Can I Sweeten My Spaghetti Sauce
If youre used to having tomato sauce with lots of added sugar, you may find this one a little lacking in the sweet department.
Feel free to add a little keto-friendly sweetener while cooking, such as erythritol. A couple of tablespoons should be all you need.
Over time, your tastebuds will likely adjust to less sugar and, in turn, sweetness. This means youll be able to enjoy foods without added sweetener, as well as taste the natural sweetness in plenty of ingredients like the tomatoes in your low-carb spaghetti sauce!
Feel free to gradually dial back the sweetener until you dont need any at all. Theres no need to go cold turkey on the sweetness right away youll get there eventually.
Why You Should Make Your Own Low Carb Marinara:
Its Easy.
When you have a recipe that is as easy as this one, there really is no reason to buy store bought.
No pot, no cooking, this recipe is eazy peazy.
No fuss and no mess. It doesnt get much simpler than that.
Control Flavor.
Your kitchen, your rules my friend. You want a little more of one spice and a little less of another, go for it. You can adjust the seasonings. Yay!
When you buy a store bought product, yes you can add to it, but you cant take out anything that is already in there.
When you make your own sauce you have more options flavor wise and you have the final say as to what ingredients you put into your body, which leads me to my next point.
Control Quality.
You get to decide what ingredients you want and dont want when you make your own marinara. Use this Keto Marinara recipe as a base for your own creation or follow the recipe exactly. You have options.
No preservatives used or ingredients that are subpar. You select the quality.
I personally like to use really good tomatoes, even though they cost a tad more. The tomatoes are the base of the dish, so I want a high quality tomato.
I recommend certified San Marzano tomatoes. Dont worry you wont use a ton so it shouldnt break the bank. And trust me you will be so glad that you did not skimp on your tomato selection, just saying.
If you want to avoid the blending, you can even get crushed tomatoes, or pureed tomatoes and just stir everything together.
Stores Well.
Spaghetti Squash Nutrition And Health Benefits
While egg noodles, zoodles, and shirataki noodles are great options to mix things up, spaghetti squash has the perfect texture for the heavier sauces commonly used in Italian dishes.
Spaghetti squash is a type of winter squash that is low in calories and carbs. It also happens to be easy to cook. You can use spaghetti squash in a wide range of low-carb recipes, including pasta dishes, breakfast casseroles, or as an alternative to hash browns.
Spaghetti squash nutrition includes a number of vitamins, dietary fiber, omega-3s, and omega-6s.
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Why This Recipe Works
- A classic sauce updated for todays modern diets, this low-carb spaghetti sauce contains all of the flavors you want without the added ingredients you dont need.
- Made with fresh garlic, oregano, and basil, keto spaghetti sauce tastes just like you would expect from a classic Italian sauce.
- Ready to go in just an hour, this sauce will taste like you simmered it for hours .
- Fresh onion and green peppers add extra veggies to your sauce and a depth of flavor you wont want to skip out on.
What Is Spaghetti Squash
Spaghetti squash is also known as vegetable spaghetti. It belongs to a group of cultivars that fall under the species of Cucurbita pepo. Botanically, this plant is a fruit, although most people refer to it as a vegetable.
People cultivated this unique fruit in fall, and it comes in a variety of sizes and colors. The colors can range from ivory to yellow and orange, where orange has the most carotene. Apart from the colorful meat, the inside of the fruit contains large seeds.
Though, the vibrant colors are not the thing that makes this fruit unique. When it is raw, it does not differ much from other species of squash- it is hard. However, when you cook it, its meat gets softer and falls in long strands that resemble spaghetti- hence the name spaghetti squash.
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More Keto And Low Carb Sauces
Filed Under: Beef, Main Course, Posts, Recipes, Sauces & Condiments, Savory SaucesTagged With: best keto recipes, best low carb recipes, easy keto recipes, easy low carb recipes, gluten free recipes, keto, keto diet, keto Italian recipes, keto meat sauce, keto recipes, ketogenic diet, low carb Italian recipes, low carb meat sauce, low carb recipes
What To Serve With Keto Tomato Sauce
Try this tomato sauce with zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash for a perfectly low-carb pasta.
Its also great with these fan-favorite keto meatballs, and as a part of this Keto Lasagna with Zucchini Noodles.
Keto marinara is perfect as a dipping sauce for these cheesy keto garlic breadsticks.
And, if you simmer it a little longer to thicken it up, it turns into the perfect sauce to use on keto pizza!
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What Ingredients Are In Keto Spaghetti Sauce
- Tomatoes Canned tomatoes, whole, chopped, or crushed are all good choices to use in sugar-free spaghetti sauce. Fresh tomatoes will work too.
- Parsley Fresh or dried will both do the trick.
- Basil Fresh or dried will be good in the low carb pasta sauce.
- Salt This enhances the flavors of food, but it is not necessary if you have a blood pressure problem and cant use salt in your diet.
- Pepper Ground black pepper. If you like spicy food, then feel free to add crushed red pepper instead.
