In some of our recipes, you'll notice we mention a few commercial low-carb products that are staples in our home. This is just a quick list of some favorites you might also like, that aren't necessarily on everyone's keto radar. But first, a couple of important notes:
What is it?
Extreme Wellness tortillas by Ole Mexican Foods come in wheat, spinach and tomato basil varieties and have 4-5 grams net carbs each.
What do you use it for?
- We have no sponsorships, partnerships, or other connections with these products or their manufacturers, besides simply being customers who've purchased and liked their products. We don't even have any kind of affiliate program links for Amazon or other sites where we may provide links for you to purchase these products if you'd like to do so.
- There are some who don't think any wheat-related product should be part of a ketogenic lifestyle. They may disagree with listing some of these items. We're including anything that is low enough in net carbs to help us easily keep our macros intact. That will include some wheat-based products.
And now, in no particular order, here are five of the products that have been a Godsend for us!
The simple answer is that it's a wheat flour product, with most of the non-fiber carbohydrates removed. What I believe that means is that they actually use other parts of the wheat crop (what might be considered "chaff"), and mostly avoid the typical part of the grain that is generally used in making commercial wheat flour.
What do you use it for?
Basically anything you'd use regular all-purpose flour for, if you were eating carbs. I've used it in pancakes, a low-carb birthday cake, rue for thickening sauces and a few other things.
Pros/cons/peculiarities to be aware of?
Since it doesn't have the kind of empty carbs that are basically sugar, you'll notice it has a little bit more bitter of a flavor than all-purpose flour. It doesn't taste bad -- it's just that regular flour has a subtle sweetness you might not have noticed before due to its sugar content, and Carbalose flour doesn't have that. All that means is that you need to add a little extra stevia, monk fruit, erythritol, or whatever low/no-carb sweetener you typically use, to each recipe.
You'll also want to use extra of whatever leavening agent your recipe may call for. Yeast in particular works by literally eating sugar, and it won't find much to munch on with Carbalose flour. But whether it's yeast or baking powder, you'll always want to use a touch more than you would with traditional all-purpose flour.
Finally, I'm not really sure on this point, but it seems to have less gluten than regular flour as well. Some recipes will require you to use more eggs, or some xanthan gum, or otherwise adjust your ingredients to get the same elasticity you'd find in a traditional flour.
This one is really a variant of Carbalose flour. That's the main ingredient, but it also contains some powdered eggs, baking powder and typical ingredients you'd find in a biscuit mix. Like that really well-known one that also comes in a bright yellow box...
What do you use it for?
Since I use plain Carbalose flour for most baking, making pancakes, etc., I really just save the mix for making biscuits (its main marketed purpose), and mug breads/cakes. For mug breads/cakes I just follow the same recipe as I would with almond/coconut flours and sub in the same amount of this mix in their place.
Pros/cons/peculiarities to be aware of?
Since it's pretty similar to Carbalose flour, pretty much the same things apply. The only thing I'll add is that I've found the recommended recipes that come on the box often need a little tweaking. Things like adding butter or some other fat to your biscuits instead of just mix and water. But overall it's pretty easy to use.
A very low-carb loaf of sliced bread, available in a few varieties, that actually has good, satisfying flavor and texture, with a hearty-sized slice. I point that out because some of the other products I've tried either have tiny slices in order to keep the carb count low, unappealing flavor/texture, or all of the above.
What do you use it for?
OK, I guess that's pretty obvious in this case! Sandwiches and toast immediately come to mind. But another option that it opens up for you is having French Toast for breakfast!
Pros/cons/peculiarities to be aware of?
It's not cheap, but none of the "keto" breads are. I'd say it's competitively priced for the type of product it is, at $7.49 per loaf (local price here in Houston).
I've only been able to find it in-store at Sprouts. Not sure where else you might find it, except online from the manufacturer, at a bit of a higher price due to the cost of UPS shipping.
It does have a bit of a density that's different from typical bread. I find this becomes almost unnoticeable if you toast it though. When making French Toast, this also means you'll want to soak it longer in the egg batter so it really soaks through, and then cook it more slowly so all the egg in the middle is fully cooked.
The plain wheat and sesame seed varieties have 1 gram net carbs per slice, and the cinnamon raisin has 2 grams per slice. Pay close attention to the carbs in your lunch meats and cheese slices, or toast toppings, to make sure they don't add up too quickly without you noticing it!
Low Carb Tortillas
What is it?Rather than making your own tortillas or tortilla substitutes (looking at you, cheese taco shells...) there are a couple of brands of commercially available low-carb tortillas that we love.
Mission Carb Balance tortillas come in sizes ranging from really small to full burrito size, in white and wheat flour varieties, ranging from 3 to 6 grams of net carbs.
Extreme Wellness tortillas by Ole Mexican Foods come in wheat, spinach and tomato basil varieties and have 4-5 grams net carbs each.What do you use it for?
The spinach variety of Extreme Wellness tortillas are the only ones we use for something other than Mexican style foods. They're great for low-carb sandwich wraps!
The various Mission varieties are awesome for tacos, fajitas, burritos, quesadillas and flautas. I've also cut up and fried the white flour kind for a pretty decent tortilla chip, though they're not quite as satisfying as a corn tortilla chip would be. Unfortunately the corn tortillas we thought were low-carb turned out to be mislabeled and have a lot more net carbs than originally stated on the packaging.
Pros/cons/peculiarities to be aware of?
Not really. They are a great replacement for traditional tortillas. I've served them to friends and family who were not eating low-carb diets, and they said they didn't really notice any difference. Maybe the fact that the Extreme Wellness brand requires refrigeration after opening is worth mentioning.
Two Good Yogurt
A snack-sized Greek yogurt cup with various fruit flavors available, that contains only 2 grams of sugar (but 3 grams of carbs).
What do you use it for?
Well, it's a cup of yogurt so generally just eating as a snack! But I suppose if you have a recipe that either calls for yogurt or recommends it as a substitute for some other ingredient, this would be a great option.
Pros/cons/peculiarities to be aware of?
It's not as sweet as the fruit-flavored yogurts you may have once thought were health foods, before you realized they were little sugar bombs in a foil-topped plastic cup! For me, having eaten a low-carb diet for years now, that's not a problem. I don't actually like extreme, syrupy sweetness anymore. So these are just about right. However, if you need it sweeter, there are products like liquid stevia drops, or even some of the "water flavor enhancers" made with stevia and fruit flavors that you can use.
So there you have it: five commercially available products (six if you count both types of tortillas...) that have made our ketogenic life a bit easier, but not everyone has on their low-carb radar. We hope this list adds some nice options to your menu, and we look forward to hearing about other products you've found in the comments!
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