My first time making beef short ribs and thankfully it won’t be my last. While the sauce came out a tad too sweet for me, this dish it was a crowd-pleaser.

I’ve never cooked beef ribs in my life. Heck, I never even tried them until earlier this year. Where I grew up, if you wanted ribs pork was the only source.

Boy was I missing out.

So when I came across the BBQ Short Ribs in The Ketogenic Cookbook, I had to try them. My only problem: the equipment calls for using a slow cooker. I love crock pots. The idea of tossing ingredients into one, turning on the timer and walking away for 6-8 hours is awesome.

Unfortunately, my slow cooker isn’t so slow. In fact its faster than my crappy oven at times. But like my husband’s relationship with TGI Friday’s, I decided to give my slow cooker one last chance.*

Very few steps in this amazing recipe. Next time I plan to cut the sweetener from the BBQ sauce. Maybe I’ll replace it with some hot sauce!

For this recipe, I made my own tomato sauce without any sweetener. If you can’t make your own, just pick up something low in carbs and sugar-free.

Also the recipe calls for using coconut aminos. This is a great soy sauce substitute. Despite the name, it doesn’t taste anything like coconut. And unlike most soy sauces, it doesn’t have any wheat. So it truly is perfect for a keto diet. Unfortunately I only had 0 carb soy sauce…but it still tasted great!

BBQ Beef Short Ribs
Carbs: 1% (1.3g Net)
Fat: 82%
Protein: 15%
Servings: 8

Ingredients

• Bacon, 3 slices, finely diced
• Yellow onion, 2 tbsp, diced
• Tomato sauce, 1C
• Coconut aminos 1/4 C
• Erythritol, 1/3C, powdered**
• Coconut vinegar, 1/4C
• Roasted garlic, 1 head
• Liquid smoke, 2 tsp
• Beef short ribs, 8 (about 4 lbs.), grass-fed (optional)

Equipment

• Blender
• Slow Cooker

Directions

• Saute the bacon and onions in a sauce pan until bacon is crisp. Stir in the tomato sauce, coconut aminos, erythritol, vinegar, garlic and liquid smoke. Stir until smooth.
• Pour mixture into a blender and blend until sauce is smooth.
• Pour the sauce into a 4-6 quart slow cooker. Place the short ribs on top of the sauce. Be sure the ribs are in single layer, not stacked. Cover the slow cooker.
• Cook for 7-8 hours on low until meat is tender. It should easily pull away from the bone.
• To serve the ribs, spoon the sauce over the ribs.

*My slow cooker is now history. It cooked the ribs in less than 3 hours. Thankfully I was all over that cooker like a monkey on a cupcake.

**A word about the erythritol. I followed the recipe and added it to the sauce. It came out much too sweet for my taste. I do plan to make this dish again, but without the sweetener. It just wasn’t needed. Also after the meal my husband and I experienced cravings for sweets. Yikes! How can that be?

Turns out sweeteners can stimulate appetite and/or create sugar cravings.  I always assumed that this applied to sweeteners that raised blood sugar. Apparently for us it applies to all sweeteners. So I’m starting to purging sweeteners from our diet.