Diabetes-friendly recipes should be just as interesting and tasty as any other type of recipe! There is no reason why we should eat bland and boring food just because we live with diabetes!
All of the recipes are relatively low-carb (less than 20 grams of carbs per serving), come with detailed step-by-step instructions, and most of them take less than 30 minutes to make. And they all taste AMAZING!
What can a person with diabetes eat for dinner?
I don’t think there is a single right answer to that question, but I have a few guidelines I like to follow:
- Less than 20 grams of carbs per serving
- Mostly carbs with a low glycemic index
- At least 20 grams of protein per serving
- Low on sodium (especially for people with high blood pressure)
- Include some healthy fat
This should give you a healthy and balanced dinner that won’t spike your blood sugar.
You can, of course, make changes to these guidelines if you follow a specific diet (ketogenic diet, plant-based diet, etc.) but this is a good place to start.
Do you have to eat low-carb?
Many people living with diabetes choose to eat low-carb but it’s not the only option. According to the Nutrition Consensus Report from the American Diabetes Association, a “one-size-fits-all” eating plan is not evident for the prevention or management of diabetes. Many different food choices and eating patterns can help people achieve their desired health goals and quality of life.
You should eat in a way that works for your body, blood sugar management, and mental health. If you don’t want to follow a low-carb diet, a great place to start is to simply try and eat foods that are:
- Minimally processed
- Lighter on the starchy vegetables (like corn, beets, and green peas)
- Low in added sugar and refined grains
The recipes below all meet these guidelines and will work in almost any type of diet. Pick the ones you like and enjoy a tasty and healthy diabetes-friendly dinner.
15 Diabetes-Friendly Dinner Recipes
This is one of those dishes I could eat every single day! It’s super tender, tastes fantastic, and is a healthy meal all by itself.
The chicken is stuffed with mozzarella, basil leaves, sundried tomatoes, and spiced with curry and paprika. The best part - it only takes 25 minutes to make!
262 calories - 9 g carbs - 46 g protein - 4 g fat
This low-carb zucchini lasagna is a healthy and tasty alternative to normal lasagna. It's just as easy to make and you don’t need pasta or a heavy sauce, which makes it the perfect healthy dinner.
244 calories - 13 g carbs - 30 g protein - 8 g fat
This is a great vegetarian recipe (if you are ok with eggs and cheese). The spinach rolls are savory, filling, and just a little bit spicy!
This dish keeps really well in the fridge which makes it perfect for meal prepping.
310 calories - 19 g carbs - 27 g protein - 10 g fat
The rich coconut aroma of this easy coconut chicken soup will warm your belly and soul! Loaded with many different vegetables and lean chicken breast, it will keep you full and satisfied for a long time.
231 calories - 12 g carbs - 17 g protein - 13 g fat
This marinated turkey breast combines maximum flavor with minimum work in the kitchen.
You only need to let the turkey tenders marinate for about 30 minutes for the balsamic vinegar and herbs to flavor and soften the meat. Then 5-8 minutes on the frying pan and the dish is ready.
348 calories - 5 g carbs - 41 g protein - 14 g fat
I love colorful dinners made in no time and these healthy and easy beef fajitas are perfect for that. You can have them ready in less than 20 minutes from the time you decide to start cooking!
336 calories - 11 g carbs - 31 g protein - 17 g fat
This is a recipe that looks complicated but is really very easy. By wrapping the chicken breast in cream cheese and prosciutto, you get an incredibly flavorful and juicy chicken.
I add basil and pepper for flavor but you can use any dried herbs you like.
294 calories - 2 g carbs - 39 g protein - 12 g fat
These pork chops are drowned in a rich tomato, onion, and cheese sauce and they are absolutely divine. They are also ready to eat in only 30 minutes.
405 calories - 16 g carbs - 44 g protein - 17 g fat
If you have an Instant Pot, this is a recipe you need to try! It's a delicious green chili (chile verde) made with only a few ingredients and in less than 30 minutes.
It's made without beans or tomatoes for a tasty, flavorful chili that's lower in carbs!
