50 low-carb main dish recipes you’ll love

To think that you’re only gonna eat chicken with broccoli on a low-carb diet is pretty much wrong these days. We see people making mini keto zucchini pizzas, cauliflower is basically rice these days and carrots are full of sugar and poison to our bodies and souls. To find some new inspiration, we decided to round up 50 low-carb dinner ideas that you and your whole family and friends and coworkers and dogs and cats and other pets will love. These low carb and keto meals are tasty and allowed to be eaten even if you’re not doing a low-carb or keto diet.

This list includes low-carb soups, salads, curries, wraps, sushi as well as some low-carb vegan dishes and so much more!

Low carb anything has gotten so big, it’s basically making its own rules. It’s got a fancy house in Hollywood or somewhere else fancy we've never been to, maybe South France? Oui? Who knows, the point is low carb or keto is now bigger than Beyonce and the Sun. And we mean the actual sun, because without it we’d not be here. Because the sun is writing this blog post. OMG, so egocentric of us. But we've never been to Hollywood, so don’t hate us. And we wanted to remind you of the sun and its importance for us humans.

Now that we got this straight, let’s look at some of the benefits of reducing the amount of carbs we eat:

Eating Less Carbs Benefits

• Weight loss. Low carb, that’s what you’re famous for, face it.
• Fights acne and wrinkles
• Prevents diabetes and cardiovascular disease
• Reduces inflammation. A diet with a high glycemic load can be inflammatory, so eating lower carb with enough vegetables is the way to go if you want to decrease chronic inflammation.

Read also:

• 15 high-protein low carb vegan foods you need to eat daily
• 10 superfoods you need to eat if you have diabetes
• 5 anti-inflammatory foods you should know

1. Mediterranean Chicken Lettuce Wraps. Use lettuce to wrap these satisfying ingredients. There’s some chicken, some salad and to make this low-carb leave out the hummus and make this low-carb zucchini hummus or this avocado garlic dill sauce.

2. Brazilian Style Fish Stew. Great, light dinner recipe! Made with white fish and coconut milk this paleo recipe is ready in just 20 min.

3. Blackened Shrimp, Asparagus And Avocado Salad. If we ever order a salad at a restaurant we want it always be this one. You can make this low carb salad in 10 minutes and leave the yogurt dressing for a paleo option.

4. Harissa Portobello Mushroom “Tacos”. Light, healthy and just satisfying – you can make these gluten-free vegan lettuce tacos in 30 minutes.

5. Paleo Sushi Salmon Roll with Cauliflower Rice. Not a big fan of cauliflower rice, but this paleo salmon sushi roll looks like something we'd want to eat even for breakfast.

6. Shrimp & Calamari in Garlicky Tomato Sauce. We could eat this every single day for the rest of our life – you only need one large cooking pan, some shrimp, some calamari, tomatoes, basil and garlic. It takes less than 30 minutes and is one of our favorite healthy dinner recipes that happens to be low carb.

7. Meal Prep Buffalo Chicken Lettuce Wraps (Whole30 Paleo). If you have even less time for meal prep, BOOM! This simple paleo and low carb chicken recipe takes 10 minutes and is all you need for lunch or dinner.

8. Simple Paleo Chicken Curry Recipe. When someone mentions curry, we start to daydream. Especially when that curry involves coconut milk. And this one does. This paleo recipe takes 1 hour total, BUT you’ll have 8, we repeat, 8 servings.

9. Garlic Herb Salmon and Zucchini Foil Packets. simple & simple 5-ingredient low carb salmon recipe that is full of flavor and you can basically throw together + cook in 15 minutes!

10. Low-Carb Meal Prep Meatball Bowls. These dinner bowls are full of flavor, satisfying and make a great low-carb meal prep recipe.

11. Mushroom Cauliflower Rice. You need one skillet and 20 minutes to make this tasty vegan low carb dinner!

12. Seafood Alfredo with Zucchini Noodles. Correct us if we're wrong, but there’s nothing better than creamy pasta! See, we’re friends. This paleo pasta looks so creamy we could almost taste it. The sauce is made with coconut cream & garlic, pasta – zucchini, seafood – is a mix and the entire recipe takes around 30 minutes.

