IDEAS FOR LOW-CARB SUMMER MEALS

 

Grill some vegetables before putting the fish or meat on the grill. I got four different side dishes from these.

My aerobics group is on hiatus for the month of August. Good thing, too, as the thought of putting on socks and gym shoes is unbearable in this heat. While I’m hunkering down, it seems a good time to cut down on carbs such as bread, pasta, rice and other cereals and legumes. So, what’s to eat? Here are some ideas. 

• Dorada a la espalda (butterflied bream) on the grill with roasted red pepper salad and olivada sauce.
• Chicken breasts poached in olive oil with tomatoes and basil, a side of zoodles (zucchini noodles). .
• Grilled leg of lamb with three sauces (Turkish walnut-red pepper sauce; olivada and baba ghanoush) with Belgian endive leaves and cauliflower dippers and pita chips for the bread eaters at the table.
• Gazpacho for snacks, anytime of the day or night. 

These gilt-head bream (dorada) are opened up, a la espalda, so they grill in no time at all. Served with olivada sauce, sort of like tapenade, made with canned olives stuffed with anchovies, and a side of roasted pepper salad, using one of those red bell peppers, it was a lovely and quick meal for two.

One roasted pepper, peeled and dressed with extra virgin olive oil, salt and a few drops of Sherry vinegar made a side with the fish. The other three peppers I saved to make mujammara, a Turkish walnut and red pepper sauce, to go with another meal. 

No oven, no browning. Boneless chicken breasts are poached in a heavy, lidded pan with lots of olive oil and some cut-up tomatoes.  They're cooked in just 15 minutes. Sprigs of basil add a fresh flavor. Served with a side of zoodles (zucchini noodles) that cook in the microwave in 3 minutes.

No carbs, meat-centric--a boned leg of lamb on the grill. Sauces and dippers on the side. 

Three sauces to accompany the lamb or to serve with endive leaves and cauliflower florets for dipping. On the left is olivada, made to accompany the grilled fish, but pretty great with lamb, too. (Recipe for olivada is here ) At the top is baba ghanoush, made with the grilled eggplants and whole head of roasted garlic (recipe, with tahini, is from Claudia Roden's A Book of Middle Eastern Food.) On the right is mujammara, a Turkish sauce with walnuts and red peppers (mujammara recipe is here.)

Marinade for Grilled Lamb

Marinada para Cordero a la Parilla

This marinade is adapted from a recipe for Persian-style lamb kebabs. Grated onion in the marinade both tenderizes and flavors the meat. Add any combination of herbs and spices to the basic onion. Marinate the lamb up to 8 hours. Before grilling, bring it to room temperature and scrape off and discard the marinade. 

How long to grill the lamb will depend on type of grill (wood fire, charcoal or gas), thickness of the meat and preferred degree of doneness. At my house, son, Ben, is in charge of grilling—and he got it just right! 

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic

¼ cup loosely packed parsley

1 teaspoon oregano

Pinch of sumac (optional)

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

3 pounds boned and butterflied leg of lamb

Finely chop the onion, garlic, parsley, oregano and sumac, if using, in a blender or food processor. Add 1 teaspoon salt and pepper. 

Spread open the piece of lamb. Trim off excess fat. Place in a rimmed sheet. Spread half the marinade on the skin side and turn the lamb, skin-side down. Spread remaining marinade on the meat’s surface. Cover with foil and refrigerate at least 2 hours and up to 8 hours.

To grill the lamb, scrape off excess marinade. 

No-Bread Gazpacho

Gazpacho Sin Pan

Gazpacho is a glass, perfect for sipping on a hot afternoon.

Or serve gazpacho in bowls as a starter. Drizle with additional olive oil. Add chopped serrano ham and, for bread eaters, crunchy croutons.

With a heap of tomatoes left from last week’s tasting of tomato varieties and soaring temperatures (38ºC/100ºF) I crave gazpacho. I love the traditional recipe for Andalusian gazpacho, in which a bread and olive oil emulsion gives body and smoothness to the tomatoes. But, cutting carbs, I’m eating no bread this month. Here’s an alternative version, with almonds in place of bread, that was every bit as satisfying as the traditional.

Blend chunked tomato.

The best way to prepare tomatoes for gazpacho is to chunk them up and blend them—skins, seeds and all—to a puree, then sieve the pulp to produce a silky-smooth tomato blend. 

The addition of green pepper, onion and cucumber is optional. Use  a piece, to taste, of each, for example, a 2-inch chunk of cucumber and a quarter of a green pepper and onion suit me about right. Use your best extra virgin olive oil; the flavor is important. Thin the gazpacho with water—from ¼ to 1 cup. A sipping gazpacho should be the consistency of light cream, but, if served in a bowl with a spoon, it can be thicker. 

Pour the finished gazpacho into a covered pitcher (or plastic water bottle) and chill in the fridge. Serve it in glasses for sipping or in bowls garnished with chopped serrano ham, grapes or melon, or, for those eating bread, crispy croutons.

Almonds replace bread in this gazpacho.

2 pounds ripe tomatoes

Piece of green pepper

Piece of sweet onion

Piece of peeled cucumber

2 cloves garlic

½ cup skinned almonds

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon Sherry vinegar

½ teaspoon salt or to taste

Water to thin the gazpacho

Cut the tomatoes, pepper, onion and cucumber into chunks and place in a large bowl. With an immersion blender, blend the vegetables until pureed. 

Sieve out seeds, skins.

Push the puree through a fine sieve, pressing on the solids to extract as much pulp as possible. Do this in two or three batches if necessary. Discard the solids left in the sieve.

Return about a quarter of the puree to the large bowl. Add the garlic and almonds and blend until they are finely ground. Blend in the oil, vinegar and salt. Beat in the remaining three-quarters of the tomato puree.  Thin the gazpacho with water. Chill the gazpacho.

THE GAZPACHO DIARIES, WEEK 3

Serrano ham and sweet melon top gazpacho.

Let the variations begin! If you’ve read the previous two entries about gazpacho, you might surmise that I am a stickler for tradition. Gazpacho is not just another name for “cold soup.” It’s a very particular Andalusian dish, almost a category by itself. “Liquid salad” is another way to think of gazpacho.

It isn’t always made with tomatoes (there are authentic white and green gazpachos), but it definitely contains olive oil and, except for the bread, is, basically, all raw.

Classic accompaniments.

In a restaurant presentation, gazpacho typically comes accompanied by little bowls of chopped cucumbers, green peppers, onions, tomatoes and bread crumbs. Each person adds what he or she likes to the gazpacho. But other toppings are admissible! Chopped melon, apples, pears, grapes are all acceptable, the sweetness of the fruit contrasting with the bite of garlic and tang of vinegar. So, why not mango? Or raspberries?

This week, I experimented with variations on the gazpacho theme. For almost all, I started with the basic gazpacho recipe (scroll down or check it out here) and just added different toppings and garnishes. I was amazed at how gazpacho served for many different meals and moods.

Gazpacho with ham and melon, with fresh cheese and cucumber.

These two combos—gazpacho with ham and melon and with cheese, cucumber and mint—could be breakfast gazpacho or starters for a summer dinner. The ham is Spanish serrano ham. The white cheese is fresh goat cheese, cut in cubes.

Gazpacho with seafood.

 Gazpacho makes a tasty background for shellfish. These could be served as a light meal or as a starter. Cooked shrimp with sliced plum tomatoes; mussels with a chopped mixture of green and red peppers and scallions; and squid sprinkled with pimentón picante (smoked hot paprika).

Gazpacho with shrimp, sliced tomato and basil.

