70 Easy Low-Carb Recipes For Beginners (Under 20 Minutes) - Thinlicious (2024)

These easy low-carb recipes are perfect for beginners and all can be made in under 20 minutes. In fact, some recipes don’t even need cooking.

You can make quick and easy low-carb breakfast, lunch, dinners, and snacks recipes, and even healthy comfort food and keto side dish ideas too.

These are the easiest recipes to stay on track when you don’t feel like making fancy keto dinners, or you don’t want to cook.

These delicious low-carb dinner ideas can be made again and again. So why not make your own keto meal plan to help you stay on track with your keto diet and within your daily carb limit.

Are you ready to create the ultimate 12-month blueprint for reaching your health & weight loss goals this coming year?

Our free on-demand video training will walk you through how to make 2024 THE year you set health goals…and keep them.

Top tips for beginners

My best tip for beginners is to cook once, eat twice. Always try to make extra servings so you have another meal ready for tomorrow. You can even freeze leftovers and slowly build up your own selection of low-carb keto frozen dinners.

There are so many ways you can prep dinner recipes – if you love ground beef there are 4 ways to meal prep using ground beef. But you can also do chicken meal prep too.

I also highly recommend making low-carb dinner ideas that are freezer-friendly. Here are 9 super easy freezer meals to try!

Plus, make sure you stock up on high quality meal prep containers.

If you don’t think you can cook, you can! I promise – I’ve dedicated my site to ensuring you can! As one reader told me, “Thank-you,thank-you. Until I found your website, I thought cooking meant “peel back film to vent” “. Another reader once commented, “if you don’t have enough time to cook, turn off the TV and get off Facebook”, and that’s what she did.

10 easy low-carb dinners (if you don’t want to cook)

The easiest low-carb dinner ideas are the ones where you don’t have to cook and don’t need a recipe.

So whether you are eating low carb or following the keto diet, save these keto dinners to your phone so you never have to eat fast food ever again.

1: Hot cooked rotisserie chicken and a bag of salad from the grocery store. Add cheese, mayonnaise, and other ingredients from your fridge. This has to be the easiest low-carb meal when you don’t want to cook.

2: Avocado cut in half seasoned with salt, pepper, and other seasonings sprinkled on top. Add some bagel seasoning and simply eat with a spoon.

3: Tinned tuna/canned tuna in olive oil or spring water is your best option. You can dump it onto a salad bowl, or eat it straight from the tin/can.

4: Eggs are one of the easiest keto snacks you can find. Serve them poached, fried, scrambled, and you can even buy pre-boiled eggs from your local deli counter. Peel and eat.

5: Cold meat leftover from another meal can become a quick dinner with cheese and salad is a healthy alternative to takeouts.

6: Leftovers will become your best friend. Cook once, serve twice for cheap healthy ready meals.

7: Selection of cheese and deli meats to make your own keto charcuterie board. Throw cheese, veggies, more cheese, pepperoni, olives, stuffed mini red peppers, some leftovers and you can have dinner ready in just minutes.

8: Low-carb vegetables such as red pepper, cauliflower, and broccoli, served with ranch dip and bacon bits. This makes a quick light low-carb dinner and a delicious healthy snack too.

9: Ready-made low-carb dinners can easily be found if you know which prepackaged keto foods from the grocery store will keep you on track with your keto diet.

10: Meat wraps are the perfect lazy keto dinner the whole family will love. Buy some roast beef from the deli counter, place some sliced veggies and some cheese in the center, and roll up to make your very own meat wraps. Double the protein, double the nutrition, double the taste.

10 easy keto snacks

[convertkit form=2151328]

1: Nuts – are probably the most popular snack on the keto diet. Just make sure you always portion control them and always choose low-carb nuts. Always avoid cashews.

Here is my list of the top 10 low-carb keto top 10 snacks.

2: Pork rinds (pork crackle) – is the ultimate crunchy salty keto snack. It’s high in protein and moderate fat. You can make homemade pork rinds or buy them, just check for added sugars or starches.

3: Keto bread – these 1 minute keto muffins only require 3 simple ingredients and can be made as sweet or savoury snacks. Serve your keto muffins with cheese or berries and whipped cream.

4: Eggs – stop buying protein powders and reach for an egg instead. Eggs are the perfect portable high-protein keto snack. You can boil eggs in the Instant Pot or make keto Scotch Eggs, and keep them in an airtight container in the fridge for the week ahead. They also become a quick lunch tomorrow.

5: Beef jerky – perfect to carry with you at all times, just check the nutrition label for added sugars.

6: Cheese – all varieties of cheese are delicious and keto-friendly.

7: Dark chocolate – stop buying high sugar chocolate and slowly begin to eat 95% dark cacao chocolate instead.

8: Nut butter – can be eaten by the spoon or on keto bread, sliced cucumber, or celery sticks. The carb values of nuts and nut butter can vary widely so always check the carbs in nuts charts.

9: Sugar-free jello (jelly) – set your jello/jelly in single-serve dishes for a ready-made sweet snack that will stop your sugar cravings.

10: Berries – chooselow-carb fruitsuch as nutrient-dense low-sugar berries with whipped cream.

Just remember not to go overboard on low-carb snacks. They can be one of the biggest culprits to why you’re not losing weight.

13 easy low-carb breakfasts

Some of these easy low-carb breakfasts may be made ahead. Begin your meal prep with a huge batch of grain-free and gluten-free granola. Then you have low-carb meals ready for the weeks ahead.

Cook smarter, not harder. Most of these have just five ingredients (or less!).

Creamy coffees are always a good option when you are not hungry enough for breakfast. Learn the carbs in coffee so you know what to order.

10 easy low-carb lunch ideas

These low-carb recipes are perfect for the whole family. Packed with delicious low-carb vegetables, protein, and healthy fats. They can all be made in under 20 minutes, and most can actually be cooked for dinner then served as leftovers.

If you need help with healthy lunch boxes for children, download your free copy of how to help picky eaters (plus 50 healthy snack ideas for kids).

[convertkit form=2151265]

20 easy keto dinner recipes

If you’re confused with what you should be eating on your ketogenic diet and want delicious easy keto dinners, now you can find recipes the whole family will love.

From slow-cooker pork, one-pan chops, ground beef, one-dish recipes, and an easy salmon recipe that takes just minutes. Cooking dinner just got easier.

Make a huge batch and most of these can be lunch tomorrow too. There are even chicken nuggets and hamburgers for your kids.

10 easy keto side dishes

Choosing an easy low-carb side dish can often be the most difficult part of your keto dinners.

Once you know how to make easy cauliflower rice, keto garlic bread, zucchini noodles, and a few simple salad ideas, staying on track with your keto diet is much easier.

If in doubt, the easiest side dish is to buy a bag of salad or buy some frozen low-carb vegetables.

Please leave a comment below with the top low-carb recipes that you loved to make when just starting out on your low-carb diet or ketogenic diet.

What was your favourite low-carb dinner and what side dish did you use to replace your humble potatoes?