That title is a mouthful, and I apologize for that. There’s a lot going on in this recipe. It’s technically four recipes in one. You get the spice blend that goes on the tuna and into the rice, the tuna, the crema, and the rice itself. But believe it or not, this recipe can be made in 30 minutes on a weeknight. It’s almost all measuring, with just a bit of cooking. It’s great for if you need to hit your protein macros, and you can just add a bit of extra crema if you need more fat. This meal was perfect for both me and my non-keto husband, which is a hard balance to find.

The first thing you’ll want to work on is the spice blend, as it’s kind of the linchpin to everything you’ll be doing. And honestly, the most work you’ll have to do on this one is pouring spices into spoons. It’s just 2 tablespoons of paprika (I use smoked paprika, but regular is fine if you don’t have it), 2 tablespoons of chili powder, a tablespoon and a half of cumin, a tablespoon of salt, a tablespoon of oregano, and a teaspoon each of garlic powder, onion powder, coriander, and black pepper. Mix them all together in a bowl, and voila, you have an all-purpose Mexican spice rub that you can use for so many things. Want to make some taco meat? Throw in a few tablespoons with some ground beef you’re browning. It works on any sort of meat, and in anything you want to give a little bit of spice to. You’ll end up with much more than this recipe calls for, so put the remainder in a little ziploc bag.

Now that this is done, start working on the crema. You’ll make this in a food processor or blender. Start with a jalapeno pepper. If you want this to be nice and spicy, just cut off the very top of the pepper and leave in the seeds. Cut it into 4 pieces and throw it in the food processor. If you can’t handle the heat, take out the seeds and membranes before you throw it in. Add the juice of one lime, the flesh of an avocado, a half cup of cilantro leaves, tightly packed, and a teaspoon each of salt, cumin, and minced garlic. Blend it, stopping to scrape down the sides a few times, then add six tablespoons of sour cream and puree it until the chunks are all gone. Keep this set aside for now.

You’ll want to start the rice and tuna at about the same time. The rice is “quick” because I don’t start with raw cauliflower. Ain’t nobody got time for that. I like the Birds-Eye Steamfresh brand of frozen riced cauliflower. It cooks in 4 minutes in the microwave. These kind of shortcuts are what allows me to get semi-elegant food on the table on a Tuesday night. So throw that cauliflower in the microwave, and while you do, prepare the tuna. Remember that Mexican spice rub? You’ll need 4 teaspoons of it, a half-teaspoon on each side of 4 4-ounce ahi tuna filets. Set those aside for now.

By this point the rice should be well-nuked, so start your skillets going. You’ll want a non-stick for the rice, and a heavy-bottomed cast-iron or stainless steel skillet for the tuna. Heat the rice one to medium heat and the tuna one to high. You’ll want 1/4 cup of avocado oil in the tuna skillet, enough to cover the bottom of the pan in a thin layer. The cauliflower one doesn’t need added fat, but if it fits your macros, put in a tablespoon of avocado oil or butter. Once the pans reach temperature, put the rice in, then the tuna.

The tuna needs to cook no more than a minute and a half per side, so that the inside is still red and rare. Set your timer, then focus on the rice. Add 4 tablespoons of tomato sauce and 2 teaspoons of the Mexican spice blend and stir to combine. By this point, your tuna should be ready to flip, so grab a set of tongs and turn each piece. Set your timer again. Continue stirring your rice to make sure it’s an even color, and add more salt if necessary. Turn the heat off on that skillet, then once the tuna is done, immediately remove it from the pan. Serve it with the cauliflower rice and two tablespoons of crema. I ended up making this into 2 servings, but it could easily make 4, especially if you use a slightly bigger bag of frozen cauliflower rice. If you do, add an extra tablespoon of tomato sauce and a half teaspoon more of the rub.

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It was a balmy 94 degrees outside when I made my meal plan for the week, so of course I decided that what I was currently craving was potato soup. I’m…kinda weird. The second most obvious issue here is, of course, that potato soup isn’t the least bit keto. But I was undeterred. I know you can make all sorts of stuff from cauliflower, including mashed potatoes, and if you can make mashed potatoes with cauliflower, how could potato soup be any different?

