Diet Friendly Cucumber Salad
I'm just coming off my first national show and the only thi
ng on my mind was getting SUSHI! My heritage, believe it or not, is Japanese. I was raised on white rice and fish. So today I'm going to put together an Asian dinner which is low carb and will punch those cravings in the face!!
The appetizer is a cucumber salad. This is diet prep friendly!! The best cucumber to buy for this recipe is the seedless English cucumber, otherwise you will have to cut a regular cucumber in half and de-seed it using a spoon. I use a mandolin to slice the cucumber extremely thin, be careful not to slice a layer of skin off yourself though. No mandolin? Just slice thin, it helps absorb dressing better. English cucumbers don't hold much water but a regular one will so you will have to squeeze the water out add salt and let sit for 15-30 min, which will pull the reminder of the water out. The dressing is 3/4c-1 cup rice vinegar, 1-2 full droppers of liquid stevia or use Truvia/Sweetleaf etc packets dissolve. Add salt or 1-2 tbsp of gluten free, sugar free and/or low sodium soy sauce. If you can afford a little fat add 1 tsp of sesame oil to this mixture. Pour over cucumber and let sit in the fridge for at least 15min. Salty, sweet, crunchy, and guilt free!
My favorite Japanese food is Miso soup. One can make it from scratch.... or just buy the freeze dried packets from a natural grocery store. I highly recommend that route since it is difficult to find GOOD miso.
Main course: Obviously the majo
r staple in the Japanese diet is rice. Best substitute? Miracle Noodles/Rice. Miracle noodle are made from a fiber called glucomannan a soluble fiber, we all need more fiber in our diet. Miracle noodles are carb free, calorie free. I will warn you, when you take these noodles out of the package they stink.
First rinse 1-2 bags noodles/rice in cold water. Then boil in reduced sodium chicken stock for about 10 minutes. Next arrange noodles/rice on plate or bowl and top with *teriyaki chicken or salmon. I add fresh chopped veggies (spinach, zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms, onion, etc) on the side. Two ways to cook them are steamed, for a few minutes or toss in a Wok with teriyaki sauce. Woks are wonderful because you don’t need oil in them to sauté. Garnish with thinly sliced green onion and/or crushed up dried seaweed.
Teriyaki Sauce:
½ cup (gluten free, or reduced sodium regular) soy sauce or if you prefer taste of Braggs Aminos!
¼-½ cup water (more water taste less salty)
Truvia/Sweetleaf packets to taste 3-4. I use liquid Sweetleaf, about a dropper or two full.
1-2 tsp of ground ginger powder
2-4 finely chopped cloves of garlic
*Add 2-3 tsp of Sesame seed oil if you can afford to have some fat. This makes it taste nutty!!
*Adding PB2, a reduced fat peanut butter substitute would make this interesting too! Taste like a sweet peanut sauce.
Let chicken and or salmon marinate in this for over an hour.
I hope you enjoy this diet friendly dinner! Let me know how it goes for you.
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