10 Keto Food Swaps

Looking for some tasty keto-friendly options to replace some of your biggest staple foods? Look no further! Here are 10 easy swaps to help you on your path to living a healthier life — without having to compromise on flavorful food.

1. Pancakes —> Keto Protein Pancakes

What’s better than pancakes on a weekend morning? If pancakes are a part of your weekend ritual, no need to worry — there are plenty of keto pancake options. The key is to replace the white flour and added sugar with a keto-friendly flour (like almond or coconut flour), and a sugar substitute like stevia or monk fruit. For the topping, you could use a low-carb syrup, or top them with a keto nut butter and extra dark chocolate chips.

Recipe:

2. Fruit-Flavored Yogurt → Greek Yogurt with Berries

Fruit-flavored yogurts are so packed with added sugars that some brands should be considered a dessert. However, Greek yogurt is an excellent source of healthy fat, calcium, B-12 and protein, and contains probiotics to promote well-balanced gut bacteria. To sweeten it up a bit, you could try adding monk fruit extract or stevia with raspberries or blackberries. Raspberries and blackberries are particularly good because they are nutrient-dense fruits that are high in fiber and lower in natural sugar content. For more added fiber, protein and healthy fatty acids sprinkle some hemp hearts over this delicious treat!

Recipe:

3. Pasta → Zoodles, Veggie Noodles or Spaghetti Squash

Pasta lovers, you are in luck. There are so many healthy, low-carb keto options to replace traditional pasta! The most popular option is “zoodles,” or spiralized zucchini noodles. We recommend making these at home with a spiralizer to skip on the extra plastic and price markup — yay for saving money! Once you have a spiralizer, don’t stop with zucchini. You can spiralize anything you set your heart to and butternut squash and beets are both good keto options. Another great option that mother nature has already prepackaged perfectly for pasta is spaghetti squash. Just cut it up, bake it in the oven, and put some stir-fried cherry tomatoes with seasoning and butter on top and you’re good to go.

Recipe:

4. Fries → Baked Zucchini Fries

Fries are a classic American side dish. Unfortunately, they are also loaded with carbs. Did you know on average fries have about 48g of carbs per serving? That’s more than your daily limit! Luckily, there are some simple adjustments we can make to enjoy delicious fries without the guilt. One option we suggest is zucchini fries — they only take 25mins to make and 5 mins to prep! If you aren’t a huge fan of zucchini, or if you just want to switch it up, you could also try butternut squash fries — this is also a low-carb alternative to sweet potato fries.

Recipe:

5. Hamburger Bun → Portobello Mushroom, Lettuce or Burger Bowl

Another American food staple is the hamburger. For the most part, hamburgers can be healthy — a thick grass-fed beef patty topped with cheese and veggies, your body’s not going to complain about that. Where we really get into trouble is when it comes to condiments and the bun. Some bun alternatives we love include Portobello mushrooms and sturdy lettuce. These options will give you the feel of the sandwich without the added carbs. Additionally, Portobello mushrooms are a source of antioxidants, riboflavin, selenium, copper and potassium. Don’t like Portobello mushrooms or lettuce? Forget the bun altogether and simply eat your burger out of a bowl!

Recipe:

6. Ketchup → Homemade Sugar-free Ketchup

Speaking of high-carb condiments, ketchup is often packed with added sugars. But tomatoes aren’t super sugary by themselves and just because a lot of ketchup brands are packed with sugar doesn’t mean that you can’t have ketchup anymore. There are several sugar-free ketchup brands out there, but we suggest you play it safe and make your own.

Recipe:

7. Banana → Avocado

If you are a fan of smoothies, you know how important it is to have a creamy ingredient to thicken things up — usually, a banana or two does the trick. Obviously bananas are a no-no on the keto diet, but luckily, avocados thicken smoothies even better than bananas! For a sweeter treat, you could add a keto-friendly sweetener, along with sugar-free alternative milk and ice. We love to mix in some matcha green tea to our avocado smoothies or even french-press coffee! Our favorite thing about avocados — besides the fact that they contain fiber and great health fats — is just how versatile they are. Avocadoes can be used as a condiment or healthy mayo-replacement, a creamy-sauce base or even as an important ingredient in desserts. They truly are a blessing to us all.

Recipe:

8. Flour Pizza Crust → Cauliflower Crust

Homemade pizza, Netflix and a fuzzy blanket — sounds like a solid Friday night to me! With cauliflower pizza crust, you can make this ideal Friday night a reality — and stay within your carb limit! While regular pizza dough has 24g carbs per serving in just the dough, cauliflower crust contains less than 3g per serving. You can keep it simple and just add a low-sugar pizza sauce, pepperoni, and your favorite cheese before you pop it into the oven.

Recipe:

9. Potato Chips → Low-Carb Tortilla Chips or Keto Chips

Everyone gets into that mood where they just want to snack and you might even consider slipping up on your diet. Before you go for that bag of carb-loaded potato chips, think about swapping it for one of these lower-carb options! You can try making homemade low-carb tortilla chips to dip in salsa and guacamole or stock your pantry up with some store-bought keto chips. There is such a large variety of options out there — try or chips — there’s no need to completely deny yourself some occasional munchies. It’s all about moderation!

Recipe:

10. Tortillas → Almond Flour Tortillas

The tortilla is such a versatile food item, of course, we had to add it to this list. With almond flour or spinach tortillas, you can make all kinds of healthy keto recipes packed with flavor without the extra carbs! That means you can add breakfast burritos stuffed with eggs, bacon and cheese, chicken and cheese quesadillas and low-carb fish tacos to the menu! If your meal is lacking in flavor, try adding some avocado, a little pico de gallo, lime and cilantro!

Recipe: