Party food ideas

[Puppermint]

I'm hosting a party next week for between 10 and 15 people and am desperately trying to get back on LC after putting on over two stone this year.

Anyway, I usually do something like a stew, chilli, pulled pork, with sides for everyone to help themselves to and am after some keto ideas that won't look too much like I am eating a special diet (family DO NOT get it so really don't want to be obviously eating differently or serving something odd).

Can anyone help with any recipes that will work well for this kind of thing? Preferably cook in advance type stuff?

Perhaps not the pulled pork but a stew or chilli can be made low carb.

I'm making pulled pork for our dinner this evening!

The recipe I'm using is from the Fast 800 recipe book, and it's delicious (as well as low carb)

Here it is:

Perfect Pulled Pork

1kg pork shoulder joint, trimmed of fat I keep this and make it into crackling

Marinade:

45g tomato purée (about 3tbsps)
30g chipotle paste (about 2 tbsps)
juice of 2 medium oranges
juice of 2 limes
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground black pepper

• Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a large non-metallic bowl

• Take any string off the pork and add it to the bowl and cover in the marinade; cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 8 hours

• Pre-heat your oven to 170/150 fan/Gas 3

• Place the pork and its marinade in a medium casserole, cover and bake for 3-4 hours, or until the pork falls apart when prodded with a fork

• Transfer the pork to a board or warmed platter and shred with two forks. Serve with a little of the spicy cooking juices spooned over

Serves 6 (3g carbs per serving/171 cals per serving)

I'm serving it with Little Gem lettuce leaves, for people to make 'wraps' with, as well as some other kind of green veg (yet to be decided) and salad.

This is also a lovely recipe, for a tart/quiche/flan-type dish - using ground almonds for the pastry instead of the flour. Everyone I've made this for really enjoys it. You can leave out the bacon if you want to make a vegetarian version (perhaps add a bit more cheese/shallots)

Bacon, Shallot and Gruyere Tart

serves 6

225g ground almonds
55g butter, diced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg white

for the filling:

25g butter and a splash of oil (this stops the butter burning)
100g smoked lardons (or diced smoked streaky bacon)
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped (or use a garlic crusher)
150g shallots, thinly sliced (this will be 3-4 echalion shallots)
2 eggs + 2 egg yolks (the white from one of these is used in the base)
dried oregano
100g Gruyere cheese, grated
300ml double cream
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/GM4

To make the pastry, mix the almonds, butter, egg white and salt until it forms a dough. This is easiest done in a food processor. Keep processing it until it starts to come together into a ball.

Press the dough with your hand/fingers into a 20cm flan tin or dish. Push the pastry up the sides of the tin as well. There is quite a lot of filling, so it's important to get the pastry as far up the sides as you can.

Prick the base of the flan all over and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until set and golden brown. (It's better if it's cooked longer, as it hardens up a little more - just keep an eye on it and make sure it doesn't burn)

While the dough is cooking, saute the shallots,garlic and lardons/bacon in the butter and oil, till soft. Season with salt and pepper and about a teaspoon of dried oregano. Leave to cool.

Next, whisk the eggs and yolks, and then gradually add whisk in the cream. Add black pepper and whisk again.

Tip the shallots and bacon into the flan case and add the cheese, then pour over the egg and cream mixture. (It's a good idea to put the flan tin onto a baking tray, as it is likely to be very full, and this makes it easier to get into the oven without spilling anything)

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown and just set. Serve warm or cold.

27.35g carbs for the whole lot. If you serve 6 people, this will be 4.6g per person.

Something like Tacos which people can assemble themselves? You could do various meats and salady bits, soured cream, guacamole, cheese, refried beans etc etc and just take the low carb stuff yourself (lettuce leaf makes a good taco).