What Are The Best Keto Veggies?
If you're on a keto diet, you may be wondering what the best keto veggies are to include in your weekly meal plan. So, let's dive into that. We'll also share our favorite ways to make them!
We’ve all heard about the benefits and these vegetables are chock full of whole-body benefits. Veggies contain a variety of antioxidants, nutrients, phytonutrients, minerals, fiber, and gut-healthy pre-biotic fibers (which feed your gut microbiome).
Throughout we’ll share our favorite ways to eat these low-carb vegetables as well as our favorite keto recipes. In the end, we’re going to talk about what to do if you don’t like the taste or texture of vegetables.
What Veggies Can I Eat On Keto?
(and how to love them)
CELERY
Celery is a great substitute for chips! Slice raw and pair them with your favorite low-carb chip dip or fill them with zero added sugar nut butter. Our favorite way to enjoy celery is with our keto artichoke dip.
Artichoke Dip Recipe
CUCUMBERS
Light and refreshing, cucumbers come in second on the best keto veggies list. Cucumbers make a good substitute for chips! Pair them with your favorite low carb chip-dip. Or make a raw creamy cucumber salad to enjoy like our recipe below. If you already have a favorite recipe, just sub out the sugar with an appropriate keto sugar substitute.
Cucumber Salad Recipe
BROCCOLI
Our next favorite on the best keto veggies list is broccoli. There are many delicious ways to enjoy broccoli.
Tara's favorite way to eat it is to steam the broccoli and then dip it in an avocado oil mayonnaise.
Broccoli, especially broccolini, is amazing when oven roasted in a healthy oil with salt and pepper.
To do this, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Next, wash and dry your broccoli (for faster roasting, cut it in smaller pieces). Put a few tablespoons of your favorite oil in a gallon size Ziploc bag and add the broccoli. Squish the bag around to completely cover the broccoli with oil. Then, put on a baking sheet and add salt and pepper. Flip it, and repeat with seasonings. Bake until fork-tender.
If you love cheesy broccoli, here's our favorite keto broccoli casserole:
Cheesy Broccoli Bake
CABBAGE
If you’re struggling with hunger throughout the day, cabbage is a great addition to your keto diet to help you feel full longer. It's chock full of fiber, keeping you satisfied longer.
Enjoy cabbage raw, stir fried or roasted:
- Raw: finely shred it and enjoy as a keto coleslaw or cabbage salad.
- Stir Fry: Stir fry on high heat in a skillet with a blend of avocado oil and a touch of sesame oil. Add in paprika, a dash of cayenne pepper and a little salt while cooking. Toss with a few tablespoons of coconut amino at the end (the amino contain sodium). Next, slice up a low carb pork or beef polish sausage link, and fry it in the leftover oil. Toss this with your stir-fried cabbage and enjoy it!
- Roast it: Our kids love roasted cabbage. Slice it into 1/4 to 1/8th inch cabbage steaks and then roast it similarly to the broccoli instructions.
Keto Coleslaw Recipes
ASPARAGUS
Asparagus is one of our favorite spring keto vegetables and has a prominent place on our list of best keto veggies. Enjoy it pan-fried or grilled over hot charcoals. Enjoy it raw in a chopped salad drizzled with your favorite dressing.
KALE
My new favorite way to use kale is to blend it into a bone broth or soup. As fall approaches, we have lots of Kettle & Fire bone broth ready to go for chilly days. We simply toss a handful of kale into the blender with the soup and blend it up. Then, we heat the bone broth on the stove until nice and bubbly. To finish it off, we blend in a tablespoon of MCT or coconut oil for a nice creamy finish.
Another of our favorite ways to enjoy kale is to chop it up and use it in a raw salad with a keto salad dressing. To soften the leaves, marinate them ahead of time in some oil and lemon juice.
Here's a few of our favorite keto salad dressing recipes.
Salad Dressing Recipes
BRUSSELS SPROUTS
Brussel sprouts are actually number one on our list of best keto veggies (just because they are our favorite keto vegetable).
Did you know brussels sprouts contain omega 3’s? A half-cup (78g) serving contains 135mg of ALA (alpha-linolenic acid) which is a type of omega 3 fatty acid.
Our favorite way to eat brussels sprouts is fried. You might call it our guilty pleasure whenever a desire for french fries strikes. We dip these in Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil Mayo (Chipotle Lime) or make our own Chipotle Dipping Sauce.
You'll want to make sure you're frying in a healthy oil -- our pick is avocado oil.
Because avocado oil is quite expensive, we invested in a deep fryer that filters the oil. It saves us tons of money by allowing us to easily re-use our avocado oil. Once the oil gets dark brown, we simply replace it with fresh oil.
Brussels Sprouts Recipes
OLIVES
Olives are technically a fruit, but they're categorized more like a vegetable so we’re covering it with our "best keto veggies". We already know that olive oil is a super healthy fat for our body. So, so why not go right to the whole food source and enjoy it that way? Olives are packed with vitamin E and other powerful antioxidants. Try a variety and find your favorite.
Don’t Like Veggies?
What do you do if you just don’t like veggies? The good news is that you can reprogram your taste buds and learn to love vegetables so much that you crave them.
Until his 30's, Jeremy had never eaten a green salad of any kind. He passionately despised vegetables unless it was something like corn or green beans (in a casserole). Realizing this one day while Tara was in health coaching school, he decided to start trying them.
Over time, he fell in love with roasted vegetables. We would roast them in flavorful fats, salt, pepper, and spices. We experimented to find what Jeremy liked most. One of his favorites is roasting vegetables in leftover organic bacon grease with chopped bacon tossed in.
We encourage you to play around with different cooking methods, fats, and herbs/spices It may take you a few tries to find a recipe you really enjoy, but in short, once you do it'll make your keto lifestyle so much easier (and healthier).
The Best Keto Veggies Don't Stop Here
There are many more great vegetables for the keto diet including cauliflower, bok choy, mushrooms, spinach, zucchini, arugula, artichokes, leafy greens, and many more. Comment with your favorite keto veggies below.
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