wrapped in a plastic wrapping (probably to keep the exposed areas from browning the vegetable). It sat on our food shelf a week before I got up the courage to cook it. I was afraid that it might taste like turnip or parsnips.

Cleaning and peeling it wasn't that big of a deal. After scrubbing it under water, I had to use a knife rather than a peeler. I found it a little difficult to slice the thing. Overall, I found it easier than preparing potatoes. I hate peeling potatoes, and I am thankful to Dr. Atkins for saving me from that drudgery. Upon peeling, I noticed the nice yummy celery smell. As soon as I sliced it, I plopped the slices into salted, boiling water (that also contained the juice of half a lemon). It didn't take long for slices to soften, but despite boiling for 20 minutes or so, they didn't really get that soft. Next time I boil celeriac, I am going to try to boil it longer, because later experiments have lead me to believe that it does soften. The flavour of boiled celeriac was nice. Not that unlike other root vegetables, but more complex and lighter.

This week I bought another to make chips (American: French Fries). Again, cleaning was easy. I didn't bother with lemon juice as I figured that I wanted them to brown anyway. I fried them in a heavy, deep skillet with salt and freshly ground pepper (and generous oil).

They turned out incredible. I am not a huge fan of chips or fries, but I adore celeriac chips. The starch broke down nicely during frying, and the consistency was almost identical to chips made from potatoes. The light celery taste was complimentary. It was something that would be an improvement on regular chips, so in a way, I don't see these as "mock chips", but a superior dish on its own.

I fried them on a relatively low heat, and I found that you have to be careful to cook them evenly. They were great with or without vinegar, and even my non-low carbing brother-in-law liked them.

Look for future posts on celeriac. I plan on making oven roasted celeriac and a cream of celeriac soup, as well as figuring out improvements on celeriac chips.

Definitely look out for this vegetable or ask your produce manager to order you some. They keep well, so the risk for them should be low in the special order. I am almost positive, you will come back for more and buy out their supply before it goes bad.

Nutrition
According to the USDA (I know, I know) this is the breakdown for a cup of raw celeriac.

Photo CC licence Attribution-non commercial-No Derivative 2.0 by Flickr user rachel is coconut and lime

Acceptable foods

First of all, please do not substitute this or any web resource for reading a book written by experts on low carb ways of eating. You do not have to read the latest version of the Atkins diet; many people have found success in using the older versions. However, for clarification sake and to give people an idea of what exactly is allowed during the two week Atkins Induction (and to give you an idea of what sort of food will be covered in this blog), here is the latest version of the allowed Induction food list.

There are a few things I'd like to cover in that list. There is a misconception about cream. You are allowed 2-3 Tbs of cream plus one ounce of soured cream OR 3 oz. of unsweetened heavy cream. If you choose to forgo soured cream, you may have up to 4.5 oz of cream.

You are not limited to the cheeses listed on that list. You are limited to natural, full fat, aged firm, semi-soft, and soft cheeses.

Finally, you do not have to eat any Atkins products if you don't want to. In my experience, those who stay away from them, especially during Induction, have the most success.

What can we eat?

When someone first visits an online low-carb community, they often have questions about the way of eating. "Am I doing this right?" "My aunt's best friend went on Atkins and her doctor told her it was the spawn of Satan!" "What fats can I eat?" "Do I have to give up [x]?" (insert beer, wholewheat bread, ice cream, oatmeal, corn, etc). Well, this blog isn't really going to answer those questions except to say read the book for your plan, read Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes (also known as the Diet Delusion in the UK), and if you still have questions, find a good online low carb support community (such as Active Low Carber).

I am also not going to attempt to give you much advice on recipes or menus. There are a lot of low carb recipe sites, and often most low carb boards have recipe exchanges. This, my hoping to be svelte and healthy friends, is advice on the actual ingredients of those recipes.

I am also not going to tell you which supplements to take, which oils to use, debate the merits of organic, or command you to eat grass-fed beef. I have opinions on all of those things, but I am not here to advise you on that or to criticise if you don't do things the same way I do.

I love vegetables and fruits. I can't say I did before starting Atkins. Sure, I had some favoured veg, and I can say I loved the idea of vegetables. I always had grand intentions of eating more, especially fresh ones, but often they'd rot in the crisper drawer.

Mainly, I want to focus on what we can eat. I want to allow your creativity to take over and for you to try to think of different ways to try these wonderful foods. You might not even like the first way you prepare something, so I am challenging myself and my husband to revisit the produce we can eat, even those we have dismissed. And to try the ones we have never had.

This blog will at least initially be based upon what is on the allowed food list for Atkins Induction. I may expand it later. This doesn't mean that low carb eaters who aren't following Atkins can't benefit from better knowing tried and true low carb foods, but do check if the ingredient is allowable on your plan. For instance, most people who follow a more paleo diet wouldn't bother with tubers or olives (for the most part), and someone following Protein Power or South Beach would need to ensure that the meats or dairy follows their plans guidelines.