This is an Instant Pot recipe, but you can absolutely do it without one. Follow the rest of the instructions, but do it in a Dutch oven, and when you get to the point where the pressure cook occurs, just put the lid on and cook the cauliflower in the broth until it’s fork-tender, almost mushy. Also, while I call for chicken broth here, there’s no reason vegetable broth wouldn’t work for those of you who do vegetarian keto. Do your thing.

To start with this one, chop half of a medium onion, resulting in 1/3 cup of chopped onions. Chop two heads of cauliflower into florets, then set aside. Set the Instant Pot to saute and melt two tablespoons of butter. Once the butter starts getting foamy, toss in the onions and saute them until they start turning golden. Throw in a tablespoon of minced garlic and saute it for about 30 seconds, then add the cauliflower. Saute it for about five minutes, turning occasionally, until brown spots begin to appear. Pour in a cup of chicken broth, then seal the lid and pressure cook for three minutes with a manual release.

When the lid can be safely removed, open it. Add the remaining half cup of chicken broth, and using a stick blender, puree the cauliflower. Once there are no large chunks left, add 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar, 1/2 cup of heavy cream, and 1/4 cup of sour cream. Continue using the stick blender until the texture of the soup is uniform. If needed, add extra liquids. At this point, taste for seasoning. I used a tablespoon of salt. Cauliflower sometimes takes a lot of seasoning to get beyond tasting bland. Your mileage may vary, though. I used a ton of pepper in here, because I love peppery potato soup.

The toppings are where you can get creative. I did some more shredded cheddar, green onions, bacon, and sour cream. But honestly, if you’d put it on a baked potato, you can do it here. Roasted broccoli florets and cheddar would be phenomenal. Top it with what you want. My macros here are without toppings, because I know you guys will want to try different things.

Loaded Faked Potato Soup

Ever had loaded baked potato soup? This is like that, only faked.

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Prep Time 10 mins

Cook Time 20 mins

Course Soup

Servings 6

Equipment

• Instant Pot or other pressure cooker
• Immersion blender

Ingredients

  

• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/3 cup chopped onions
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 2 medium heads cauliflower chopped into florets
• 1.5 cups chicken or vegetable broth divided
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1 tbsp Kosher salt
• black pepper to taste

Instructions

 

• Set the Instant Pot to saute and add the butter. When the butter is foamy, add the onions and saute them until they start turning golden brown. Add the garlic and saute another 30 seconds. When the garlic is fragrant, add the cauliflower and saute for about 5 more minutes, turning occasionally, until the cauliflower begins to brown.
• Add a cup of broth to the Instant Pot, put on the lid, and set to cook on high pressure for 3 minutes. Use the manual release, then open the cooker when it's safe to do so. Add the rest of the broth and use an immersion blender to puree the cauliflower.
• When the cauliflower gets smooth, stir in the cheese, heavy cream, and sour cream. Add the salt and pepper, then use the immersion blender to puree it and mix everything together. Serve in a small bowl with your desired toppings.
• Macros for just the soup: 209 calories, 8 grams net carbs, 7 grams protein, 16 grams fat.

Keyword cauliflower, keto, lchf, low carb, low-calorie, soup

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One of my favorite places to go back before I went fully gluten-free was Dewey’s Pizza. They did this cool thing where they had an open, windowed kitchen where you could watch them hand-toss the dough for all the pizzas they were making. The kids absolutely loved it, but with all the flour being tossed in the air, even the gluten-free pizza was unsafe to eat if you have any sort of reaction to it. So I wrote off Dewey’s as a food option, and now that I’m keto it’s even less of one.

But I still adore their Edgar Allan Poe pizza. It’s one of the few vegetarian pizzas I’ve ever preferred over the more meaty options. An olive oil sauce, kalamata olives, a billion different types of cheese, whole cloves of roasted garlic, whiskers on kittens and warm woolen mittens…what’s not to love, really? It was fairly easy to adapt to keto with a chicken crust. This meal is very high in protein and not as high in fat as some others, so it’s healthy even for your non-keto family. Very filling, too. Two slices lasted me from about 6:15 until bedtime, with only a fat bomb for dessert in between.

You’ll want to start by roasting your garlic. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. While it’s warming up, take all the papery skin off of the outside of a head of garlic. You may need to dig in between the outer cloves with your fingernails to break up the skin enough to get it to rub off. When all the skin is peeled off except the very last layer around the outer cloves, cut between 1/4 and 1/2 inch off the pointy end. Put it on a square of aluminum foil, uncut side down, and drizzle it with a teaspoon of olive oil. Close the foil around it and bake for 40 minutes, then remove from the oven and let it cool until you can handle it easily.

