Best potato substitutes?

If you’ve been following a low carb, vegan diet for very long, you’ve undoubtedly noticed the potato is not our friend. And with recipes ranging from Indian to Russian to American calling for potatoes, what can you do? Well, if you’re like me, you start looking for substitutes. And for the longest time, I just went along with what I’d been told and what I’d read. But a little while ago I decided to investigate for myself and what I found quite surprised me.

I started by going to the USDA food database. Hey, my tax dollars helped pay for it so why not use it, right? I began with a plain old russet potato. Around here at least, if you ask for a potato, you’re going to get a russet. So lets compare some other foods with the russet.

Let’s begin with something that isn’t an actual potato substitute but often features in vegetable purees. That would be a simple carrot. And it’s not too bad. There’s about 40% as much net carbs in a given amount of carrots as the potato. Of course the orange color makes it kind of hard to fool anybody that it’s a potato.

Something else I frequently see suggested is cauliflower, And this is actually a good idea, coming in at 17% of the net carbs found in potato. It’s the best substitute in terms of net carbs as a matter of fact. The only problem is that you pretty much have to puree them, otherwise it looks like, well, cauliflower.

So let’s see if we can find some other root vegetables to fill in for the potato. What about a parsnip? It’s white and a bit sweet after all. Well it turns out it may be a bit sweeter than we realised. Coming in at 78% of the carbs in a potato, parsnips aren’t the lowest carb choice out there.

Rutabagas and turnips are also mentioned as fill-ins for the potato. How well do they stack up? Pretty well it turns out. Turnips have 28% of the net carbs of the potato and rutabagas are a close second at 33%. And they have the advantage they can be cubed up and used like a potato.

The most surprising result of all this? I had always been told that a sweet potato was a good substitute for regular potatoes. It turns out that the sweet part of the name isn’t an accident.  Sweet potatoes rank at 102% of the net carbs of a potato. So they’re actually slightly worse than a plain old potato.

So where does this leave us? If you can puree your ‘potato’, cauliflower is your best choice. If you need something that you can cube up, rutabagas and turnips will be your friends. And you probably don’t want to use a sweet potato under any circumstances.

Do you have any experiences with substituting for potatoes? Let me know and we can help each other follow a low carb, vegan diet.

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Photo by Ragesoss

Intrigued, I did some checking. It turns out Sichuan pepper was banned in the US starting in the late ’60s. There were fears they carried a citrus virus that could damage the US crop. But about 2005, the FDA decided if the seeds were heated to around 160 degrees, that would kill the virus and we can once again purchase Sichuan pepper.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with it.

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One caution you’ll want to be aware of. The noodles are packaged in water and it does not smell good! I find it to be a very strong fishy odor and not in a good way. The noodles have to be rinsed and I like to par-boil them in water with some soy sauce added for about three minutes. That gets rid of the fishy effect.

The noodles themselves don’t really taste of anything on their own. I’ve used them in stir-fries, Italian ‘pasta’ dishes and salads. The texture is a little chewy but I find it to be a pleasant ‘al dente’ feeling. And while the tofu adds a little bit of carbs, the 8 ounce package I buy only has two net carbs for the whole bag.  I’ve only seen them in Fettuccine and Angel-Hair but Spaghetti is supposed to be available as well.

So look for some shirataki the next time you’re shopping and you can enjoy noodles without the worries about carbs.

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10. Sunflower seeds – 20.0g carbs and 8.6g fiber

9. Pine nuts – 13.1g carbs and 3.7g fiber

8. Almonds – 21.8g carbs and 12.2g fiber

7. Peanuts – 16.1g carbs and 8.5g fiber

6. Coconut – 23.7 carbs and 16.3 fiber

5. Walnuts – 13.7g carbs and 6.7g fiber

4. Macadamia nuts – 13.8g carbs and 8.6g fiber

3. Pumpkin seeds – 10.7g carbs and 6.0g fiber

2. Pecans – 13.9g carbs and 9.6g fiber

1. Sesame seeds – 11.7g carbs and 11.6g fiber

I was actually rather surprised at these results. I would not have figured pecans would rank as highly and almonds as poorly as they did. Of course this doesn’t take into account other nutrients the food might contain. And, if you’re watching your overall caleries, you’ll need to consider the amount of fat. Which, for a number of these, is considerable.

