20 Delicious Low-Carb Meals That You’re Going to Love

Written by Michael Matthews

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I’ve written extensively about low-carb dieting because there’s a lot of noise about how many carbs you should eat.

Everywhere you look there’s one pied piper or another claiming one thing or another — you have to eat no carbs, eat tons of ’em, cycle your carbs, backload ’em, and on and on.

It leaves a lot of people confused, and understandably so.

Well, the truth is this:

If you’re physically active — and especially if you’re into weightlifting — and not obese, you’re going to do better with more carbs, not less.

And yes, that holds true even when your goal is weight loss (low-carb diets don’t actually help here).

That doesn’t mean you can’t restrict (or cycle) your carbs, though. If you like how it makes you look or feel, that’s reason enough.

If you’re going to make it work, however, you have to put a bit of thought into what the hell to eat. If you don’t get to enjoy your meals, you’re not going to be able to stick to your diet plan for long.

Well, that’s where these low-carb meals come in.

They’re going to help you fill your macros with foods you actually like, which is going to help you get to where you want to be faster.

Enjoy!

Cauliflower-Crusted Grilled Cheese Sandwich

A grilled cheese sandwich is made from mostly bread, so how can you recreate it with fewer carbs? Cauliflower is creatively used in low-carb recipes all the time, but this is one for the books.

The cauliflower “bread” dough is made with egg and Parmesan, then baked until golden brown so you’ll have something to melt your favorite cheese between. Just be careful to broil this grilled cheese instead of making it on the stove so that it stays together.

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Low-Carb Chicken Pot Pie

You can’t make pot pie for dinner without some kind of crust. Then it would just be a creamy chicken casserole.

To make a low-carb pot pie dough, try this pastry made from mozzarella cheese. Just add an egg, cream cheese, seasonings, and almond flour, and you’ll have a topping for any kind of savory pie.

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Buffalo Chicken Stuffed Avocado

If you love Buffalo chicken wings, you may be used to eating them alongside French fries and other starchy fried foods. The chicken itself might be low in carbs and high in protein, but most appetizers are the opposite.

Upgrade from bar food to a healthy meal by stuffing the Buffalo chicken in an avocado instead. It adds a creamy element like ranch dressing and is filling for the right reasons: healthy fats, fiber, and micronutrients like potassium and vitamin E.

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Pan-Seared Salmon with Sautéed Mushrooms

Overthinking your low-carb dinner to the point you’re eating nothing but plain chicken breast? It doesn’t have to be a challenge.

This simple entrée ticks all the boxes for a meal that’s fast, flavorful, and filling. There are no ingredients to slice or dice, so the prep work is just grabbing everything you need. And to cook it up, just add everything to the pan at the right time.

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Rosemary Buttermilk Ranch Chicken Skewers

Instead of picking up chicken at the drive-thru, make some chicken kebabs for a more satisfying meal. The hardest part is preparing the chicken and getting it onto the skewers, so you can get that out of the way ahead of time.

After that, marinade the chicken, and grill for about 10 minutes. Enjoy with a simple side dish like cucumber salad, roasted broccoli, or Buffalo cauliflower “wings.”

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Chicken in Creamy Green Onion Sauce

This chicken dinner only requires five ingredients, yet has tons of comfort food flavor thanks to butter and sour cream. That might not sound diet-friendly, but it all depends on your meal plan goals.

When you go low-carb – perhaps as part of a carb cycling strategy – it means you can occasionally replace the starchy stuff with so-called “guilty pleasure” foods that are cut out from other diet plans, giving you tons of variety through the cycle.

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Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus

For a quick dinner that hardly needs cooking, wrap veggies or shrimp in prosciutto, and then broil until it starts to brown and crisp up.

Then you’ll have a small plate that’s rich with flavor and has contrasting texture. Prosciutto-wrapped asparagus can be a small meal, a killer post-workout snack, or a low-carb side dish for a lean entrée like chicken breast.

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Pineapple-Stuffed Chorizo Burgers

These chorizo burgers have so much flavor – you won’t even miss the bun. Inside the patty is ground beef, spicy chorizo, and a thinly sliced ring of pineapple.

They’re awesome to eat with just a dollop of guacamole. If you can add some carbs to the meal, wrap it in a whole-wheat tortilla, or serve with sliced sweet potato instead of French fries.