 The shrimp are boiled briefly, plunged in ice water, then peeled and deveined. The mussels are steamed open, then dressed with olive oil. To prepare the squid, cut the body pouches open lengthwise and place flat on a cutting board, skin side down. With a sharp knife, score the squid in a crosshatch, without cutting all the way through. Cut the squid into 2-inch pieces. Drop them and the tentacles in boiling water for 30 seconds. Drain and refresh in cold water.

Avocado and jalapeño add a Latin flavor.

Topped with buttery chunks of avocado, chopped onion and red and green pepper for crunch, sliced jalapeño for heat and cilantro leaves for an earthy herbal touch, this gazpacho takes on a Latin flavor. While chile would never appear in authentic Andalusian gazpacho, this is a permutation worth trying. I served it as a starter before charcoal-grilled pork chops.

Gazpacho with no bread.

Gazpacho with no bread? Maybe you want it gluten-free or all raw or low in carbs.  Martha Rose Shulman writing in the New York Times proposed a no-bread gazpacho recipe  that is a basic gazpacho—minus the bread. However, it is the bread-olive oil emulsion that gives gazpacho that wonderful creamy texture.

Here’s a no-bread alternative. The egg-oil emulsion gives this gazpacho a silky texture (but, notice how it is pinkish in color rather than orangy-red as in gazpacho with bread). I used crunchy fried bread crumbs (or not!), almonds and diced pear for contrast. I added no vinegar to this gazpacho, as the tomatoes without bread were tangy enough on their own. I used delicate Arbequina olive oil for this gazpacho. I used an immersion blender and put the ingredients in a bowl to make it easier to beat in the tomatoes.

(Another sort of no-bread gazpacho is made with agar-agar as a thickener. I haven’t tried that recipe.)

No-Bread Gazpacho

(This recipe uses raw egg.)

1  large egg
1 clove garlic
½ to ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
4 cups tomatoes, pureed and sieved
Garnishes, as desired: croutons of fried bread, toasted almonds, diced pears

Place the egg and garlic in blender and whirl until garlic is chopped. With the blender running, add oil in a slow stream until the mixture thickens (may require up to ¾ cup of oil). Beat in the salt and slowly add 1 cup of the sieved tomatoes. Gradually beat in the remaining tomatoes. Chill the gazpacho.

Serve the gazpacho garnished as desired.

Bloody Mary with gazpacho and Sherry.

“What about using gazpacho for a Bloody Mary?” OK, let’s try it! I used the basic gazpacho recipe, with bread, but  without diluting with water. I substituted 2 tablespoons lemon juice for the vinegar. In tall glasses filled with ice, I mixed the gazpacho (4 fluid ounces) with dry fino Sherry (2 ounces) and stirred a dash of Tabasco into each glass. Very refreshing, revitalizing. I think I like this Bloody Mary—or is it a María Sangría?—for sundowners rather than brunch. We also tried it using Pale Cream from Montilla-Moriles, a slightly sweet fortified wine and liked that too. Have not tried it with vodka.

Icy gazpacho granizado (granita). Very refreshing!

“Can I freeze leftover gazpacho?” a friend asked me. “I dunno, never tried it.” So I tried it. Except, instead of thawing and reconstituting the original gazpacho, I turned it into ice cream! Gazpacho sorbete or granizado (granita).

I again started with the basic gazpacho recipe, with bread, adding 1 teaspoon sugar to the mix. Instead of vinegar, I used “sour grapes,” verjuice, unripe grapes, pureed with 2 pounds of tomatoes. I used only ¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil. I put the bowl of gazpacho in the freezer. When it was partially frozen, I used the immersion blender to whip it smooth, then let it freeze until solid.

The frozen gazpacho needs to soften at room temperature for a few minutes. Then, use an ice cream scoop dipped in hot water to scoop it, or a fork to scrape it for granizado (Spanish for granita). Sliced black olives made a good topping. I bet black caviar would really pop on frozen gazpacho. Kernels of fresh corn? I bet I can spin off some more variations.

Gazpacho sorbet with black olives.