Save calories & still work concentrated? This works out! Here are four recipes for low-carb lunch will fill you up, and help you lose weight. What do I have for lunch today? The question often causes a big headache and usually ends in the next kebab shop or lunch from the all-you-can-eat buffet.
Here you feed yourself belly so full that afterward you can neither move nor think, let alone work—keyword soup coma. A low-carb lunch would be better.
Low Carb Lunch With No Carbohydrates
A low-carb lunch is usually pleasantly light but still filling and gives you enough power for everyday office life. And: You can integrate it seamlessly into your low-carb diet.
As with low-carb breakfast and low-carb dinner, carbohydrates are taboo. This includes all starchy foods such as potatoes, pasta, rice, cakes and bread, and fast food and sweet fruit.
Why does the diet give up carbohydrates? A lot of sugar is released when carbohydrates are broken down. The body reacts to this by producing more insulin. But instead of converting all of the sugar into energy, a large part of it is stored as fat. That is why carbohydrates are decried as “fattening foods.”
This Is Why A Low-Carb Lunch Helps You Lose Weight
Instead of carbohydrates, protein sets the tone for a low-carb lunch. The advantage: protein keeps you full for a long time and supports fat burning and muscle building.
The body already consumes energy when consuming protein-rich foods such as eggs, meat, fish and tofu, since proteins are more difficult to convert than carbohydrates. To put it simply: you eat lean.
Vegetables Full And Good Fats
If you want to lose weight, eating a diet rich in protein and low in carbohydrates makes perfect sense. So that it doesn’t get boring and the food is too one-sided, you should refrain from combining your low-carb lunch with vegetables.
Broccoli, paprika, asparagus, zucchini, green lettuce, and spinach are particularly low in calories but full of minerals and vitamins. Here you can discover other foods without carbohydrates.
Mixed with “good” fats such as avocados, salmon, or nuts and high-fiber ingredients such as legumes and fruit, the low-carb recipes are not only more exciting they are also more filling at the same time.
Low Carb Lunch As Part Of Healthy Hedonism
Thanks to the “Healthy Hedonism” movement, word got around that eating is also about fun. Of course, this also applies to your low-carb lunch. Be creative and try pasta without carbohydrates or make with shrimp or chicken and exotic spices in the Far East.
Low Carb: Not All Carbohydrates Are Taboo
Now and then, you can “sin” and choose starchy side dishes like whole-wheat pasta, sweet potatoes, or a slice of whole wheat bread for your low-carb lunch.
Unlike the classic variant made from wheat flour, whole-grain products don’t let your blood sugar level rise quite as dramatically. As a result, these suppliers of complex carbohydrates are perfectly compatible with a low-carb diet in moderation.
Low Carb Lunch: 4 Delicious, Light Recipes
If you run out of ideas and don’t know what to cook for lunch, suitable cookbooks will also help you.
Low Carb Lunch: Carrot “Noodles” With Strips Of Turkey
You Need (For 1 serving):
- 20 g sesame seeds
- 1 small bunch of coriander greens (15 g stems and leaves)
- 2 large carrots (total approx. 220 g, makes approx. 150 g “pasta”)
- 100 g turkey schnitzel
- 7 teaspoons of cold-pressed organic coconut oil (35 g)
- salt
- 2 teaspoons tamari (gluten-free soy sauce; 10 ml)
- 1-2 pinches of chili flakes
Aside From That:
- Spiral cutter
This is how it works:
Roast the sesame seeds in a pan without adding any fat and leave them to cool. Rinse off the coriander leaves, pat dry and roughly chop with the tender stalks. Peel the carrots and use the spiral cutter to make “noodles.” Alternatively, cut into thin strips. Rinse the turkey escalope with cold water, pat dry, pat a little flat and cut into 1 cm thick strips across the grain.
Heat 3 teaspoons of coconut oil in a wok or pan. Salt the meat, put it in the wok, and sear it vigorously over high heat for 2 minutes while stirring. Take out and let rest covered. Heat the remaining coconut oil in the wok and stir-fry the “noodles” in it over high heat while stirring, depending on the thickness, for 3–5 minutes.
As soon as they are just about done, add the meat again and fry for another 2 minutes. Drizzle with the soy sauce and remove from the heat. Put the wok dish in a bowl or on a plate, sprinkle with sesame seeds, coriander, and chili flakes and serve immediately.
Tip: It’s best to roast a large number of sesame seeds straight away and store them in a screw-top jar – it can be kept for several weeks.