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Shrimp Scampi with Artichokes

Not only is this dinner flavorful enough to serve to guests, but it only takes about 20 minutes to cook it, meaning you can be eating this shrimp and artichoke entrée any night of the week. If you want a bigger dish – and to turn this into pasta-style scampi – serve with zucchini noodles.

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Steak with Quick Mushroom & Red Wine Sauce

This low-carb dinner for two is perfect for a date night. Pick a quality steak like a boneless strip, or even a few filet mignons to celebrate a special occasion.

A great cut of beef won’t need much to make it into a meal – in this case, just some mushrooms, red wine, and balsamic for a robust sauce. Serve with mashed cauliflower or sautéed greens.

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Butterflied Lemon Roast Chicken

Any kind of roast is likely to be low in carbohydrates. So don’t trip up your meal planning on the side dishes by adding potatoes or rice.

Alternatives like cauliflower risotto and bacon-broccoli salad can be just as comforting to eat after a long day. And when you don’t have energy, simple mixed greens with a quick vinaigrette will be easy and delicious.

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Mozzarella-Stuffed Mini Meatloaves

A lot of meatloaf recipes use bread crumbs as a filler. That’s traditionally how the ground meat was stretched to feed a family. But when you want to go gluten-free and keep it low-carb, use oats instead.

They disappear into the meatloaf – especially quick oats, which are thinner – and are especially hidden when you stuff the whole thing with mozzarella cheese.

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One-Pan Chicken & Veggies

The ultimate quick meal can be made with a single pan. To make this easy weeknight dinner, slice up a bunch of veggies, and add them to a sheet pan with some chicken thighs.

Leave the skin on so they get crispy without needing to be brushed with olive oil and seasonings. That doesn’t mean it’s flavorless, though – everything gets coated in the same dressing before it goes in the oven.

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Paleo Burritos

Tortillas can be a low-carb replacement for bread, but if you’re avoiding flour altogether, you’ll need to get creative to fulfill your burrito craving. Beat together some eggs and ground flax, and then thin the mixture with some water so that it spreads out more like a crepe than an omelette.

Once that’s done, these have a filling of fish and avocado, but you can use the egg “tortillas” for any filling like carnitas, carne asada, or grilled chicken. Just don’t add rice or beans if you want to keep it low-carb.

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Brussels Sprouts & Hamburger Gratin

Now this is a body-building dinner you’ll want to wolf down after a workout. If you pile this healthy gratin high on your plate, it adds up to over 70 grams of protein per serving.

And once you learn to make it, this is an easy dinner to adapt. Use green beans instead of the sprouts, if you prefer, and scale back the bacon to a quarter-pound if you want to lower the fat.

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Coconut Lime Crusted Mahi Mahi

Any kind of filet will be a great start to a low-carb dinner. If you’re craving something next-level, though, add a crispy coconut crust.

It’s similar to the typical breading on chicken or fish, only it’s so flavorful you won’t need seasonings beyond salt and pepper. Fresh lime is all this coconut fish fillet needs to become an awesome tropical entrée.

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Bunless Burger Bites

A full-size burger doesn’t look quite right when it’s naked. So if you want to go bunless, scale down those hamburgers into bite-size servings.

Eating one of these burger skewers is just as satisfying as taking a bite out of a thick beef patty, maybe even more so since you get the right mix of toppings every time. They’re great for lunch, dinner, or to serve as appetizers on game day.

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Halibut with Pepitas, Capers, Cherry Tomatoes & Basil

A restaurant-quality meal doesn’t need carbs, and this one can be ready on the table in under a half hour.

Halibut only takes a few minutes to pan-fry on both sides, and the trick to infusing flavor is to add lemon juice, white wine, and butter to the pan after flipping the fish. Then transfer it to the oven to finish cooking, and while you wait, you can prepare the garnish of basil and pepitas.

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Spaghetti Squash & Meatball Frittata

If you go low-carb for a while, at some point you’ll run into a craving for classic pasta like spaghetti and meatballs. But even when you sub the noodles with spaghetti squash, one bowl can wind up with 50 grams of carbs per serving.

Enjoy the same flavors in this Italian pasta frittata smothered with marinara sauce. And since the dish is mostly eggs, you’ll be eating more protein than carbs.

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Primal Pizza Pie Casserole

Most of the flavor in a pizza isn’t from the carbs – it’s the cheese, meat, and sauce that make it so crave-worthy. This low-carb pepperoni casserole delivers big on what you want, including mozzarella and beef, while replacing the crust with a mixture of healthy veggies.

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