Healthy, Delicious Low Carb Dinner Ideas

The most common dietary issue in today’s world is that most people indulge in eating junk and excess carbs after a tiring day at work. They do it to satisfy their taste buds. Everyone wants to stay fit but also eat delicious food all the time. But the most common myth that surrounds healthy food is that it does not taste good. However, eating healthy doesn’t always have to be boring. You can always find ways to spruce up your recipes with healthy ingredients. For example, eating a well-balanced dinner avoids the urge to indulge in midnight snacking and keeps your gut healthy. So, you can enjoy a delicious dinner and yet, stay healthy. All you need is appropriate information on what foods to eat and avoid.

On the other hand, dinner is a meal that requires special attention and care. That is because our bodies usually go into a long rest after dinner. As a result, the amount of physical activity to absorb and digest your food is limited. Hence, it is essential to make intelligent choices when planning your dinner meal. For example, a low carb meal for dinner can help manage body weight and prevent digestive issues.

A low carb diet helps reduce your body fat, increase your metabolism, prevent bloating, and make you feel more energetic. If your routine involves exercise, it’ll affect your body when you’re on a low carb diet. A low carb diet also prevents diabetes, obesity, brain disorders and helps with bad cholesterol, immunity and heart health.

Low Carb Dinner: How Does it Affect Your Health?

The most common reason for choosing or moving to a low carb diet is to lose weight. Almost every expert nutritionist will tell you to ‘control your carbs’ if you tell them you want to lose weight or switch to a healthy diet. In addition, a lower carbohydrate diet has shown significant health improvement in type 2 and pre-diabetic patients. High carb foods (bread, pasta, potato, grains, burgers, cakes and so forth) affect insulin levels in your body, leading to several health issues, including weight gain.

When the sugar level increases in your body, insulin neutralises it (in muscles). Then puts it away (in the liver, prepared to utilise whenever required), or excess sugar gets stored as fat. Critically, coursing insulin lessens the body’s capacity to consume fat rather than sugar. This additional fat in the liver adds to liver illness. In addition, the pancreas prompts type 2 Diabetes; both are markers of insulin opposition.

According to one research, our digestive system works slow during the night. So having a low carb dinner would decrease the amount of sugar intake and prevent excessive fat from lodging into your body.

Melatonin is a chemical known for its focal job of hindering digestion. Therefore, it could be associated with the impacts of late eating on glucose metabolism. 

A Study included 40 overweight ladies of European family line who are late eaters. The individuals who eat supper within 2.5 hours of their routine sleep time witnessed high endogenous melatonin levels and reduced glucose resistance. It proves that the dinner timing with raised endogenous melatonin brings glucose resistance. The best time to have dinner is supposed to be a few hours before bedtime. 

Low Carb Dinner: Foods that You Can Eat

1. Non-Vegetarian Foods

If you are looking for high proteins, you can consider meat, pork (avoid bacon), lamb, chicken, turkey, veal, bison. Many people think that non-vegetarian foods have a massive amount of carbs. However, in reality, they have 0 carbs. A majority of carbs in these foods come from their preparation. So, if you plan your cooking methods well, you can create amazing dishes without worrying about carbs.

Benefits

• The nutrients and protein in these foods strengthen your muscles and help them grow faster. Therefore, many bodybuilders focus more on these products.
• Meat is a rich source of iron. Hence, it helps increase your stamina and haemoglobin.
• The calcium in these foods is the core substance for making your teeth stronger.
• Besides being rich in nutrients, most non-vegetarian foods contain minerals like selenium, zinc etc.
• Finally, the fibre in these foods helps you feel satiated for a long.

 2. Vegetables

You get a lot of options when it comes to vegetables. You can eat most of them raw, which means you avoid extra oil or butter. Salads are perfect for breakfast, lunch or dinner. They go perfectly with any dish on any occasion. You can combine them with multiple vegetables, and you’ll still get a brilliant and healthy dish to savour.