While the garlic is roasting, prepare your pizza crust. Mix together a pound of ground chicken breast with an egg, 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of oregano, 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, and however much pepper you’d like. While I prefer to use shelf-stable parmesan for anything I’m subbing for breadcrumbs. I’d avoid the green can because it’s half sawdust. Costco sells a brand called Cello that I love. They’re the same folks who make Whisps. As for the chicken itself, I used ground chicken breast, which is low in fat, because I didn’t want too much shrinkage of the crust. You can use a mixture, but the crust might end up smaller when the fat heats up and liquefies.

When your crust ingredients have been mixed, put a square of parchment paper on a pizza pan or sheet pan, and pat out the chicken into a roughly 10-12 inch circle. It should be about 1/4 inch thick when you’re done. The parchment paper is necessary because it’ll stick if you don’t use it. Once the garlic is out of the oven, put the pizza crust in for 20 minutes.

As the crust is baking, you’ll want to prep the toppings. Chop about 12 kalamata olives in half, lengthwise. Chop half a large tomato (or one small one) and remove the seeds and pulp. Finely mince enough flat-leaf parsley to get you about 1/4 cup. And finally, when the crust is almost done, make sure your garlic is cool enough to handle, then squeeze the cloves out into a small bowl or ramekin. Depending on how much garlic you want and how big your garlic head was, you may not use it all. I prefer about 2-3 cloves per slice.

Once the pizza crust is out of the oven, drizzle it with a tablespoon of olive oil, then top it with 4 ounces (about 1 cup) of Italian blend cheese. The one I used was a six cheese blend with mozzarella, parmesan, provolone, fontina, asiago, and some other cheese I can’t remember. If you can find one with fontina in it, that’s the most accurate to the original Dewey’s recipe. After that, evenly spread the olives and the garlic around the pizza, then top with an ounce and a half of crumbled goat cheese and put it back in the oven for ten minutes.

Once it’s out, sprinkle evenly with the tomatoes and parsley, cut into 8 even slices, and serve immediately. I haven’t tested how this will reheat, so if you won’t be eating all of it, I’d suggest saving some of the tomatoes and parsley to sprinkle on after you microwave the leftover slices. And if you can figure out why this is called the Edgar Allan Poe, please let me know.

Edgar Allan Poe Meatza

A Greek-style veggie pizza with a chicken crust.

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Prep Time 50 mins

Cook Time 30 mins

Course Main Course

Cuisine Pizza

Servings 4

Calories 396 kcal

Equipment

• Parchment paper

Ingredients

  

For the Roasted Garlic

• 1 head garlic
• 1 tsp olive oil

For the Pizza

• 1 lb. ground chicken breast
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• ground pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 4 ounces Italian blend shredded cheese
• 12 kalamata olives halved
• 1.5 ounces crumbled goat cheese
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1/2 medium tomato chopped, about 1/3 cup total

Instructions

 

For the Roasted Garlic

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Remove the papery outer skin from a head of garlic and cut 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the tapered end, exposing all the cloves. Put the garlic, cut side up, on a square of aluminum foil, and drizzle with the olive oil. Seal the garlic in the foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove and let cool.

For the Meatza

• Mix together the chicken, egg, parmesan, salt, pepper, oregano, and garlic powder in a medium bowl.
• Cover a pizza pan or sheet pan with parchment paper. Place the chicken mixture in the center of the paper and pat into a 10 to 12-inch diameter circle. It will be about 1/4 thick. When you remove the garlic from the oven, put the crust in to bake for 20 minutes.
• Chop the tomato and parsley and halve the olives and set them aside. Once the garlic has cooled, squeeze the cloves into a small bowl or ramekin.
• When the crust is finished, take it out and drizzle it with the olive oil. Top the pizza with the Italian cheese blend, then the olives and garlic, and finally the goat cheese. Put back in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove, top with the tomatoes and parsley, and serve immediately. If you won't be eating it all, save some tomatoes and parsley to top the pizza with after you reheat it.
• Macros per serving (1/4 of the pizza): 396 calories, 7 grams net carbs, 40 grams protein, 21 grams fat.

Keyword chicken, high protein, keto, lchf, low carb, meatza, pizza

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