If you live in any urban city (especially New York City!) you know that the best way to catch a quick lunch is to hit up one of the ubiquitous Halal carts offering tasty meats and spiced rice at all hours of the day. While everyone loves Halal food, most dieters believe that they have to give up their trips to eat Halal food if they are on the ketogenic diet. Thankfully, there are a number of substitutions that you can make to turn your carbo-loaded gyro into a keto dieter’s dream! Try switching up your order with these changes to stay low-carb and enjoy your lunch!
Ditch the grains
One of the most obvious ways to reduce the carbohydrate count of your Halal meal is to skip the pita bread and rice. This means instead of the gyro, opt for the platter option and request to pass on these two carbohydrate bombs that come along with most Halal meals.
Instead, ask if the cart you are visiting offers leaf lettuce, which you can use as a substitute wrap for the meat in your dish– you can bring some from home if you know that you’ll be running out for Halal food on your lunch break. You can also check and see if your local Halal cart offers kebabs, which give you all the flavor of a gyro or pita with none of the excess carbohydrates.
Load up on the sauce
Great news keto enthusiasts! The delicious white and hot sauce that comes along with most platters is keto-approved. According to a leaked recipe for the famous garlicky sauce, main ingredients of mayonnaise, horseradish, eggs, and sour cream make white sauce a delicious keto treat that you can indulge in.1 Their fiery hot sauce, boasting ingredients like chili peppers, vinegar, and extra dashes of spices, is also extremely low in carbohydrates.
The bottom line? Don’t be afraid to ask for a little extra sauce when eating your meat!
Stay smart with sides
If you’re looking to stay low-carb while eating Halal food, you’ll need to be picky with your side choices. French fries and falafel are out; fries are obviously made from the carbohydrate-loaded potato, and falafel is made from deep-fried chickpeas, which hold about 5g of carbohydrates each. Unfortunately, other common sides are poor choices as well. Hummus and baba ganoush have about 7g of carbohydrates per 1/4 of a cup, so it’s better to skip the sides altogether. Instead, try picking up a salad beforehand so you’ll be less tempted, or ask for double meat and sauce to keep yourself feeling fuller longer.
NUTRITIONAL DISCLAIMER
The content on this website should not be taken as medical advice and you should ALWAYS consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. We provide nutritional data for our recipes as a courtesy to our readers. We use Total Keto Diet app software to calculate the nutrition and we remove fiber and sugar alcohols, like erythritol, from the total carbohydrate count to get to the net carb count, as they do not affect your blood glucose levels. You should independently calculate nutritional information on your own and not rely on our data. The website or content herein is not intended to cure, prevent, diagnose or treat any disease. This website shall not be liable for adverse reactions or any other outcome resulting from the use of recipes or recommendations on the Website or actions you take as a result. Any action you take is strictly at your own risk.
Dr. Rosmy Barrios, MD is an aesthetic medicine specialist whose work focuses on patients who are treated for obesity, metabolic syndrome, and other weight-related issues through nutritional analysis, keto diet programs, and supporting medications.
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