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Cashew chicken with a few low-carb substitutions a success

Following a low-carbohydrate food plan can seem restrictive. These days, my go-to solution for dining out is to take a bottle of salad dressing with me (not low-fat or fat-free, since nearly all have sugars added), order a big salad topped with meat or fish and, once it arrives at the table, add my dressing.

That's a perfect solution for most restaurants except for Asian spots. Salads can be rare on Asian restaurant menus. And, rice is off my low-carb menu, too. I no longer do anything with wheat, waving a sad goodbye to pot stickers, won ton soup, noodles and spring rolls. Sauces thickened with the Asian-standard, cornstarch, don't work for me either. Jiminy.

Over the past seven months, when I have a taste for Asian cuisine, I make it at home. I've owned a flat-bottomed steel wok for over 40 years, along with Asian cooking tools.

My only weakness is that I've been locked into electric stovetops for all that time, and there's no way I can get the BTU's Asian restaurants achieve from natural gas. Nor can most of you generate that high heat level either, so my cooking methods should work in just about any home kitchen.

I had a taste for restaurant-quality cashew chicken and was briefly stumped for what to put it over. I'd been using shredded organic romaine lettuce as a low-carb substitute since two cups delivered a mere three carbohydrate grams (16 calories) versus one cup of cooked rice serving up 44.5 carb grams (205 calories).

I've seen the idea for cauliflower rice for a while but hadn't tried to make it.

There's no shortage of cauliflower rice recipes on the web, so I downloaded one from myketokitchen.com. Getting cauliflower from florets to rice pieces could be a hassle if done with a box grater (frequently mentioned). The recipe I followed suggested using a food processor and pulsing the blade until the rice reached the right shape. I'm lucky to have a grater blade for my food processor and used that to turn cauliflower, including the stem, into the rice.

That recipe used butter to sauté the cauliflower, which didn't seem to work with my Asian dinner flavor profile, so I substituted organic peanut oil. I got the oil hot over medium-high heat and in went my grated cauliflower.

I sautéed the cauliflower until some of the grains began turning light brown, about 5 or 6 minutes. I turned off the heat and covered the skillet with a glass cover. Water droplets accumulated on it, and I knew the cauliflower was staying warm and not drying out.

Xanthan gum is now my thickener of choice, and I knew to use just 1/8 teaspoon to thicken my sauce. I know that doesn't seem like enough; it is.

I always use my immersion blender to get that xanthan gum to blend, since a wire whisk doesn't seem to keep the xanthan gum from clumping. A blender could work, too.

I immediately got my wok hot and, using more peanut oil, started preparing my Cashew Chicken. I followed my recipe exactly, adding ingredients one-by-one to my wok. My cashew chicken looked and smelled as good as any I had in a restaurant.

My cauliflower rice looked just like regular rice sitting under my Cashew Chicken. One forkful told me I'd hit the jackpot; it was wonderful, and the cauliflower rice's texture was astoundingly like cooked white rice. Success.

• Don Mauer welcomes questions, comments and recipe makeover requests. Write to him at don@ theleanwizard.com.

As-Good-as-a-Restaurant Cashew Chicken

1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic

2 teaspoons wheat-free soy sauce

1 teaspoon plus 2 tablespoons dry sherry

¾ teaspoon sea salt, divided

½ packet stevia

1½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs (organic preferred), sliced thin

½ cup organic chicken broth

1/8 teaspoon xanthan gum

2 tablespoons peanut oil

2 tablespoons minced ginger

10 ounces sugar snap peas, strings removed, cut in half

1 cup julienne or thinly sliced carrots

¾ cup thinly sliced celery

¾ cup unsalted, roasted cashews

To a medium bowl add the garlic, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoon sherry, ½ teaspoon salt and stevia and whisk together. Add chicken to the bowl and stir and toss until coated. Set aside.

To a small bowl add the chicken broth, 2 tablespoons sherry, remaining 1 teaspoon soy sauce and whisk together until combined. Add the xanthan gum and using an immersion blender, blend until combined. Set aside.

Heat a steel wok or iron skillet over high heat until hot. Add 1 tablespoon of oil and swirl around. Add the ginger and stir fry about 10 seconds until fragrant. Push the ginger to the side and add the chicken, spreading it around into a single layer. Sear the chicken for 1 minute, then stir-fry for 1 to 2 minutes until lightly browned.

Push the chicken away from the pan's center, add the remaining oil and then the sugar snaps, carrots, celery and cashews, and the remaining ¼ teaspoon salt. Stir-fry for 1 minute until sugar snaps are bright green. Whisk the broth and pour over the vegetables and stir fry everything together for 1 more minute or until the chicken is just cooked and the sauce has thickened.

Serves 6

Nutrition values per serving: 320 calories (48.3 percent from fat), 17.2 g fat (3.4 g saturated fat), 13 g carbohydrates (10.4 net carbs), 3.6 g sugars, 2.6 g fiber, 27.8 g protein, 94 mg cholesterol, 617 mg sodium.

Ingredients ready for the wok. Courtesy of Don Mauer
Riced cauliflower. Courtesy of Don Mauer
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