A few weeks ago I adopted a ketogenic lifestyle. If you’re not sure what that is, it’s a very low carb diet that includes a moderate amount of protein and high, natural fats. Your body learns to burn things called ketones instead of the sugar from the carbs. It’s been very beneficial for diabetics, epileptics and cancer. It’s also great for losing weight.
Personally, I started it for a couple reasons. 1) I do best with strict diets because left to my own devices, I really LOVE food and eat way too much. 2) I gained some weight a few years back when my thyroid decided to poop out on me and I finally got really tired of it. So, one Tuesday night I decided, no more carbs. I’m currently on day 30 and I’m feeling pretty good.
Now, truth be told, I do eat between 20-30 carbs/day because, well, I like my thyroid, or what’s left of it that’s working, and you need some carbs to maintain thyroid health. But, if you’ve ever checked out the back labels of foods, you’ll quickly realize that 20 carbs adds up pretty darned quickly!
In addition to doing keto right now, I’ve also been gluten-free for over eight years. Which means that I haven’t had a cheese stick since then. They just don’t make gluten-free cheese sticks. Even if they did, it would be off the table while I’m doing the keto diet because all that breading would add up the carbs right fast.
So, I did a little digging and found that you can make KETO cheese sticks with just a few simple ingredients and since keto is a high fat diet, what’s better to fry these babies in than lard? I happened to pick some up at my farm store a couple weeks ago so I had a bunch in the refrigerator just waiting to fry something up for me.
I tried these a couple different ways but this last way was the best! I ended up using just a little bit of garbanzo bean flour (yeah, I know, beans have carbs) to dust the sticks before dipping in the egg mixture and coating them with the cheese. The bean flour helped the egg to stick a better than if you just dip a bare naked piece of cheese. However, if you really don’t want the extra 1-2 carbs total in all the cheese sticks, you can skip that part. Most of the flour gets tossed after dredging the sticks so you’re not actually using 1/4 cup. I calculated that it might have been a total of 1 Tbls.
A couple notes:
• I used a block of mozzarella cheese. You can get this at the grocery store near where the shredded mozzarella is. But, you don’t want the balls, you want the squarish block. They’re more firm and you’ll get nice sticks out of it. I cut mine into about 20 sticks.
• I froze the sticks after I prepped them for frying. This does two things, it allows you to make a bunch and keep them in the freezer like convenience food and it makes them firmer and doesn’t melt the cheese as quickly when you fry them. The centers were perfectly creamy and hot, even cooking them from a frozen state.
• If you serve these with a marinara sauce, make sure to check your carbs. Most spaghetti/marinaras have added sugar and tomatoes themselves are pretty high in carbs. Even eating half this little bowl of the sauce, it didn’t kick me out of ketosis.
• When you fry the sticks, they will cook very quickly – like in 30 seconds to 1 minute. Stand by them and turn them as needed. Remove them a paper towel as soon as they’re browned.
• I haven’t tried these with parmesan that you grate yourself. I used a brand of grated parmesan that has no fillers in it that I got from Costco. I’m not sure how it would work with home-grated parm.
- 1 lb. block (not ball) of mozzarella cheese, cut into strips (20 is a good number)
- 5 whole eggs, beaten
- ¼ cup garbanzo bean flour (optional)
- 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
- ¼ tsp. mineral or pink salt
- Lard, refined coconut oil or avocado oil for frying (I used 1 pint)
- Prepare a baking sheet with parchment or a silicone mat for the coated cheese sticks. They will be frozen on this sheet.
- Place garbanzo bean flour in a gallon-sized ziplock, if using.
- Put beaten egg in a meal-sized square or oblong container. It should be flat on the bottom to make coating easier.
- Place parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning and salt in another meal-sized container and mix well.
- Working in small batches, add the cheese sticks to the bean flour bag and shake to cover. Remove them to a plate or baking pan nearby as you coat them.
- When you’re finished coating the sticks with the bean flour, dip in egg to thoroughly coat all sides and immediately dredge in the parmesan cheese mixture.
- Place on the prepared baking sheet so they are not touching.
- Freeze for up to 2 months.
- When you are ready to cook the cheese sticks, you may cook them from frozen. There is no need to thaw them.
- Heat up oil in small saucepan to 350˚ or until a small piece of bread placed in the oil begins frantically bubbling around the edges.
- Carefully, with long tongs, place 3-4 cheese sticks in the oil and cook just until they are browned. Watch closely! They cook very fast.
- Remove to a baking sheet covered with paper towels.
- Repeat with remaining cheese sticks.