I have discovered probably the most flavorful olive oil I have ever tasted – Trader Joe’s California Estate Unfiltered Olive Oil. If you have a Trader Joe’s in your vicinity – go buy a bottle and see what I mean – this is totally unlike any olive oil I have ever tasted. [Please note: they didn’t pay me to write this and I paid for it myself.]
This link will bring you to their ‘food porn’ description of the stuff. Regardless of whether visions of unspoiled landscapes in California filled with luscious olives drip-irrigated to reduce water consumption has any relevance to the flavor, it is every bit as good as their uniquely written marketing prose makes it out to be.
Truth is, a good many people don’t know what a good olive oil tastes like. Olive oil is frequently counterfeited, and even if it isn’t, it is probably not fresh. I’ve heard that olive oil is really like a fruit juice – olives are a stone fruit like a cherry. When you think about it in those terms, you realize that the open bottle you have that’s 6 months old might be a bit past its prime – and that buying olive oil in giant plastic containers might not be the best idea. I’ve gotten in the habit of buying it like milk. It is perishable – buy as much as you need for a few weeks. Always in smoked glass. Light and plastic degrade the quality and flavor. As a low carber, you’ll eat a lot of fat – be fussy about the quality and the sources.
The Trader Joe’s brand comes in a reasonably sized bottle and costs $5.99. Amazing stuff.
My problem with the oil is that it is too damn good. I like my olive oil with bread. What this means is that I am eating too much bread so I can eat the oil.
I tried a number of options. Salads doesn’t cut it, and the flavor gets lost in pork rinds. No – to carry the flavor I need bread, so I broke down and bought a loaf of the 5 gram net carb per slice low carb bread. I try to avoid low carb fake foods, but until I can eat my fill of this wonderful fresh oil, I’ve got to do something.
This particular way of eating olive oil I found thumbing through a recipe book from Crete – one of the Greek islands. While you get a heck of a lot of different recipes when you search the term ‘Greek Toast’, this low carb riff on that recipe is simplicity itself.
- 1 slice of low carb bread
- 2 tablespoons of the best olive oil you can find
- a sprinkle of salt
- a sprinkle of oregano
I think it’s safe to assume that you know how to toast toast, so we won’t cover that here. After you’ve done that, put a tablespoon of the olive oil on the bread and use the back of the spoon to gently rub it in to the bread. Then add another tablespoon. Next, add the salt and the oregano.
If you don’t overdo it on the low carb bread, this is perfectly fine in the induction stage of Atkins and a great, flavorful treat. I also find that toasting low carb bread helps to hide the difference in texture that low carb breads have, because, essentially, they are not bread at all but rather some incredible virtualized simulation of bread. While I try to avoid technological marvels in my foodstuffs, everything in moderation, eh?
Calories: 300
Fat: 30g
Total Carbs: 8g
Net Carbs: 5g
Protein: 5g
Low Carb Confidential 
Sounds delicious! Low carb bread is great! Besides, what could be more disgusting or taste faker than a pork rind? 😉 Great price on the oil, too.
Ahem…pork rinds – otherwise known as deep-fried pork skin – are considered disgusting by some – and that’s fair. They are not ‘fake’,however. I don’t eat them as a chip replacement – I eat them because I *like* ’em. I like them with salsa – and even ate them once like cereal – and not on a dare, either.
You want *gross* – read this. https://lowcarbconfidential.com/2008/03/14/kitchen-experiment-16-pork-krispies-in-cream/
Oh wow that soundsheavenly. I do that with butter : sometimes its so good I eat it plain. Haven’t tried it with olive oil though 🙂
Yeah – that ‘toast’ recipe is an old family secret. I make mine just like my mom used to make.
I’m reminded of this:
If guns don’t kill people, people kill people, does it stand to reason that people don’t toast toast, but toast toasts toast?
Something to ponder.
I follow your blog like a stalker, refreshing every day hoping for another humorous post which makes us low carbers relate. So thanks for the posts!
Ps- toast is almost any form is most definitely not induction friendly.
Hi Tina,
Glad you stepped out of the shadows to say ‘hi’. I suppose there’s something about this blog that attracts lurkers as I get a lot of people who don’t typically post but prefer to write me directly – or not at all. That’s fine – I don’t mind. I don’t post on other blogs much myself.
Happy to hear you find something to relate to. I don’t shoot for ‘humorous’ but if you refuse to let your diet make you miserable, the only thing left is to have a laugh at your own expense – at least that’s how I look at it.
Lastly, about toast not being ‘induction friendly’. If you are an Orthodox follower of the Gospel according to Atkins, you are correct: no bread – low carb or otherwise is permitted. As Atkins coined the term ‘induction’ for the first part of his diet we can be sure that he’d agree with you.
However – if you expand what the meaning of ‘induction’ is to merely means that you shed ketones and can measure them in your urine, then you *can* have a slice of low carb bread and still stay there. This comes with a caveat and that’s everyone is different. I personally find it tough to get *into* induction eating low carb bread in any amount, but once I get there and remain there for a while, I can probably have 2 slices in a day and it not bother me. Of course, I’m sacrificing my carbs that I should be getting from veggies, but at times I feel like I’m sacrificing my sanity if I don’t have a slice of bread.
I want to be thin AND sane.
Regards,
LCC
I’ve lately been making the almond butter/ egg “almost paleo bread” and it makes awesome toast. Wow. Add some olive oil and you have a piece of fat-filled goodness!
I am tempted to try this as I want to avoid the fake as hell low carb bread. A regular commenter on my coconut manna post just mentioned that you can use that stuff in place of the almond butter. I’m a little leery of nuts because they are high in omega-6 fats – not that *some* is going to kill you, mind you – I just tend to avoid the stuff as a regular food.
How much do you think a loaf costs to make? How much does that yield?