I'm looking to host a big dinner and want to make it as diabetic-friendly as possible. I'm also looking to not make special diabetic-friendly dishes that only 1 person gets. I want to make meals that everyone can have.
I'm aware that I need to keep the sugar in the cabinet and try to reduce the starchy foods I make to a minimum, but are there other ingredients to avoid?
That said, I'm specifically in need of a substitute for pasta that will go well with marinara sauce. It would be a plus if the substitute was good with alfredo sauce. I grew up in a BIG Italian family so the idea of a meal without pasta is almost heresy. With this in mind I'm not very familiar with more diabetic-friendly options that keep sugars and carbohydrates low.
I also want to serve mashed potatoes but wounder if there are other veggies I can mash to come up with something like mash potatoes but less starchy considering the diabetic facts?
Are there any techniques commonly used to make dishes with a lower hypoglycemic index? I've seen things like a bed of veggies instead of pasta but I'm not sure if everyone would like that.
Thanks.
Best Answer
You can buy prepackaged low-carb pasta (or gluten free pasta) if you want to make a quick dish. For a healthier option, you can make zucchini noodles. All you need for this is a lot of zucchini and a mandolin or spiral slicer. "Zoodles" are so easy to make and delicious with pasta sauce and fresh cheese! I make these a lot and oftentimes add caramelized onions and red peppers for more flavor. They're always a big hit with my family. An easy recipe can be found here on the nomnompaleo website.
Besides pasta, there's tons of other low-carb, sugar-free dishes you can make for yourself or even large groups. The best way I know of finding these recipes is to google what I want (ie: 'pizza' or 'meatballs') and add any dietary restrictions to the search (ie: 'low carb pizza' or 'low carb meatballs'). This will bring up all sorts of recipes for you to look over and choose from. Nutritional info & serving sizes are usually included.
EDIT: About the mashed potatoes, there's a lot of low carb recipes that call for cauliflower. I'm not a fan of those recipes, and use boiled jicama (mexican potatoes) instead. They don't get as soft as potatoes, but when you take them out and pop them in a food processor with some heavy cream, salt, and garlic, they are definitely the closest things to real mashed potatoes that you can get. 1 cup of boiled jicama has about 5 grams of net carbs, so these are perfect for low carbers & diabetics alike.