Béchamel Sauce
Béchamel, or White Sauce was one of those recipes I never really saw myself making. That was until I saw the nutritional data of what was in some of the most popular brands in UK supermarkets. I found that many very popular brands contained around 6 – 7g carbs per 100g portion. Now lets consider the size of the jar which is 470g, effectively five servings. This sets this jar at a whopping 30 – 40g carbs per jar. WOW, that’s just the sauce, we haven’t even started making the meal yet and already we aren’t even close to keto lol.
OK, OK, lets pull this back into perspective here, 6-7g isn’t really that much, and not everyone is full on Keto, myself included. However, I’m sure we can do better than this, right?
I recently put together a recipe for my own Béchamel Sauce after looking at some run of the mill recipes and started to play with a few alternatives I knew would help reduce the carb count. The first thing I wanted to target was the flour. As we all know, this is a massive deal for any keto or low carb diet. Secondly the milk. Although not super bad, the 600ml that the recipes I had been looking at called for would have totally blown the recipe.
I decided to use a mix of Almond and Coconut flours along with a little Xanthan Gum to help thicken things up. For the milk, there is really only one choice, yes double cream. ‘HOLD UP!’ that’s a ton of fat I hear you shouting and you would be right. this is why we are only going to use 300ml and mix it with 300ml of water, stay with me here.
Right so enough of me waffling on, lets get to the business end of things. Hears my recipe. Trust me on the nutmeg, but if its really not for you, then don’t worry, its not required..
Ingredients
| Organic Coconut Flour | 1 tbsp |
| Organic Almond Flour | 50g |
| Unsalted Butter | 50g |
| Double Cream | 300ml |
| Cold Tap Water | 300ml |
| Xanthan Gum | 1 tsp |
| Ground Nutmeg | 1/4 tsp |
| Salt & Pepper to taste |
Method
- Measure out all your ingredients ahead of time, this will make life way easier and allow you to keep you cooking area nice and clean.
- In a mixing bowl, add the Almond and Coconut flour along with the Xanthan Gum and mix it all together.
- Combine the cream and water and mix until completely combined.
- Add the butter to a medium sized pot. On a low heat allow the butter to melt. It’s important not to let the butter boil or burn as burning will add a bitter taste to your Béchamel.
- Once the butter has melted, remove the pot from the heat and add the flour mixture a quarter at a time. Mix in each quarter until completely combined. This will create a Roux, and will act as the base to you Béchamel Sauce.
- Once you have made your Roux, put the pot back over a low heat, just enough to keep the mixture loose in the pot. No more that a 1/5 if using gas.
- Slowly add the cream and water mixture while stirring continuously. It is important not to over heat the pot here or your sauce will split, reduce the temperature slightly if required, or even remove from the heat for a few seconds until you have control again.
- Once all the cream is combined with the roux, you should be left with a thick sauce. This is the time to add the Nutmeg, Salt and Pepper. I have left this till the end as I find this is a very personal thing.
- Allow to cook for about 5 min, but don’t allow it to boil, it should only be as hot as a cup of tea, so you should be just able to just about dip your pinky in without properly burning yourself.
- If your not using it strait away, put it to one side to cool and then poor into an air tight jar. It will keep for about 3 days in fridge.
Additional Ingredients
I often to use this for Lasagne so like to load it up with a good whack of Cheddar Cheese, around 100g to taste. I you want to add cheese, be sure to take the pot off the heat and add the cheese bit by bit or you will end up with a split sauce. After you add each bit (about 25g) make sure you slowly stir it in until it has completely melted, then add the next bit and repeat until all the cheese has gone.
The sauce can take more cheese or even a blue cheese if you feel adventurous, however, I wouldn’t take it past 150g personally.
Serving Suggestions
If your not overly keen on the flavour of coconut flour, fear not, neither am I. Believe me when I say, you wont taste it. This is a beautiful and warm sauce that give you a big hug when in any dish.
This is perfect for a Lasagne. Replace the pasta with sliced and oven dried Aubergine. You don’t want to completely try them out, just take some of the water out. Remember, pasta is dry when you put in in a lasagne which helps to such up a lot of liquid. Aubergine is mostly water, so this will add to whatever mixture you already have in there. Best to dry them out first.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy. Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions or just want to get involved.
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