If you’ve been following the keto diet, you know that grains and wheat are pretty much out of the question. These foods are high in carbohydrates, and will directly contribute to knocking you out of ketosis.

However sometimes it’s hard to know exactly what types of grains are dangerous or okay in moderation. Bread’s obviously a difficult one to get around, but there’s a ton of different foods out there that might be in a more of a gray area.

In this article I plan to shed some light on a less talked about side dish, couscous, and will explain just how keto-friendly it actually is.

What Is Couscous?

Couscous is a famous Moroccan side dish often served with stew that resembles the texture and consistency of rice or quinoa, but more granular.

Couscous is derived from a hard part of hard wheat known as semolina, which is binded together with water and crushed. Technically, because of its grain base it can often be categorized as a pasta, but couscous itself appears more frequently as small pellets over anything that resembles noodles.

Couscous is often prepared by being steamed, and goes well with spicy foods because of its ability to absorb and retain a variety of flavor profiles.

Couscous can be commonly found in a plethora of mediterranean dishes, as well as most grocery stores in instant form.

Nutrition Breakdown of Couscous

The nutrition breakdown for one serving of couscous (one cup, cooked) is as follows:

• Calories – 176
• Total fat – 0.3 grams
  • Saturated fat – 0 grams
  • Polyunsaturated fat – 0.1 grams
  • Monounsaturated fat – 0.1 grams
• Cholesterol – 0 miligrams
• Sodium – 8 miligrams
• Total Carbohydrates – 36 grams
  • Dietary fiber – 2.2 grams
  • Sugar – 0.2 grams
• Protein – 6 grams
• Potassium – 91 miligrams
• Calcium – 1% of Recommended Daily Allowance
• Iron – 3% of Recommended Daily Allowance
• Vitamin B-6 – 5% of Recommended Daily Allowance
• Magnesium – 3% of Recommended Daily Allowance

Couscous is often considered to be superior to both brown and white rice because it contains far fewer calories, while often coming packed with more essential vitamins and minerals like B-6, potassium, and magnesium.

As an alternative side dish it’s also often more preferred than pasta and quinoa, and is a common staple of the famous mediterranean diet.

As a unique type of grain, it’s also rich in selenium, which is a potent antioxidant that has a lot of health benefits for digestion, brain function, and general longevity.

Is Couscous Keto-Friendly?

Because of its high carb and low fiber content, couscous is not considered to be keto-friendly.

With a ketogenic diet, the goal is to consume no more than 20 grams of net carbs (total carbs minus fiber and sugar alcohols) per day, with a total carb limit at around 50 grams per day.

Since one cup serving of couscous has about 33.8 net carbs, even just a little bit could potentially risk you losing your state of ketosis.

If anything, side dishes like rice, quinoa, and couscous should really be the first things that you should look to eliminate when considering a keto diet, because there’s simply no room for them in the macronutrient ratios necessary to achieve ketosis and get the weight loss results that you’re looking for.

Fortunately there are a lot of alternatives to side dishes like couscous, quinoa, and rice that can help fill out your favorite mediterranean dishes without packing on the carbs. I’ve listed some of my favorite keto-friendly couscous substitutes below.

Keto-Friendly Alternatives to Couscous

• Keto Cauliflower Couscous

Cauliflower is a wonderful vegetable that can easily help take on the consistency and texture as couscous, and because of it’s nature as a vegetable, it’s able to take on other flavors of spices you might normally use with couscous fairly easily.

One of the easiest ways to make cauliflower couscous for keto is by using a blender. I prefer the Ninja 100-Watt Blender because it’s affordable, easy to use, and can last for a long time even when used on different foods ranging from fruits and vegetables to thicker smoothies and shakes.

Once blended, the best way to get the cauliflower to match both the consistency and flavor of couscous is to microwave it, and add in lemon zest, salt, pepper, and parsley.

• Shredded Broccoli Rice

Broccoli rice is another great way to replicate these types of side dishes because of its consistency and flavor.

Broccoli is a personal favorite substitute of mine because of all of its added health benefits as well.

Broccoli has been proven to lead to decreases in both blood pressure and cholesterol, improve the quality of bone strength and teeth health, increase general metabolic and digestive function, slow the process of aging, and improve general hormonal health and balance.

Broccoli rice is pretty easy to make at home, and can often be found in the frozen section of most grocery stores. All you need to do is grate the head of a stalk of broccoli or two and steam it.

Once steamed, it goes great with other vegetables, chicken, and almost any type of cheese.

• Grated Daikon Radish

Daikon radish is a much less frequently used vegetable, but it has a lot of great potential as a substitute for grains on the keto diet.

Daikon radish has some great absorbing qualities and a pretty tame flavor, which helps it take on the flavors of whatever else its being cooked with.

The nutrition that comes along with daikon radish is one of the reasons it’s such a great substitute for keto. Daikon radices are excellent sources of both vitamin A and vitamin C, and have significant amounts of the following minerals per serving: beta-carotene, sodium, iron, phosphorus and calcium.

Like broccoli, daikon radish can best be used as a substitute after it is grated and steamed.

• Shredded Water Chestnut Rice

Water chestnut is new to a lot of people, but it’s pretty likely that you’ve had some before. You may recognize them from vegetable sushi dishes or Chinese food as white, crunchy vegetables that are usually paired with cabbage and soy sauce.

Because they are technically classified as an aquatic vegetable, they have a lot of great properties when it comes to cooking – namely their versatility. Water chestnuts can be cooked almost every way and still will be able to provide that nice crunch that you may be craving in your keto diet.

• Cabbage Rice

Cabbage rice is another great variant of a low carb side dish. While it isn’t easily as grated like water chestnut or daikon radish, it can still be finely processed into rice, quinoa, or even couscous consistency all in the comfort of your own home.

I like to use a food processor to get my cabbage rice into the consistency of my choice. For the time it takes and ability to customize textures, it’s definitely worth the investment. (I picked up my Cuisinart Food Processor on sale on Amazon).

Cabbage makes for a great source of vitamins A and C, as well a ton of iron. What’s even better is that it has both fewer calories and fewer net carbs that cauliflower, so you can really pile on a lot of it when using it as a substitute.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, you’re going to want to stay away from most types of grains and pastas while following the keto diet. Even in small quantities, they just aren’t worth the risk of adding too many carbohydrates to your plan.

While this might be difficult for some, the substitute options that are available out there are just the tip of the ice berg. There’s so many ways to incorporate vegetables into unique recipes that can help you conquer your cravings and stay on course.

Do you have any favorite mediterranean keto-friendly dishes? Drop them in a comment below!