13. Raw Tuna Salad. If we ever happen to find raw sashimi grade tuna and don’t feel stingy to pay for it / or am brave enough to steal it – we'll make this recipe. If you’re a grown up who doesn’t have these mental issues – go for it! This salad is incredibly healthy & fast and dressed with an Asian-inspired dressing (sesame oil has all our respect & love).

14. Chicken Tortilla-less Soup. Solid for meal prep! Making this soup takes 50 minutes, BUT again makes 8 servings. Satisfying, healthy and A LOT of it!

15. Creamy Garlic Shrimp With Broccoli. You can make this fast and simple recipe in around 15 minutes. And it tastes satisfying!

16. Turkey Sausage Meatballs In Sage Cream Sauce. Bake these paleo turkey meatballs, make the creamy sauce and start a new life in less than 25 minutes.

17. Whole30 Lettuce Wraps – PF Changs Recipe. Tasty, light chicken recipe that serves 4 people and is ready in 25 minutes.

18. Hemp Seed Tabouli. Watch out, Bulgur! Hemp hearts just took your spot in this satisfying salad recipe to make it low carb and it looks fresh and tasty!

19. Thai Chicken Zucchini Noodles With Spicy Peanut Sauce. Fine, get us a spiralizer already! Not only does this have 2 of our favorite words (Thai & Spicy), but it also comes together in 15 minutes and has 363 kcal/serving.

20. Tomato, Cucumber, Avocado and Chicken Salad. Oh, this? It’s just a simple tomato cucumber salad turned into a light dinner by adding some chicken and avocado. Simple and tasty.

21. Salmon & Avocado Nori Rolls (Paleo Sushi). This sushi recipe said bye rice and got SO much better! We're looking at it and it’s calling our name. If you want to make this low carb sushi ahead – it will be good in the fridge for up to 24hours (48 max). All it takes is 10 minutes and 10 ingredients.

22. Zucchini Noodles With Creamy Avocado Pesto. Okay, so this one takes zucchini, avocado, basil and pine nuts (+ some other ingredients) and makes satisfying pasta out of those. That pasta is then paleo, low carb, vegan and notable. And fast (less than 20 min).

23. Garlicky Shrimp. simple shrimp recipe with A LOT of garlic. We mean, what else can you ask for? Takes 20 minutes, is paleo & Whole30 and would go great with some salad.

24. Keto Tuna Salad. This simple low carb tuna salad recipe takes 15 minutes and you can make it by cooking some fresh tuna, but if you don’t have time – canned is good enough. Right now, we're all about good enough. This recipe is paleo and calls for home-made mayonnaise.

25. Mediterranean Salmon Bowl. Okay, so this is one of our favorite seafood recipes, we've been making it since a few months. It’s not entirely low-carb, but if you use the low-carb zucchini hummus instead of the real thing, it totally is.

26. One Pot Low-Carb Paleo Keto Asian Chicken Stir Fry Recipe. A satisfying, Asian-inspired chicken recipe you can make in 20 minutes for dinner tonight. And you won’t regret it.

27. Avocado Tuna Salad (No Mayo) And if you don’t like mayo? Here’s a simple avocado version. This healthy low carb tuna salad recipe uses avocado instead of mayo and takes 5-minutes + 7 ingredients.

28. Paleo & Whole30 Leftover Turkey Chili. Got leftovers? Of course, you do – use them in this paleo chili and you’ll have (another) tasty healthy dinner ready in 40 minutes.

29. Vegan Sunflower Hummus Wrap. Use sunflower hummus instead of regular hummus to make this satisfying vegan wrap! This recipe is paleo, low carb and extra healthy!

30. Fast and Tasty Arugula, Avocado & Tomato Salad. Very simple, refreshing and satisfying salad that makes a good light dinner or lunch!

31. Fast & Healthy One Pan Salmon With Vegetables. The title says it all. We threw this satisfying low carb recipe in 10 minutes and it’s healthy and satisfying. We used a yogurt garlic sauce, but you can use a different sauce if you need it to be paleo.

32. Raw Tuna Salad Recipe (vegan) Make sure to soak the nuts before you start with this recipe! If you do, all it takes is 7 minutes for this raw tuna salad.

33. Shrimp Scampi With Zucchini Noodles – simple, but full of flavor paleo recipe that you can make tonight in 15 minutes.