Benefits

• As mentioned above, they don’t need to use extra butter or oil, and you can eat most of them raw, which helps you lose weight.
• They help maintain good cholesterol and blood pressure.
• You can keep a kitchen garden and grow them on your own instead of buying them. You will get pesticide and chemical-free fresh produce. In addition, according to a study, being around plants also improves your mental health.

3. Dairy Products

Dairy products are food sources or beverages that are delivered utilising the milk of vertebrates (animals that contain a backbone; cow, camel etc.). In the US and Europe, dairy products from cows’ milk are prevalent, whereas people prefer goat and sheep dairy in some countries. Low carb dairy products include Greek yoghurt, sour cream, cottage cheese, whole milk, plain yoghurt etc.

Benefits

• Dairy products are rich in protein, making them beneficial in many ways.
• These products help boost your metabolism, which enables you to maintain weight.
• The calcium in dairy products help strengthen the bones and teeth,
• Having low-fat dairy brings additional advantages. It’s easier to build muscle (biceps, abs etc.) when you consume low fat and high protein.
• You get nutrients like vitamin A, vitamin K2, vitamins B6, B12 etc. These nutrients make up most of your bodily needs.

4. Vegan Foods

Although the vegan diet is similar to the vegetarian diet, it does not contain dairy. Some dairy products contain high carbs, but you can eliminate them using tofu, avocado, walnuts, pumpkin seeds, etc.

Benefits

• A vegan diet has several benefits for your body. For example, a vegan diet may help prevent cancer.
• A vegan diet also helps with managing arthritis pain.
• It will help you lose and manage weight.

The study’s finding proves that low carbohydrate dietary patterns favouring animal-derived protein and fat sources (lamb, beef, pork, and chicken) were associated with higher mortality. In comparison, those who favoured plant-derived protein and fat intake (vegetables, nuts, peanut butter, and whole-grain bread) were associated with lower mortality. It suggests that the food source notably modifies the association between carbohydrate intake and mortality.

Research has proved that being on a vegan, keto or vegetarian diet is healthier than a non-vegetarian diet. That is primarily because a vegan or vegetarian diet usually contains fewer carbs than a non-vegetarian diet.

Low-Carb Dinner Ideas: Healthy Recipes

Shrimp with Asparagus (Non-Veg)

Cooking time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

• Shrimps: 450 g
• Asparagus: 1 cup
• Vegetable stock: 1 cup
• Chopped parsley: 2 tsp
• Olive Oil: 1 tsp
• Salt: To taste
• Chilli powder: 1 tsp
• Ginger garlic paste: 1 tsp
• Lemon juice: 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds: 1 tsp

Method:

1. Start by marinating the shrimps with olive oil, salt, chilli powder, ginger garlic paste, lemon juice and cumin.
2. Leave it in the fridge to marinate for 5 minutes.
3. Shallow fry the asparagus and the shrimps in olive oil for 5 minutes.
4. Add vegetable stock, hot sauce and chopped parsley
5. Cover it and let it simmer on low for 5 minutes.
6. Serve it hot.

It is keto-friendly and contains low carbs.

Keto Tuscan Soup (Non-Veg)

Cooking time: 25- 30 minutes

Ingredients:

• Sausage: 450 g
• Cherry tomatoes: ½ cup
• Onions: ½ cup
• Garlic: 4 cloves
• Oregano: To taste
• Salt: To taste
• Parsley: 1 tsp
• Fat-Free Milk: ¼ cup
• Kale Leaves: 1 bunch
• Parmesan: 1 tsp

Method:

1. Take the sausages, shallow fry them in olive oil and cut them into medium-sized pieces.
2. Cook the cherry tomatoes, onions and finely chopped garlic with oregano, salt and parsley in olive oil.
3. Combine the sausages with the vegetables and add ¼ cup of milk, kale leaves and parmesan.
4. Cover and cook them together for 15 minutes.
5. Serve hot.

