Slow Carb Diet Vegetarian Recipes

The popularity of Tim Ferris' Slow Carb diet, as introduced in the Four Hour Body book, has taken the world by storm.  Slow carb dieting means you lose weight fast, and reduce body fat and total inches susccessfully and sustainably. But so many of the examples given in 4HB and the accompanying recipe book are meat-based. Finding successful recipes that will faciliate slow carb vegetarian weight loss can be a challenge - Tim Ferris says it's not about variety, and you should repeat the same meals over and over, but for many of us who love to cook and eat delicious food variety means a lot! And, if you do have to eat the same meals over and over, they really had better be meals that you love.

If you really can't face beans for your slow carb breakfast, make this delicious green 'bread' and reheat a generous slice each morning.

Ingredients:

• 5 egg whites
• 1 whole egg
• 1kg bag frozen chopped spinach
• tsp dried nutmeg
• vegetable oil, for greasing

Put your oven on to pre-heat at 200C/400F.Defrost your spinach - overnight if you're organised, or microwave in a hurry. Then you need to remove as much water from the spinach as you can - the quality of your final loaf depends on this, so put it in a fine sieve and squash away with wooden spoon for longer than you think, until it stops dripping. Then leave it a bit, and then squash some more, more water will come out!
Remove the spinach to a mixing bowl - if you use your hands you can wring out more liquid as you go - and stir in the eggs and egg whites, along with the nutmeg. As you will probably eat this cold you need a lot of seasoning, add generous grindings of salt and pepper too, and combine thoroughly.
Line a loaf tin (a 1lb size is fine) with aluminium foil, and then thoroughly grease the foil, right up the sides. Then carefully pour in your well-mixed spinach and egg blend, and smooth it level.
Bake for 45 minutes, then remove from the oven. Allow to rest for 10 minutes, then invert the loaf onto a food board, and carefully ease the loaf tin off. Once it has cooled enough, you can peel away the foil, but be sure your 'loaf' is completely set before you attempt to slice it, with a sharp, serrated blade.
This will keep in the fridge for several days, and also freezes well. You can reheat slices in the microwave, or fry gently, for a protein-packed bean-free breakfast.

Variations - you can include other chopped veg, to vary the colors and textures of your loaf. Finely shredded red pepper works well, don't use too much as it's quite sweet/higher carb, but it looks good flecked throughout the slices. Slices of sun-dried tomato also add a Mediterranean flavor, that you can enhance with a generous pinch of dried oregano in the mix.

This super-quick curry is an easy and tasty way to eat a pile of lentils, and gets you extra garlic intake too. Quantity serves one, but is easy to scale up as needed.

• 200g jar of pre-cooked lentils
• 1 tablespoon of sunflower or macadamia oil
• 3 cloves of chopped garlic, or a heaped teaspoonful of chopped frozen garlic
• heaped teaspoonful of good curry powder or garam masala
• generous handful of spinach leaves, roughly chopped.

This is really a different way to present and prepare hard boiled eggs... it takes a little longer, but when you really cannot face another boiled egg, or if you want a beautiful dish to serve to guests, this can easily be prepared in advance.

Ingredients:

• 6 fresh large eggs
• 1 heaped tablespoon of turmeric powder
• 1 generous slug of dark soy sauce
• 1 heaped tablespoon of powdered paprika

Start as per regular boiled eggs, piercing the shells if you have an egg piercer, then boiling gently for 3 minutes only.  This is enough to solidfy the outer layer of the egg.

Cool the eggs under cold running water for several minutes until safe to handle, then tap each one carefully all over, until the shell is thoroughly shattered and cracked.  If a couple small bits come away it doesn't matter, but your aim is that the shell stays on.  Don't tap too hard though, your eggs are not  cooked through at this point!

Add fresh boiling water to your pan, along with the soy sauce and spices, and stir thoroughly to dissolve and mix everything.  Then carefully add your cracked eggs back to the pan, using a slotted spoon.  Once it all returns to the boil, turn it right down to a simmer, and then after 40 minutes, turn off the heat and leave to steep in the pan, for several hours or even overnight.

Then simply peel and serve your beautiful eggs, they look especially good against a green leaf background - luckily for slow carbers!