low carb cheese recipes

Cheese Recipes: Low Carb and Keto-Approved

Low Carb Recipes

5 Sure-fire Low Carb and Keto-Approved Cheese Recipes

If you’re not lactose intolerant, cheese can be a many-splendored thing. But a unique problem faces low carb cheese lovers. We live in a world that seems obsessed with dishes that pair our beloved cheese with those dreaded carbohydrates.

But not to worry. Cheese can be yours to enjoy again. To prove it to you, we’ve put together a few recipes to get you started. Give them a whirl and see where they take you. We’ve engineered each one with a bit of wiggle room, so you can get creative and put your own cheesy spin on it. Bon appetit!

1.      Cheese and egg pizza dough

Pizza is one of those dishes that people miss when eating low carb. They often assume there is no room for all that bready pizza dough in the LC lifestyle.

But necessity is the mother of invention, and pizza is definitely a necessity.

We’ve talked about making pizza low carb before. But here’s a new twist—making the crust out of nothing but cheese and eggs.

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs
  • 6 oz. shredded cheese (mozzarella, provolone)

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).
  2. Make your crust by cracking the eggs into a medium-sized mixing bowl and add the shredded cheese. Mix with a wooden spoon until combined.
  3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread the cheese and egg mixture on with a spatula. Form the mix into a thin circle.
  4. Bake for 15 minutes. The pizza crust should just be turning golden. Remove from the oven and let stand for two minutes.
  5. Turn the oven up to 450°F (225°C).
  6. While the oven preheats again and after the crust has had a moment to cool it’s time to top your pizza. Spread a low carb pizza sauce (see link above) on the crust. Add some herbs like dried oregano to kick it up a notch. Top with cheese, pepperoni and anything else you love to top pizza with (and is keto friendly).
  7. When the oven is ready again, bake another 5–10 minutes. It’s done when the cheese on top starts turning a golden-brown colour.

2.      Cheese chips

Instead of snacking on a bag of chips when you’ve got the munchies, try this cheese chip recipe—an adapted version of which follows below—with only 2 grams of carbs.

Ingredients

  • 8 ounces of hard cheese, sliced (cheddar, provolone, edam)
  • ½ teaspoon of paprika powder

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange your cheese slices on it.
  2. Sprinkle on the paprika. Bake for about 8–10 minutes. The time will vary depending on the thickness of the slices. Play it safe by setting a timer. If you forget about this dish, it won’t be long before it burns. Ideally, you want to get the chips out of the oven as they just start to brown.
  3. Let the chips cool before taking them off the tray.

These chips are great on their own, or as a dipping device. And you can eat them now or later. Put your leftovers in an air-tight container, refrigerate, and enjoy later at your leisure.

And this recipe is really nothing more than a simple guideline. You can use shredded cheese if you want. Blend your favourite cheeses together—especially if you’ve got some Parmigiana Reggiano lying around. And you can sprinkle any seasoning you want on top. Put some jalapeno slices on top to make it pop. Follow your heart—your gut will thank you later.

3.      Mozzarella wrapped in bacon (you’re welcome)

Nothing says ooey-gooey like hot mozzarella. But all that breading should mean there’s no place on a low carb menu for mozzarella sticks, right?

Actually, thanks to bacon, mozz is back on the menu!

Ingredients

  • Bacon
  • Mozzarella, cut into sticks

Do one stick of mozz for every slice of bacon.

Directions

  1. Cook your bacon, but don’t crisp it. Use your favourite bacon technique; in a frying pan, in the oven, however you like to cook the bacon.
  2. Drain the bacon and let it cool.
  3. Warm up a frying pan with a thin layer of oil in the bottom.
  4. Wrap mozzarella with bacon.
  5. Fry sticks until bacon crisps up but before the cheese melts all over the place.
  6. For an enhanced gooey-mess factor, finish off in the microwave.

For another take on mozzarella sticks, try breading mozz with the pork rind breading in this recipe and bake it to see how that goes.

4.      Bacon-wrapped cream cheese-stuffed chicken breast

This recipe—adapted from completerecipes.com—shows off the true versatility of low carb cooking. You could serve this chicken entrée to any guest and they’d have no idea they were getting a low carb meal.

Ingredients

  • 4 x 4-ounce portions of boneless skinless chicken breast
  • 4 tablespoons of soft cheese like cream cheese
  • ¼ cup of shredded hard cheese such as pepperjack
  • 2 tablespoons of chopped green onions
  • 4–8 slices of bacon

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C).
  2. Pound out the chicken until it’s about ¼” (6.35 mm) thick.
  3. In a bowl, mix the soft cheese, shredded cheese, and green onions together. Spoon this mixture onto the flattened chicken in quarters, keeping it in the middle.
  4. Roll up the chicken breasts, starting at the long side. Take care to still keep the cheese mixture to the middle.
  5. Wrap bacon around the chicken breast, one to two pieces per breast. Hold the works in place with a toothpick.
  6. Put the assembled chicken on a baking sheet; bake for 30 minutes.
  7. Broil for roughly 5 minutes to crisp up the bacon. Turn the chicken and broil the bottom sides for another 3 minutes.

Serve immediately.

The recipe allows for a fair bit of wiggle room, cheese-wise. Feel free to mix and match flavour profiles to your heart’s content.

5.      Taco soup

If you’re missing the taste of tacos and you’re tired of wrapping stuff up in lettuce leaves, we’ve got a slow cooker taco soup that might just do the trick. And it’s only got 5 grams of carbs per bowl.

Ingredients

  • 2 lbs ground meat (pork, beef, sausage, turkey)
  • 2 x 8-ounce packages of cream cheese (a versatile thickening agent)
  • 2 x 10-ounce cans of diced tomatoes
  • 2 tablespoons of taco seasoning
  • 4 cups (960 mL) of chicken broth
  • 1-2 tablespoons of fresh chopped cilantro
  • 1/2 cup shredded cheese for garnish optional
  • Fresh chillies (to taste)

Optional garnishes

  • Shredded cheese (cheddar, pepperjack, queso fresco)
  • More chopped cilantro
  • Radishes, sliced thin
  • Green onions, chopped

Directions

  1. Brown meat in a frying pan.
  2. While it browns, throw the cream cheese, diced tomatoes, and taco seasoning into the slow cooker.
  3. Drain excess grease from meat, then put the meat in the slow cooker. Mix to combine with the other ingredients.
  4. Pour in chicken broth to cover everything.
  5. Cook: 4 hours on low 2 hours on high.
  6. Stir in cilantro a few minutes before serving.
  7. At the table, let people garnish as they will.

Make cheese your dish again

You can eat low carb and still have cheese in your life. Hallelujah!

Sure, we still haven’t figured out a keto grilled cheese sandwich yet, but until we do these recipes will help show you just some of the cheesy possibilities open to you.

Need more inspiration in the kitchen?

If you’re ever stuck for what to eat and still keep low carb, visit our low carb recipe blog. With over thirty-five posts and counting, we’ve got low carb recipes for just about everything—from bison to sushi and all points in between.