The keto diet is well known for its weight loss and health benefits.
However, some people might find it challenging to adapt it to their regular lifestyle (especially if it is carb-based).
Luckily, with a bit of research, it is easy to adapt any cuisine to a keto lifestyle.
If you love Filipino recipes but are following a ketogenic eating plan, then here you can find some of the best keto recipes for you to include.
Before we start talking about which recipes are the best for a keto diet, it is important to know which foods you can commonly find in the Philippines that are keto-friendly.
This can help you determine which foods you need to buy or how to modify other Filipino recipes.
Here is a list of some low-carb vegetables you can include if you enjoy Filipino cuisine.
This is not an exhaustive list. If you’re not sure whether a certain food is keto-approved, check the keto-friendly foods list to determine if it is low in carbohydrates.
These are some foods you need to be careful with since they are high in carbs and can affect your ketosis levels.
There are some ingredients you can replace if you want to make a dish keto-friendly. Here is a list of the most common ingredients you can switch to make your favorite recipe keto.
This fluffy bread roll is typically high in carbs, but with a few tweaks it’s possible to make keto pandesal. It tastes great on its own, but can also be used to make any type of sandwich.
This is a common noodle recipe often served at birthday celebrations. If you don’t want to miss this delicious treat but are following a ketogenic diet, you can substitute the pasta noodles for shirataki noodles and use coconut aminos.
Rice is one of the most common foods in the Philippines. However, when you are on a keto diet, you need to avoid it due to the high carb content.
For this dish, you can replace the rice with cauliflower or broccoli rice, and make sure you add a lot of vegetables and protein to help balance the dish.
Chicken adobo is a traditional dish that uses several herbs and spices. While most are keto-friendly (onion, garlic, chicken, soy sauce, olive oil), it uses brown sugar, which is not allowed on a ketogenic diet.
To make it keto-friendly, you can substitute the sugar with a sugar substitute like cooking sucralose or erythritol.
This is a common breakfast recipe that uses pork, vegetables, eggs, and peas. Most of the ingredients are good to have on a keto diet, except for the peas.
Peas are higher in carbs which can affect your ketosis levels. Instead, you can add cauliflower rice or simply remove them from the recipe.
This is a quick and easy way to cook your eggs in the morning. It means having scrambled eggs with sauteed onions and tomatoes.
If you have a hard time eating enough veggies throughout the day, this is an excellent recipe for you to try out.
You can add healthy fats to make it more filling, like olive oil or avocado.
Tosilog is a traditional Filipino breakfast that uses tocino (bacon), fried eggs, and sinangag. The tocino and the eggs are good to have on a ketogenic diet.
The sinangag, as previously mentioned, can be adjusted to a keto diet as long as you replace the rice with cauliflower or broccoli rice.
Make sure not to have this breakfast very often since tocino is high in saturated fats, and a high saturated fat intake is associated with high cholesterol and thus heart disease.
Maja blanca is a creamy coconut pudding. In the traditional version, you mix coconut milk with sugar and cornstarch.
To make it keto, instead of the cornstarch you can use xantham gum to achieve the same texture.
Instead of milk you can use heavy cream since it is lower in carbs and higher in fats.
Finally, instead of sugar, use the sugar substitute of your choice. One good option to use is erythritol.
Sansrival is a traditional Filipino dessert that uses buttercream, cashews, and some syrup. By using almond flour, almonds, and allulose instead of regular flour, cashews, and sugar, you can make sure you have a keto-friendly sansrival.
To make the cake part you can use almond flour, chopped almonds, egg whites, tartar, and allulose.
For the syrup, you can use allulose, egg yolks, water, and vanilla bean paste.
Finally, for the buttercream you use butter and the keto version of the syrup you made.
Finally, Ube bars are one of the most sought after desserts in the Philippines. These treats are typically made of bread coated in sweet purple ube syrup and coconut flakes. Not exactly what you would call low-carb!
To make it keto-friendly, use almond flour, coconut flour, psyllium husk, erythritol, baking powder, eggs, ube, vanilla extract, and coconut flakes.
