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If you want to order Chinese food and stick to your keto diet, you should choose proteins and foods without hidden carbs. And watch out for sauces high in sugar. Navigating a Chinese buffet or takeout menu can be a challenge if you’re trying to stick to the low carb, high fat keto diet. Although loaded with veggies, many Chinese dishes are often made with noodles and rice, starchy and sugary sauces, or battered and fried meats that can pack on the carbs. These foods are difficult to include in a keto diet, which typically restricts your carb intake to no more than 50 grams of total carbs or 25 grams of net carbs - which is total carbs minus fiber - per day. Fortunately, several Chinese dishes are ideal for keto dieters. While it’s hard to give firm carb counts on these foods because their preparations vary between restaurants, they’ll be your best bets for Keto by Supraketo takeout, buffet, or sit-down Chinese dining.
You can also try making these dishes at home, giving you more control over the ingredients used and final carb count. Here are 15 keto-friendly Chinese foods, along with some helpful tips on how to reduce the carbs in Chinese food. Egg foo young is a Chinese omelet filled with veggies like cabbage, bean sprouts, and onions. You can also add meats like beef, pork, chicken, or shrimp to your egg foo young when dining out. They’re typically low in carbs because they contain only eggs, vegetables, and meat fillings, as well as the oil used to fry them. Chinese buffets often feature boiled or steamed shrimp, crawfish, or crab legs. These seafood options are completely free of carbs while being rich in protein. Paired with steamed or stir-fried vegetables, they can help you stay keto at a Chinese buffet. If you’re looking for keto options to make at home, egg drop soup is an easy choice. It can be as simple as combining eggs, broth, and a keto-friendly thickener like xanthan gum.
On the other hand, many egg drop soups served at Chinese restaurants are premade or thickened with cornstarch and likely too high in carbs for people on the keto diet. Feel free to add chopped scallions to your egg drop soup, but avoid the high carb fried wonton strips. Moo shu pork is a stir-fried dish featuring sliced pork, scrambled eggs, and vegetables - typically cabbage and mushrooms - in a light sauce. It’s often served with rice, which you can easily steer clear of or replace if you’re on keto. It’s an ideal meal to make at home, where you can control the carb count by making the sauce from scratch. Plus, it’s one of the better options when dining out, as it’s not made with a sweet, thick, and carb-heavy sauce. Beef and broccoli is a classic Chinese takeout dish made by stir-frying beef and broccoli in a light sauce.
Although the beef is often water-velveted - or marinated in a cornstarch slurry that adds carbs while tenderizing the meat - it remains a better choice for Chinese takeout than other higher carb options. What’s more, some Chinese restaurants velvet their meats using baking soda rather than cornstarch, which doesn’t add any carbs. You can also make beef and Supraketo.org broccoli at home using baking soda velveting. If you want to try cooking traditional Chinese food, pick up pork belly at your local butcher shop. This cut is used to make bacon and high in fat, allowing it to develop a satisfying crisp exterior when cooked. Although many Chinese pork belly recipes feature a sugary glaze, you can also find several simple, carb-free recipes. At most Chinese buffets, Supraketo.org you’re likely to find a stir-fried mushroom dish featuring whole or halved mushrooms in a savory brown sauce. Mushrooms are low in both calories and carbs, making them a perfect addition to a keto meal.
Another common find at Chinese buffets is sautéed whole green beans. Depending on the restaurant, these may be served with sauce or simply sautéed in oil with some garlic. Along with keto-friendly proteins like boiled shrimp or baked fish, loading up on sautéed green beans is an easy way to stay keto at a Chinese buffet. Similarly to beef and broccoli, chicken and broccoli is made from stir-fried broccoli and water-velveted chicken pieces. In some restaurants, the dish may include additional veggies like carrots and onions. Although chicken and broccoli from a restaurant may contain carbs in the sauce or from the velveting, it’s often a better choice than dishes that feature breaded meats or sugary sauces. Plus, made at home, you can modify chicken and broccoli to be essentially free of carbs except for those from the broccoli. In traditional Chinese cooking, steaming is a common cooking method. Popular examples include steamed dumplings and steamed greens.