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Top Comments: How Do You Cook Edition [1]

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Date: 2025-03-31

Over the past few days Mr. Brillig and I have had several meals out… Saturday was a late lunch with his family after we laid his father to rest in a beautiful plot on his parents’ land, and Sunday was a lowkey meal at our favorite local spot because we were just exhausted from the weekend. So today I was determined to cook something at home, and wanted it to be something new. We have been members of a meat CSA for over a decade, getting 10lbs of amazingly delicious meat each month, so often our “what should we have for dinner” is answered by “what do we have in the freezer that we need to cook”. Today, the answer was “3lbs of stew beef” so I went looking for a new take on beef stew.

As you may remember, I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in January 2016 and since then have eaten low-carb to manage my blood sugar. When I need inspiration I head to the website and collection of cookbooks by my favorite recipe creator. K2 and her partner gave me her Soups and Stews cookbook for Christmas in 2023, and I found in that a delicious recipe for a Chipotle-seasoned beef stew.

I went shopping for turnips (turnips and radishes are the keto substitute for potatoes), opened to the recipe and got ready to cook. But wait:

- I have 3lbs of beef, not two. Should I scale the recipe up? - Hrmm, I don’t have celery but I do have an extra turnip. Oh, and some green beans I need to use. - While I have ground chipotle pepper, I also have some leftover chipotle in adobo sauce frozen that I need to use up.

I have friends who HAVE to follow a recipe. Like, have to can’t substitute a thing have to. I have other friends who can look at an empty pantry and then like a winning contestant on Chopped put a meal together. Like so many aspects of my life, I’m squarely in the middle here too.

I looked at the recipe, and decided More Beef Is Good, Turnips Are Awesome, Who Needs Celery, and We’ll Just Wing It On Chipotle Seasoning. Crossed my fingers, waited for the instant pot to depressurize, and added the glucomannon that is one of the ways we keto eaters thicken our sauces without starch. I put mine over leftover riced cauliflower and some of the aforementioned green beans, Mr. Brillig cut some crusty bread, and we tasted.

OMG it was good. Probably a bit more spicy than the recipe creator intended, but we loved it. 10/10 would make it this way again. If we hadn’t had it “over” something it might have been too spicy but the way we ate it was great. I might use a little less liquid next time, but who knows!

I often do this, taking a recipe and adapting it to what I have. While doing so with some recipes doesn’t work (baking, whether keto or regular, is chemistry and adjusting things is at your own peril!), I am happy to make cranberry curd and not lemon, to change seasonings in a fritatta, etc. If it calls for lemon and I have lime, then lime it is!!! And once I discovered that coconut cream (NOT the vile pina colada stuff, the actual stuff from the top of coconut milk) substitutes for heavy cream, I adapt dairy recipes with wild abandon so my entire family can enjoy them!

How about you? Are you a recipe follower, a freeform chef, or does it depend? Please share in the comments!

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