Tag Archives: Daikon radish

Atkins Diet Tips, Healthy Life, Vegetables & Salads

Induction Eating Plan – Day 5

I’m a little late getting this post done. I ran out of time yesterday and couldn’t manage any more after midnight. So, here’s my Day 5 induction plan menu. I actually repeated a breakfast item and I went out to lunch, so I’ll put those in the diet plan, but I’ll also give you links to a couple of other options.

6/10/2017 Food NC
Breakfast chorizo scramble 2
Turnips/w butter 3
coffee 1
Vitamin B12 Gummie 1
Lunch 1/2 Fajita Salad 7.2
coffee 2
Dinner Pork Riblets 0
Coleslaw 1.8
Total Net Carbs 18

 

Breakfast was a repeat of Day  2 with the repeat of Chorizo with scrambled egg. I usually make enough for two from that recipe, so it’s simple to reheat. I had leftover hash brown turnips from Day 3, so I ate those.

Turnip home fries for breakfast. Give them a try.

Here’s a photo of breakfast with the turnips. Very tasty, believe it or not. They are one of my five go-to potato substitutes. The other four are cauliflower, daikon radishes, kohlrabi, and celery root. Don’t scoff! Almost all of them are 40% lower in carbohydrates than potatoes or sweet potatoes, have a similar flavor when prepared the same way as a potato, and are more equally as versatile to use.

This little chart compares the carbohydrates in all of these options. If you learn to rarely eat potatoes, you will save a bundle of carbohydrates every day.

Food Carbs/1 cup Fiber Net Carbs
Potato 23.6 3.6 20
Sweet Potato 32.3 4 28.3
Daikon Radish 9.4 3.6 5.8
Cauliflower 5.2 2.5 2.7
Kohlrabi 8.4 4.9 3.5
Celery Root 14 2 12
Turnips 8.4 2.3 6.1
Broccoli Stems 6 2.4 3.6

Link to another delicious and induction friendly breakfast recipe: Spicy Egg Casserole

My lunch was a treat on this day as PK and I went to a favorite restaurant and had a chicken fajita salad. At this time, I don’t have a homemade chicken fajita salad recipe or even just chicken fajitas. I’ll have to work on that.  But there are many on the internet if you want to hunt for one. Just be cautious of the ingredients. The one I ordered had white meat chicken, onions, bell peppers, an oil and spice marinade, and included a house salsa that had tomatoes, cilantro and oil in it. Add in lettuce, tomato slices, and cucumber slices with two tablespoons of chipotle ranch dressing and it is a nice low carb salad, but those veggies and dressing do add up to about 7.2 net carbs. I ate half the salad, so the full salad would have been about 14.5 net carbs. I like to leave a little extra space in my daily count for carbs I might have missed.

Here’s a link to a Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato salad that is on this site.

Tasty Coleslaw

Dinner was a pork riblet that was already seasoned and just needed to be grilled. Great for the summer grill or under the broiler. This was 0 net carbs for the rib, which was awesome.

This is simple to make, especially if you start with the angel hair grated cabbage that you can buy at the store.

2 cups grated Cabbage
1/2 cup grated Kohlrabi
1/2 cup grated Daikon Radish
3 tablespoon Mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Sugar-free Pear Vinegarette or other sweet vinegarette

Clean, peel, and grate the kohlrabi and daikon. (If you can’t find Kohlrabi, you can substitute in broccoli stems.) In a 2 quart bowl, mix the vegetables together. In a small bowl, add the mayonnaise and pear vinegarette. Mix together until well blended, then pour into the vegetables and mix together until the dressing is well distributed.

When you are no longer on phase 1, this recipe can have additions to it, such as grated apple, reduced-sugar craisins, or even fresh blueberries or strawberries. It’s a refreshing salad.

Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition Information per servings:
Calories: 82 Fat: 7.7 g Net Carbs: 1.7 g Protein: 0.8 g

 

Recipes, Vegetables & Salads

Colorful Slaw for the Holidays

When I was younger, and heavier, carrot salad was a favorite of mine, especially the kind with pineapple and raisins in it. Sadly, two of those three items are a little high on the carbs to endulge that salad. In fact, when I first started on Atkins, carrots were not part of phase 1 or phase 2 of the eating plan even though they aren’t that high in carbs. I still eat them sparingly, but have incorporated them into a few recipes.

I came up with this combination of vegetables and fruits to create a slaw that is similar to the carrot salad. It is really good and has quickly moved into my list of favorites.  This would be a really great salad with your holiday dinner.

The challenge in ingredients may be to get fresh kohlrabi. It is a cold weather crop so it may be available now, but it is not a common one in the markets in my area. I have convinced one of my local stores to carry it and I buy it whenever I see it. It keeps very well in the refrigerator for a month or two. It can also be peeled, sliced and frozen easily. If you can’t find kohlrabi, you may try substituting broccoli stems, but while the flavor is similar, it is stronger.

Cranberry, Carrot and Kohlrabi Slaw

1/2 cup Carrots, grated
1/2 cup Kohlrabi, peeled and grated
1/2 cup Daikon Radish, peeled and grated
1/4 cup Broccoli, finely chopped
2 tablespoons Cranberries, finely chopped
1 tablespoon sugar substitute (liquid preferred)
2 tablespoons Mayonnaise

In a medium bowl, combine the chopped and grated vegetables and mix together. In a small bowl, mix the mayonnaise and sugar substitute together.

Add the mayonnaise mix to the vegetables and mix well. Chill and serve. Makes 4 servings.

Nutrition info per serving:
    Calories: 64.5 Fat: 5.1 g Net Carbs: 2.1 g Protein: 0.6 g

If you make this with one tablespoon of sugar rather than sugar substitute, then it changes the nutrition info to:
    Calories: 73.3 Fat: 5.1 g Net Carbs: 5.1 g Protein: 0.6 g

A to Z Challenge 2015

Diversify with Daikon Radish

2 Comments

I thought for sure that I was going to escape from that Mediterranean origin with the Daikon radish, but it turns out that it, too, came from the Cradle of Civilization. It moved to the Orient around 500 B.C. and it really came into its own in Asia. When it comes to using this amazing vegetable, Asians have the jump on the Western world. Over 90% of Daikon grown is in Asia. In the U.S., most of the commercial Daikon production is in California and a small percent in South Texas, around Houston. Some farmers use it as a fodder crop, leaving the roots in the ground and feeding the tops to their animals. So, we’re a little slow learning about this great vegetable.

I first started using Daikon about three years ago when I noticed the big white root vegetable in the grocery and was curious about the taste of this radish. Of course, after peeling it, I used it in a salad as I would a normal radish. It had a crisp, lightly peppery taste and was similar to the standard radish. Being on a quest for potato replacements, I tried cutting a few thin rounds and frying them and was pleased to find that they tasted great!

The picture at the top of the page gives you an idea of what the Daikon radish looks like, but mostly, I’ve seen them as a big, white root with the top and the bottom chopped off. Incidentally the name Daikon is two Japanese words, dai and kon that, respectively, mean ‘large” and “root”. It’s an apt description. They range from 2 to 4 inches in diameter and 6 to 20 inches long. In Asia, farmers have grown ones that weigh up to 50 pounds!

I have used Daikon in many ways, raw in salads, cooked in stews, stir fried, roasted, French fried and shredded into hash browns. After reading more about them, I am going to be using them many more ways. It’s a very versatile and overlooked vegetable. So, tell me, have you used Daikon in your cooking? If so, how have you used it?

Here’s a trio of recipes on Skinny Girl that use Daikon.

Welsh Broccoli and Bacon Soup
Summer Harvest Cauli-Risotto
Home-Style Veggies O’Brien

Nutrition Infomation for 1/2 cup (113.4 grams)
     Calories: 12 Fat: 0.3 g Net Carbs: 1.1 g Protein: 0.0 g

Reference sites for this article include Wikipedia, The Tokyo Foundation and the Idaho Government.