Eggplant is one of my favourite vegetables. If you were to ask my mother, she would tell you how weird that is. Until I started keto, I point blank refused to eat this stuff even though my mom knows how to cook eggplant really well. I just really did not like the taste. Because of this, I am pretty sure that keto changes your taste buds. I've even started eating chicken livers.

Eggplant is a non-starchy vegetable that is high in Potassium (and many other things), perfect for keto. It also only contains 3g of carbs per 100g.

Meal ideas:

• Keto lasagne using thin slices of eggplant as the "pasta" layer.
• Keto crack  
• Low Carb Moussaka
• Garlic "bread" 
• Parmesan and pecan crusted eggplant  

The title might seem strange but this stuff is addictive. I was a having a case of the empty fridges and shimeji mushrooms and an eggplant were the only things left. And I will never look back - I could eat this forever. The mushrooms have a really rich, nutty flavour. Personally I think these mushrooms would work brilliantly with seafood because their umami flavour is almost "fishy". The mixture of these mushrooms and eggplant is probably my favourite vegetable combo. 

Meal Suggestions: 

• pork chops and keto crack
• steak and keto crack
• shimeji mushrooms in Thai soup
• keto crack served over a bunless burger
• keto crack and pork belly 
• shimeji mushrooms in a stir fry
• meatball casserole with shimeji mushrooms 
• Pecan flour fried chicken pieces with keto crack

Eating keto doesn't mean you are doomed to a pizza-less existence. There are a lot of options. If you are South African, there's col'cacchio, piza e vino, vovo telos and these are just the ones I can remember right now. If you aren't getting banting takeout in SA, you could make your own cauliflower pizza, fathead pizza, pizza bowl or skillet pizza. There are a lot of ways to get around the pizza issue. Skillet pizza is a quick, easy and amazing way of getting everything a traditional pizza has without the carbs; pizza toppings on a base of fried cheese.

This is not my original recipe, if you google "keto skillet pizza" you will find a lot of different ideas for this recipe... this is a simple step by step for something that is an easy keto meal.

Aubergine, brinjals, egg plant, whatever you want to call them, are pretty versatile keto foods. I hated aubergine until I started keto... could not eat it at all - texture issues. When I started doing keto, a friend taught me how to make them properly, so I tried them again and now they are a semi-staple in my house.