- Garlic Powder This is my favorite spice and used in a lot of foods, including most Italian recipes. If you would prefer, you could use fresh or jarred garlic.
- Onion Powder You can never go wrong with adding onion flavor to keto tomato sauce too. If you want to, dried onion flakes or even fresh chopped will be good too.
Whats The Difference Between Marinara And Vodka Sauce
Marinara is a simple, light tomato-based pasta sauce that does not contain alcohol. The difference between marinara vs vodka sauce lies in the ingredients. Marinara contains only tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and herbs while vodka sauce has cream added to it along with vodka and other spices like oregano or basil.
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What Makes This Spaghetti Keto
The secret is in the use of low-carb ingredients that make the entire dish taste nearly like classic tomato spaghetti. As you can see below, you dont need to go crazy over ingredients. Were using only 7 for the sauce, plus salt and pepper and Kiss My Ketos angel hair noodles.
Youll need the following:
- Olive oil Its best to use extra virgin olive oil since its unprocessed, tastier, and healthier. For this recipe, we use it for sauteing the ground beef.
- Ground beef A nutritional powerhouse, ground beef provides protein, fat, sodium, and iron.
- Mushrooms Mushrooms are naturally low in carbohydrates. Heres something you can do to add more flavor: Sauté the mushrooms in garlic!
- Red pepper flakes We use red pepper flakes to add some kick and sharpness to the spaghetti sauce. You wont go wrong with them as long as you stick with the recommended amount.
- Onion powder This is a good option. But if you can, use fresh onions since theyre tastier.
- Dried celery leaf Celery leaf is a great substitute for parsley. It also occupies spot on the list of low-carb veggies.
- Tomato sauce Be careful with choosing tomato sauce. You need to make sure that its sugar-free or low in carbs. If you have more time, feel free to make your own keto spaghetti sauce.
- Angel hair noodles These noodles are free of starch. You can eat them without fearing youll get kicked out of ketosis.
How To Make Keto Spaghetti Sauce
It is so easy to make keto spaghetti sauce and we will show you step by step how simple it is.
STEP 1: Open the cans of crushed tomatoes into a saucepan.
STEP 2: The next thing to do is to add the spices . There is no special order, so just add them and stir them in well.
STEP 3: Heat up the sauce on low-medium and stir every few minutes so that it doesnt stick or burn.
STEP 4: Keep cooking the low carb tomato sauce for 30 minutes. When its done take the sauce off the burner and enjoy it with your favorite foods.
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Why Isnt Pasta Low
Pasta is the all-time comfort food, first traced back to 1154 in Sicily. It was originally made from an unleavened dough of durum wheat flour, mixed with water or eggs and then formed into different noodles .
While there are many different types of pasta today, the classic cooked, unenriched traditional pasta is about 30 grams of carbohydrates per 100 grams. Thats your entire daily carbohydrate intake on the ketogenic diet, if youre lucky.
After that comes a minuscule 0.9 grams of fat, about 6 grams of protein, and minimal micronutrients. Even whole wheat pasta, advertised as a health food, contains 37 grams of total carbohydrates.
Youre thinking, Im never going to enjoy spaghetti and meatballs again. False. You can enjoy your favorite pasta dishes including lasagna noodles on a low-carb diet with a keto-friendly alternative. Here are a few delicious low-carb substitutes.
How To Shop For Low
If pasta is in your dinner rotation every week, you’re probably buying jarred marinara sauce pretty regularly . And marinara sauce can be a healthy addition to your weeknight meals: it’s often loaded with veggies but lacking in the fat and calories that come with cream-based sauces like alfredo.
The problem is that if you don’t check out the label on the back of your jar, you could be inadvertently wiping out all the health benefits of marinara with sky-high amounts of sugar.
“A serving size of marinara is usually ½ cup,” says Amy Shapiro, RD, CDN, and founder of Real Nutrition. “Aim for a sauce with about 35 to 50 calories, with sugar only coming from the tomatoes.”
According to Shapiro, here’s what to look for when you’re shopping for healthy marinara sauces:
- The best options contain five grams or less of sugar, and roughly the same amount of carbs. Ideally, you would hit less than 400 milligrams of sodium, too, but it’s pretty hard to find sauces that are low in sugar and sodium unless you’re able to shell out big bucks for organic jars.
- Look for minimal ingredients. Shapiro says this means only three or four whole foods plus herbs and spices. If sugar is added, it should be far down on the list, not near the top.
- Organic and local options are good ways to ensure you’re getting a cleaner, less processed sauce, but it’s not a necessity. In fact, Shapiro’s favorite brand isn’t organic, but she says it’s still “simple and downright delicious.”
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What Can I Serve With Keto Spaghetti Sauce
Keto spaghetti sauce goes exceptionally well with low carb pasta substitutes for a delicious keto-friendly spaghetti dinner.
Regular pasta isnt keto, as, of course, pasta is loaded with carbs. There are, however, lots of tasty low carb alternatives.