Low Carb Lunch: Stir-Fried Vegetables With Pimientos
You need (for 1 serving):
- 100 g small green pimientos, if possible the same size
- 50 g green onions
- 50 g cocktail tomatoes
- 1 small avocado (100 g pulp)
- 1 small bunch of flat-leaf parsley (10 g leaves)
- 20 g walnut kernels
- 3 teaspoons of olive oil (15 ml)
- 1 teaspoon sherry vinegar
- 1-2 pinches of chili flakes
- Flake salt
- freshly ground black pepper
This is how it works:
Wash the pimientos and pat dry, cut off the stems. Clean and wash the spring onions and cut the white and green parts separately into rings. Wash and quarter the tomatoes and cut away the stalks. Halve and core the avocado, remove the pulp from the skin with a spoon, and roughly dice. Rinse the parsley, pat dry and chop. Roughly chop the walnuts.
Heat the oil in a pan and fry the pimientos over medium heat for 3 minutes, turning more often. Add white spring onion rings and fry for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and fry for 1 minute, turning more often. Then add the avocado and fry for 2 minutes.
Stir in vinegar and chili flakes and season with flake salt and pepper. Place the stir-fry vegetables on a plate and sprinkle with walnuts, parsley, and green spring onion rings. The dish tastes both hot and lukewarm.
Low Carb Lunch: Parsnip And Coconut Soup With Curry
You need (for 1 serving):
- 200 g parsnips (peeled 150 g)
- 1–2 shallots (peeled 30 g)
- 15 g of cold-pressed organic coconut oil
- ½ – 1 teaspoon curry powder
- 350 ml vegan, gluten-free vegetable stock (a little more if required)
- 75 g coconut milk (70-90% coconut content)
- 3–4 stalks of coriander green (5 g)
- 1 ½ tsp inulin (5 g)
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1-2 pinches of chili flakes
Here’s how:
Peel the parsnips and almost 2 cm cubes. Peel and finely chop shallot (s). Heat the coconut oil in a saucepan and sauté the shallots in over medium heat until translucent. Add parsnips and sauté for 1–2 minutes while stirring. Sprinkle it with the curry powder and stir. Add the stock and 50 g coconut milk, bring to a boil and simmer covered for 7 minutes until the parsnips are soft.
In the meantime, rinse off the coriander leaves and pat dry, then chop the leaves and tender stems. Stir the inulin into the soup and puree the mixture with a hand blender. Add a little more stock or water and season with salt and pepper, depending on the desired consistency.
Pour the soup into a deep plate or bowl, stir the remaining coconut milk in a spiral shape and sprinkle it with chili flakes and coriander.
Low Carb Lunch: Spinach Soup With Parmesan Cheese
You need (for 1 serving):
- 1–2 shallots (peeled 30 g)
- 1–2 cloves of garlic (peeled 5 g)
- 3 teaspoons of olive oil (15 ml)
- 200 g frozen spinach leaves (natural, portable)
- 200 ml gluten-free vegetable stock (a little more if required)
- 50 g double cream cheese
- 20 g Parmesan (alternative vegetarian hard cheese), freshly grated
- 1 pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
- salt
- freshly ground black pepper
This is how it works:
Peel the shallot (s) and garlic clove (s) and chop finely. Heat the oil in a saucepan and sauté the shallots in it over medium heat until translucent. Add the garlic and sauté briefly. Add the frozen spinach, stir and add the stock. Bring to the boil, stirring, until the spinach is thawed, and simmer for another 2 minutes.
Stir in the cream cheese and parmesan and add a little more stock as required. Add the nutmeg and season with salt and pepper. Coarsely puree with a hand blender as desired so that the spinach is still finely chunked. Pour the soup into a deep plate or bowl.
Quick Low Carb Lunch With No Cooking
You don’t feel like swinging the wooden spoon for long in the evening, or you don’t have a microwave at work where you can warm up the prepared dishes at lunchtime? No problem, there are extra quick low-carb lunches without cooking.
A fresh salad, for example, always works. You can lard it with egg, feta, nuts, mushrooms, turkey strips, tuna, or salmon as you wish. Add a homemade dressing made from olive oil, herbs, and vinegar, and you’re done. Filled in a salad box with a suitable screw jar for the salad sauce, and you have a great low-carb lunch on the go.
Is salad not enough for you? How about Cloud Bread as a low-carbohydrate bread substitute? Or with delicious sweet potato toasts. All you need is a toaster.
You can top the sweet potato toasts as you wish. The combination of cottage cheese, tuna, and fresh tomatoes, for example, is low in calories and delicious. But you can also spread soft fat cream cheese on the sweet potato slices.
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