Scrambled Eggs with Mixed Vegetables

Cooking time – 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• Eggs: 3
• Mushrooms: 5-6
• Onion: 1
• Bell Pepper: 1
• Tomato: 1
• Chilli powder: 1 tsp
• Garlic powder: 1 tsp
• Salt: As per taste
• Black Pepper: ¼ tsp
• Coconut Oil: 1 tsp

Method:

1. Get the eggs in a bowl and add mushrooms, onion, bell pepper and tomato (finely chopped)
2. Put chilli powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
3. Whisk them nicely.
4. Simmer them with coconut oil.
5. Move the spatula continuously to break the eggs.
6. Serve it hot with multigrain bread, or try it with low sodium crackers.

Chilly Garlic Cottage cheese (veg.)

Cooking time – Under 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• Diced Bell Pepper: 1
• Onion: 1
• Olive oil: 1 tsp
• Garlic Cloves: 2 (chopped)
• Tomato Sauce: 2 tsp (optional)
• Red Chilli Sauce: 1 tsp
• Soya Sauce: 1 tsp
• Salt: To taste
• Cornflour: 1 tsp

Method:

1. Fry roughly diced bell pepper, onions and garlic in olive oil for 5 minutes.
2. Add tomato sauce, red chilli sauce, green chilli sauce, soya sauce, salt, and cornflour to thicken the sauce.
3. Cook for 15 minutes till the gravy thickens, then serve.

Pumpkin Soup with Parmesan Garnishing (veg.)

Cooking time: 40-45 minutes

Ingredients: 

• Pumpkin: 250 g
• Olive oil: 3 tsp
• Salt: To taste
• Pepper: 1 tsp
• Baby carrots: 5-6
• Cherry tomatoes: 10
• Vegetable stalk
• Parmesan: 1 tsp

Method:

• Preheat your oven to 180°C / 356°F.
• Remove the skin of the pumpkin and dice them into medium pieces.
• Spread them on a baking tray and drizzle olive oil, salt and pepper.
• Bake them for 40-45 minutes.
• Until your pumpkin is roasting, shallow fry your baby carrots and cherry tomatoes in olive oil.
• Add some chilli sauce and spinach.
• Cook them till the spinach shrinks.
• Cool everything down to room temperature, and then put them in the blender with a vegetable stalk.
• Blend and serve with parmesan garnishing on top. 

Garlic and Cashew Noodles (veg.)

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients: 

• Noodles: 100 g
• Olive oil: 2 tsp
• Minced garlic: 2 cloves
• Chopped zucchini: ¼ cup
• Onion: ½ 
• Carrot (finely chopped): 1
• Chilli sauce: 1 tsp
• Soya sauce: 1 tsp
• Vinegar: ½ tsp
• Peanut butter: 1tbsp
• Crushed cashews: 1tsp
• Lemon juice: ½ lemon

Method:

1. Boil the noodles for 5 minutes till they look cooked.
2. Add olive oil, minced garlic, finely chopped zucchini, onions and carrots in a new bowl. Cook them till they start to look soft.
3. Then add chilli sauce, soya sauce, vinegar, peanut butter, and mix it all.
4. Add a little water and noodles, then top it off with lemon juice and roughly crushed cashews.

Low-Carb Dinner Ideas: Foods to Avoid

Fruits Containing Vitamin C

Most fruits containing vitamin C are high in fibre, they contain lots of water, and you feel heavy after having them, but vitamin C at dinner can cause tooth decay and acidity.

Alcohol

People find it satisfying to indulge in wine or whiskey after maintaining a low cab diet to reward themselves. However, alcohol contains calories and can lead to weight gain and sensitive digestion.

Nuts (Mostly Walnuts)

According to a study, nuts adversely affects your gut as they contain fats. That is one of the most important reasons you should avoid eating them at night. A high level of fat can cause gas problems and stomach cramps.

Oils

These can be the oils you use daily in your food like coconut oil, olive and avocado oil. Unfortunately, they are high in fat too. Due to slow digestion, they can lodge themselves in your body and give you problems like fatty liver and cholesterol.