The easiest low carb pasta-substitutes that you can prepare at home are spiralized vegetables. You can use a sharp knife to spiralize or a spiralizing machine. Zoodles, or zucchini noodles, are one of our favorites, but you can try carrots, squash, and many other low carb vegetables too.
Here are a few different serving suggestions:
- Prepare an aubergine lasagna You replace the lasagna sheets with sliced aubergine and use your keto-friendly sauce as the base. Prepare a low carb bechamel sauce and layer up the dish with mozzarella.
- Prepare shirataki noodles. Shirataki noodles are one of the best low carb noodle alternatives, and you can find them in many stores across the country these days.
- Zoodle bolognese. Serve the sauce with ground beef on top of a bed of low carb zoodles!
- Low carb tacos and burritos. Get ahold of low carb tortillas or simply make lettuce wraps for a low carb burrito sauce!
What Ingredients Do You Need For Keto Marinara
One of the things that make for a good marinara is good ingredients. So lets look at what goes into this low carb version of marinara.
- Peeled Cento San Marzano Tomatoes : If you want great sauce, start with great tomatoes. These are going to be the best! They have no sugar, and are usually very high quality, sweet, and delicious. Should you opt for a different brand simply look for one that is sugar free. I also recommend steam peeled.
- Extra virgin olive oil: Adds flavor, and some creaminess.
- Spices: black pepper, red pepper flakes, fresh garlic, onion powder, dried basil, Italian seasoning, and salt. Enhances the delicious flavors of the tomatoes, and makes for a fantastic sauce.
- Vinegars: This sauce contains two kinds of vinegar: red wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar. Both add depth of flavor to the sauce!
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Instant Pot Keto Marinara Sauce
Storing And Freezing Keto Chicken Spaghetti
- To store: Leftover spaghetti should be stored in the refrigerator, covered. It will keep well for up to 5 days. For the best flavor and texture, keep the sauce and spaghetti separate.
- To freeze: Place the cooked spaghetti in a ziplock bag and place the sauce in a shallow container. Store them both in the freezer and they will keep well for up to 6 months.
- Reheating: Either microwave for 1-2 minutes or place it in a saucepan and heat up over the stove.
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What Kind Of Ground Beef Should I Use
Ideally, for a low-carb or keto diet, you want to aim for using higher-fat meats. Generally, a 70/30 ground beef would be the best for a recipe such as this.
Fatty meats, however, do cook down a lot more since there is more fat to cook out. While this isnt a huge deal, that simply means however much youre using doesnt go as. far.
For instance, one pound of 70/30 ground beef might cook down to 3/4 of a pound or less.
Ground beef that is lower in fat will end up being more meat and less fat after browned but is more expensive.
Really, the choice is yours.
Why Is Ragu Sauce Not Sold In Canada Anymore
The decision is part of a realignment aimed at consolidating our brand offerings in the markets where we compete most effectively. We remain committed to leading the pasta-sauce category in North America. It is unknown if the COVID-19 global pandemic was a factor in the decision to withdraw the product from Canada.
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Can I Use Dried Herbs
We recommend using fresh herbs if possible. This will give you the best possible flavor. Nothing beats the taste of fresh basil
Not to mention youll feel like youre truly cooking from scratch.
However, you can use dried herbs if you really want to. Dried herbs are often much more affordable than fresh herbs, and theres less chance of any unused bits going to waste in the back of your fridge.
Or, maybe this is the excuse youve been needing to start your own herb garden! Did you know you can easily grow a pot of basil on a sunny kitchen windowsill?
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Keto Chicken Alfredo Sauce
A basic keto 3-ingredient alfredo sauce contains heavycream, butter, and parmesan cheese.
My keto alfredo sauce adds in some garlic and some cream cheese .
The Cream
A lot of people think that heavy cream is a free for allfood on keto since nutrition labels list it as having 0 grams of carbs per tbspserving.
The truth is it actually contains 6.76 grams of net carbs per cup, but because it has less than 1 gram of carbs per serving companies are allowed to list it as 0.
So, is heavy cream keto?
While a tablespoon serving actually has around 0.42 gramsof carbs, its still a great ingredient to use on keto. You just need to make sure you are countingthe carbs in it accurately.
What is the difference between heavy cream and heavywhipping cream and whipping cream?
While heavy whipping cream is just another name for heavy cream, whipping cream is actually a different product.
Heavy cream is cream that contains more than 35% milkfat and 6.76 grams of carbs per cup.
Whipping cream only contains 30%-35% milkfat. It also has slightly more carbs at 7.07 grams per cup.
While heavy cream and whipping cream are not actually thesame thing, the difference between them is so small its not a problem to useheavy cream instead of whipping cream or vice versa in recipes.
The Butter
Butter is also listed as having 0 grams of carbs onnutrition labels.
The Cheese
Shredded Parmesan cheese has 1 gram of carbs per 1/3 cup serving.
The Garlic
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