If you’re anything like me, potatoes were a mainstay of your life. But they become a big starchy vegetable with more carbs than you want in your body when you try to maintain a low carb lifestyle. From the time I started in earnest on this eating plan two years ago, I began looking for acceptable substitutions for potatoes and bread. I’d grown up with them in one form or another at just about every meal. In high school lunch had consisted of french fries and a large hot roll with butter. (They were the least expensive and most filling thing that the school cafeteria offered. Any wonder that I had a weight problem?)

So, I have tried several options to substitute a potato, mostly successful in their own right if not matching the potato taste. Among the choices are cauliflower, turnips, daikon radishes and now kohlrabi. If anyone has other suggestions, please let me know. (Rutabagas and parsnips are higher carb’d than I want to go, but also good options.) I am having a ball tasting all these different flavors prepared like potatoes. My offering today is a combination of the potato substitutes prepared like Potatoes O’Brien. They make a very tasty dish that is very close to the starchy version and yet have their own character, The flavors meld well together and I really am not missing the potato in this.

If your body can use more carbohydrates than mine does, then you can actually add potatoes to the mix and it would still cut out some of the carbs and leave you with a lower carb’d version.

As a bonus, if you add bacon or sausage or ham and cheese to this, you can make it as a nice one dish meal without adding too many carbs.

Home-style Veggies O’Brien

A tasty mix of several root vegetables with cauliflower to make a dish similar to Potatoes O’Brien, without the high carbs! Don’t like daikon? Just sub in more kohlrabi or turnip.  Don’t like turnip or cauliflower? Use just the kohlrabi. It’s very flexible.

1/2 cup Cauliflower, cut into pieces
1/2 cup Kohlrabi,, cut into 1/4″ cubes
1/2 cup Turnips, .5 cut into 1/4″ cubes
1/2 cup Daikon Radish, cut into 1/4″ cubes
1/2 cup Onions, chopped
1/4 cup Sweet Peppers, sliced
1 tablespoon Olive oil or Bacon fat
1 teaspoon Seasoning Salt or Garlic Pepper seasoning
3 strips of Bacon, broken into pieces (optional)
1/2 cup Cheddar Cheese (optional)

Put cauliflower, kohlrabi, turnips and daikon in a pot, cover with water, add a pinch of salt and boil for about 15 minutes. Drain. In a skillet, heat olive oil, add onions and peppers and stir fry until tender. Add vegetables and stir together. Cook, stirring often, until veggies are lightly browned. Add seasoning and serve.

Makes about four 1/2 cup servings.

Tip: You can cook up the vegetables ahead of time, drain well and store in the refrigerator in a plastic bag for about a week or freeze to store longer. Just pull them out when you’re ready to make your hash browns.
Also, when putting the veggies in the bag, squeeze as much air out of the bag as you can before sealing it, then fold it over to save storage space and help keep the food fresher.

Nutrition Info per 1/2 cup serving (without optional items):
Calories: 24.8 Net Carbs: 3.4 g Protein: 1 g

Substituting all kohlrabi for the vegetables:
Calories: 27.6 Net Carbs: 3.2g Protein: 1.3 g

Adding optional items:
Calories: 112 Net Carbs: 3.4 g Protein: 6.3 g

Posted on  1/23/2013