34. Tuscan Chicken Skillet. Very simple, simple weeknight dinner recipe that also happens to be healthy and tasty!

35. Keto Garlic Squid Recipe. Make 20-minute fast seafood dinner using squid, tomatoes, garlic, olives and some vegetables.

36. Raw Red Pepper Soup. 5 minutes and a high-speed blender is all you need to make this raw red pepper soup and you get 100% of your daily vitamin C!

37. Avocado Salmon Salad Recipe. Okay, Natasha asks “Is your mouth watering yet”. It is. Always, actually, but now even more. Look at this recipe, it’s so simple but strong. We know this healthy salmon salad recipe only takes 30 minutes and a bunch of healthy ingredients you can find anywhere, but it would be even better if we could use a 3D printer and get what she made right now (we could never get salmon to look like that).

38. Paleo Crockpot Chicken Cacciatore Recipe. This one would be solid for meal prep – simple and satisfying!

39. Lemon and Artichoke Chicken. Incredibly simple delightful recipe that is paleo and requires only 7 ingredients.

40. Avocado Chicken Salad Recipe. We tried this healthy salad recipe when our sister made it one night and it’s just…it’s notable. You need some good ingredients, but the combination is just solid. It’s satisfying, full of flavor and pretty fast and simple to make.

41. Paleo Shrimp Fried Rice. We're not the only person who craves fried rice AT LEAST twice a day, am we? This is a healthy paleo version with cauliflower rice and shrimp that is simple & fast. (BTW. OMG did we tell you we recently tried fried cauliflower rice? We think we forgot. Well, in case we're not the last person on Earth to try it and you’re wondering whether it tastes like fried rice – it did not. But was close, satisfying and light. We made it twice, so it means something, you know? – next time – this recipe!)

42. Salmon Greek Salad With Lemon Basil Dressing. Greek Salad + Salmon = Winner. It’s simple math. This salad is healthy – loaded with omega-3’s from salmon and walnuts and full of antioxidants. If you want to make it paleo – just leave out the cheese.

43. Paleo And Vegan Lasagna With Cashew Cheese. A heart-warming vegan & paleo dish with artichoke-tomato sauce and cashew basil cheese.

44. Paleo Sushi with Salmon & Avocado. We couldn’t resist including another low carb sushi recipe here (as you can tell, we desperately need sushi). Here you’ll use cucumber instead of nori, isn’t it exciting? We love it! This recipe takes a little more than 30 minutes, but we think we'll invest that time.

45. Anti-Inflammatory Salmon Lettuce Wraps. Cannot wait for asparagus, so we can make this healthy low carb and anti-inflammatory recipe again! These lettuce wraps are light, but full of flavor and take around 15 minutes.

46. Grilled Lemon Herb Mediterranean Chicken Salad. Did we all just see this salad? It will be on our mind for the rest of the day/week. Seriously don’t understand how someone cannot like salad, look at this again! We were seriously blown away by all the satisfying looking recipes on Cafe Delites. This low carb salad recipe takes 25 minutes, which seems like a lot for a salad, but this is a full meal, so it’s definitely time well spent.

47. Healthy Paleo & Vegan Lettuce Tacos. Food processor, nuts, seeds and vegetables are the 4 things you’ll need to make this absolutely healthy and satisfying paleo vegan recipe!

48. 30-minute Spicy Thai Peanut Chicken & Sweet Potato Noodle Stir Fry. Any main dish recipe that has the words Spicy, Thai, Stir Fry and 30-minute has all of our attention.

49. Garlic Shrimp With Zucchini Noodles – we're on fire with those zucchini noodles. Spiralizer for our birthday!!! For now, we'll probably just shave our zucchini to make this tasty and healthy recipe. It takes 8 ingredients and around 30 minutes.

50. Mediterranean Chicken Dinner Skillet. This meal doesn’t look pretty, but it’s so satisfying! It’s a one-pan recipe with chicken, broccoli, eggplant, tomatoes, olives and some feta cheese. And of course garlic. Leave out the carrot if you’re avoiding all carbs. Trust us, we tried it, this recipe is good.

Whew, we actually posted this yesterday, it took a loooong time to put together! We're definitely trying to eat less grains right now and we're sure this list will help us.

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