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There are about forty different kinds of mustard plant out there but the seeds of only three of them make up pretty much all the mustard out there. Early mustard consisted of ground mustard seeds mixed into a paste with vinegar. The combination of the oils released by the ground seeds with the vinegar gave the mixture it’s bite. If you just put some mustard seed on your tongue, it won’t taste anything like the mustard we buy today.

This was popular but the vinegar gave the mustard a very sharp flavor that some folks didn’t like. So, in 1856 in Dijon France, Jean Naigeon combined the sour juice from unripe grapes with the ground mustard and developed what we know as Dijon mustard. Oddly enough, the name Dijon mustard does not enjoy any legal status and in fact, most Dijon mustard is produced outside of Dijon.

So what about the Grey Poupon I reference in the title of this post? Is that just some brand name of Kraft or somebody? Actually it dates back past the invention of Dijon mustard. To be true Dijon mustard, the husks of the mustard seed must be removed. In 1853, a man named Maurice Grey invented a machine the automated the processing of the seeds. Mr. Grey already operated a mustard shop in Dijon with a certain Antoine Poupon, established as the Grey Poupon mustard company.

Just to bring things full circle, here’s the salad dressing I was making when all of this occurred to me.

Mustard Vinaigrette

This is not the place to use your good olive oil, the other flavors will overwhelm it. I usually go with canola but any fairly neutral oil would be fine. The choice of herbs is up to you, but I like the following. Fresh would be good too.

1 clove smashed garlic
6 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
a pinch of dried parsley, thyme and basil
salt and pepper to taste

Combine the ingredients in a bowl and whisk until throughly mixed. Makes enough for about a pound of salad.

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I have, fortunately, gotten a bit wiser as my age has increased so I understand allspice isn’t really all spice but rather that’s the name of a certain kind of spice. It’s actually the dried fruit of a plant native to the Caribbean region. It’s just called allspice because the English thought it tasted like several other spices. As you would expect it plays an important role in the cooking of that area, especially jerk seasoning. And, this is the part I found interesting, is important in Middle Eastern cooking as well.

That struck me as a bit odd because I at least tend to assume that these cultures have established their eating and cooking habits long ago. Well, if allspice is native to the New World, then it can’t really have been introduced to other areas before 1492 and likely several years later. So it seems likely that dishes featuring allspice can’t have been a part of these cultures for more than a few hundred years.

Allspice is sometimes called pimento in some areas but shouldn’t be confused with the red fleshed pepper used in stuffing olives. Two very different things.

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Tempeh on a cutting board

Tempeh, unlike tofu which is not fermented, has a nutty taste and texture all its own. And as a fermented product, it does not contain the phytoestrogens which have been tentatively linked to hormone problems. The fermentation process also produces a higher level of protein, fiber and possibly even vitamins than unfermented soy products.

While you can eat raw tempeh safely, I wouldn’t recommend it. It has an unpleasant bitter taste. To get rid of that taste, the tempeh needs to be cooked. Simmering it in a water and soy sauce (or Braggs) mixture for a few minutes is a good way to do that, or the tempeh can simply be fried. Be warned that uncooked tempeh can be a bit of an oil hog, you might want to simmer it first. Simply deep frying it and then soaking it in a Buffalo Wings sauce is one of my favorite guilty pleasures.

Soaking the tempeh in a marinade also works well. Salty flavors are particularly good. Tempeh doesn’t soak up a lot quickly so I would recommend at least a four or five hour marinade time but overnight works quite well if you have the time.

And last but certainly not least, soy is a complete protein so when the omnis ask, “Where do you get your protein?” You’ll have an answer.