Keto burrito
A low-carb keto burrito wrapped in a thin egg crepe instead of a tortilla, filled with spiced beef, cheddar and avocado: 6 g of carbs.
- 560
- kcal
- 38g
- protein
- 42g
- fat
- 6g
- carbs
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Serves
- 2
Photograph by Mad Knoxx Deluxe on Pexels
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 1 tbsp cream cheese
- 8 oz 90% lean ground beef
- 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 cup grated cheddar
- 1/2 avocado, sliced
- Sour cream, cilantro, hot sauce
Method
-
1
Make the crepe batter
Blend the eggs with the cream cheese until completely smooth.
-
2
Cook the egg crepes
Cook half the mixture in a wide nonstick pan over low heat, covered, for 3 minutes, until set with no color. Repeat.
-
3
Brown the beef
Brown the beef hard, add the spices and cook one minute more.
-
4
Fill and roll
Fill each crepe with beef, cheese and avocado, fold in the sides, and roll.
-
5
Seal in the pan
Return the roll to the hot pan seam-side down for 30 seconds to seal it. Serve with sour cream, cilantro and hot sauce.
The egg crepe is the whole trick
A large flour tortilla is roughly 35 to 40 g of carbohydrate. Everything else in a burrito is already low-carb, so the wrapper is the entire problem — and an egg crepe solves it without any of the specialist ingredients that low-carb wraps usually demand.
The cream cheese is not for flavor. It adds fat and a little protein that make the set egg pliable rather than brittle, so the crepe folds instead of cracking. Blending rather than whisking is what gets it fully smooth; any lumps of cream cheese become weak points that tear.
Low and slow, and covered
Cook the crepe over low heat with a lid on. The lid traps steam that sets the top surface without you having to flip it, and flipping is where these break. You want it fully set with no browning at all — brown egg is tough egg, and it tastes of omelette rather than wrapper.
A wide nonstick pan matters here more than usual. In a small pan you get a thick crepe that will not fold.
The final sear
Thirty seconds seam-side down in the hot pan after rolling. The residual protein on the seam sets against the pan and glues the roll shut, which is what stops it unravelling on the plate. It is a small step and it is the difference between a burrito and a pile.
Fillings that work, and one that does not
Anything low in moisture. Ground beef, cheese, avocado, sour cream, sautéed peppers. What fails is anything watery — raw tomato, undrained salsa, lettuce — because the egg wrapper has no absorbency and the liquid runs straight out. Drain salsa in a sieve first if you want it.
What it is worth nutritionally
6 g of carbohydrate against roughly 45 g for the tortilla version, with 38 g of protein. It is a high-fat dish at 42 g, most of it from the beef, cheese and avocado. Halving the cheese brings it to around 37 g of fat without changing the character much.
