The Canadian Flax Council http://flaxcouncil.ca/ is a terrific site for everything you ever wanted to know about flax, flax oil, use in cooking, etc.....

They have a 48-page .pdf format cookbook, NOT lowcarb, but there was a recipe for a vegetable stir-fry, and it called for ground FLAX meal as the sauce thickener, rather than cornstarch. I've worked out the carbs, using Splenda - the whole recipe comes to 11.5 total carbs, of which 5.9 is fiber = 5.6 digestible carbs.
The recipe was for 4 servings, or about 6 cups (when raw) vegetables.

SAUCE:
25 mL ground flax seed 2 tbsp
1 clove garlic, minced 1
15 mL grated fresh ginger 1 tbsp
50 mL chicken broth 1/4 cup
25 mL soy sauce 2 tbsp
15 mL vinegar 1 tbsp
5 mL Splenda 1 tsp

- In a small bowl, combine ground flax, garlic, ginger, broth, soy sauce, vinegar and sugar (Splenda).
- Pour over stir-fried vegetables in wok. Cook and stir 1 minute (or until heated through).

I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds good. I eat a lot of stir-fry. Up till now, I've just cranked the heat up and let the juice / sauce reduce and thicken that way. This, on the other hand, sounds like an excellent way to add a little more fiber to the goods!! ..:)

Doreen

This looks really good. I am definitely going to give this a shot. It will be really interesting to see how the ground flax works in a sauce. Who'd a thunk it??

Fantastic idea Doreen!

After reading this, I remembered that some hair stylists used to make a natural hair spray by cooking flax seed in water. Aveda has a flax hair spray, but I wouldn't want to cook with it. ;)

Hurray for the power of flax!

Karen

flax as sauce thickener
 

Well, I had stir-fried chicken with red pepper and lo bok (daikon) for supper last night, and the above recipe with ground flax meal worked perfectly .. :cool: .. Only thing, for my tastebuds anyway, there was too much soy sauce.

I'm imagining that this would work very well indeed to thicken gravy .. ;) .. yummm.

Doreen

p.s.- it goes without saying, BUT ..:rolleyes: ... try to grind the flax seeds as finely as possible. Mine were a bit coarse ... although I didn't mind at all, but some folks might object to the "gritty" texture.

My mom used to make some kind of a gel with flax seeds to set her hair. That was probably 30-35 years ago.