Low Carb Dietary Tips for Dinner

1. The best foods to eat for dinner on a low-carb diet are veggies. It is healthy to consume 100 to 150 grams of carbs daily. Similarly, you should consume a moderate amount of other nutrients too. An essential tip is knowing the carbs in a particular food. Once you know it, you’ll be the master of creating recipes and managing meals like a pro. For example:

• Zucchini (4 g carbs per cup) 
• Cabbage (5 g carbs per cup) 
• Broccoli (6 g carbs per cup) 
• Brussels sprouts (8 g carbs per cup) 
• Salad greens (like spinach, for instance, at 1 g carbs per cup) 
• Tomatoes (7 g carbs per cup)
• Meat, like chicken, pork, and sheep (0 g carbs per 3 oz)
• Fish and shrimp (0 g carbs per 3 oz)
• Eggs (0 g carbs per egg)

2. If you feel hungry after dinner, indulge in something simple and light like oats, steamed vegetables, raw vegetables like carrot or cucumber.

3. Have your dinner or these light snacks after dinner 3 hours before sleeping. That is the appropriate time for partial digestion. Complete digestion requires around 6-8 hours.

4. Exercise adequately. Suppose you consume all the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals your body needs and have a healthy diet. Then, the only thing left is to make a routine for exercising. It will give you energy and will make your body strong. It doesn’t have to be excessive gym training, walking, or jogging works too.

5. Drink loads and loads of fluids as they will help your body release toxins and keep you hydrated to carry out your day-to-day activities.

Conclusion

Staying fit is a function of proper nutrition through dietary modifications and correct exercise. That means you should eat healthy foods. Choose the right ingredients and the appropriate preparation method. You can make your food delicious by experimenting with recipes, herbs and seasonings. Choose the ingredients wisely, focus on spices – seasoning, and you’re one step closer to having a healthy body and enjoying good food at the same time. 

The whole idea is to know the right amount of food and the frequency you should be eating. As with most people, daytime is full of activity, and we have a hurried lunch. Dinner tends to be heavier as we are back home and eating in a relaxed manner. As a result, we tend to overeat, and the body cannot burn the excess calories. Therefore, it is wise to unwind in different ways rather than focusing on a big dinner. Switch to low carb and high protein dinner and see yourself feeling fitter with better digestion and a trimmer body.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q. What can I eat on a no sugar, low-carb diet?

A. Instead of eating carb-containing foods, try to eat protein-rich foods like lean meat, nuts, seeds, lentils, soy and its derivatives, fruits and vegetables. Some examples are fish, eggs, green vegetables, fruits etc.

Q. What pasta is low-carb? 

A. Pasta containing pulse flour are high in protein and fibre. It has 6 grams of fibre per protein. Some pasta also contains kale and spinach powder; these are low carb options. The usual pasta is from refined flour, so better to avoid them if you are on a low card diet. 

Q. Does Low carb flatten the stomach? 

A. Low carbs can help reduce deep body fat. However, this might be temporary if you don’t maintain a low carb diet and exercise.

Q. Can a low carb diet get you a six-pack?

A. Yes, it can help you reduce weight, remove blemishes, and quickly develop abs with this diet with specific exercises. A six-pack ab is the function of hard work in terms of techniques and hours spent exercising. However, a low carb diet rich in proteins develops strength and endurance. It also helps you to develop strong muscles. 

Q. Is peanut butter good for your abs?

A. Consuming peanut butter is suitable for muscle development as it contains high levels of protein and it also has high satiety value. In addition, it is a good source of vegetarian protein. So if you make it a part of your diet and combine it with the right amount of exercise, you can sculpt your abs. 

Q. How can I get a flatter stomach?

A. Eating right and at the right time is a huge first step. Avoid binge eating and midnight snacks. Also, avoid deep-fried or oily foods. Exercise daily. Keep a watch on the intake of processed and high-sugar foods. 

Q. Is Tuna good for abs?

A. Tuna contains protein and Omega-3 acids, which help in sculpting abs. So if you want to eat something delicious and healthy, Tuna is your pick. However, avoid canned tuna fish as it has a high salt preserve that can be counterproductive.