253 calories - 9 g carbs - 30 g protein - 12 g fat
These turkey meatballs are made without breadcrumbs and they are juicy little protein bombs packed with flavor. They’re super easy to make and ready in just 40 minutes.
183 calories - 12 g carbs - 31 g protein - 3 g fat
Any dish that includes butter, onion, garlic, mushrooms, beef, cream cheese, and heavy cream is bound to be pretty delicious!
This easy one-pot recipe can be ready in about half an hour.
585 calories – 12.2 g carbs – 29.6 g protein – 46.9 g fat
Lemon Chicken Piccata is a budget-friendly take on an Italian classic! Incredibly easy, low carb, and diabetes-friendly, this piccata recipe is one you’ll want to make again and again!
269 calories – 3 g carbs – 20 g protein – 16 g fat
Ditch the bread crumbs and try these low-carb crab cakes instead! You still get the perfect golden exterior and wonderful crab flavor without all the unwanted carbs or gluten.
388 calories – 7.4 g carbs – 31.1 g protein – 27.1 g fat
Bright, colorful peppers stuffed with a low-carb mince and cauliflower filling topped with melted cheese and herbs. All ready in under an hour!
They can easily be prepared ahead of time and then dinner takes a matter of minutes that evening.
335 calories – 11.2 g carbs – 18.9 g protein – 24.4 g fat
This easy low carb eggplant parmesan is a lighter, healthier version of the classic Italian dish.
Melted, golden cheese, flavorful marinara, and crispy eggplant rounds give this dish all the heartiness of the classic comfort food.
241 calories – 15 g carbs – 8.8 g protein – 15.7 g fat
When you have tried any of these healthy dinner recipes for diabetics, please let me know in the comment how you liked them.
You are also more than welcome to suggest other great low-carb dinner recipes I should include in the roundup.
More low-carb recipe roundups
We have a lot more healthy recipes here on Diabetes Strong. Here are some of my favorite recipe roundups:
- 10 Healthy Diabetic Chicken Recipes
- 10 Low-Carb Breakfast Ideas for Diabetics
- 10 Healthy Diabetic Lunch Ideas
Enjoy!
Sophy
Tasty recipes, spinach rolls are the best. Less animal-based menu also seems to be beneficial. My advice is to start by switching at least some of your meals every week to plant or fungi-based products.
Paras Sachdeva
Thank you So much, it’s always difficult to find variety in food for a diabetic person, can you suggest about fruits or some fruits recipes
Josephine Jennifer Crawford
Thanks for sharing these lovely low carb recipes. Diabetes can indeed be controlled. It just takes effort and planning. I controlled my blood sugar by avoiding junk foods and becoming more active.
Avee
About two weeks ago I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Being only 13 years old this is very tough for me and my family. Getting used to the needles and eating differently. My parents own a gym so they help out a lot and my step dad has type 2 diabetes. I am super excited to make some pancakes using this recipe and some boiled eggs!!
Annie
Hi! My dad recently got diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes and he has been extremely sad about it. He went from enjoying food to now being scared of everything he eats, only limiting himself to a little bit of chicken and some vegetables. I’ve been trying to help him out by preparing my overnight oats for both of us every day, but it’s been really disheartening to see how gloomy he’s been. I want to cook these diabetes-friendly recipes for him so that he can see that he can still have delicious food while still eating healthy! We also come from an Asian background, so he is not as used to eating different cuisines, but I hope that one day I can venture out and create/find recipes that are more in the realm of what he’s used to. 🙂
Christel Oerum
I hope you find some recipes that he enjoys. Living with diabetes doesn’t mean we can’t eat good food. We do have some Asian inspired recipes in our recipe index you might want to check out: https://diabetesstrong.com/recipes/
Carlos
Thank you so much!
Living with diabetes is not easy, cooking with diabetes its not easy too…
Food turns into our enemy, eating a great breakfast, lunch or dinner becomes a nearly impossible but with these recipes we can now prepare meals delicious and good for our health.
Thank you
Sabrina
I can’t eat tomatoes and onions but most recipes call for them where can I find diabetic recipes that are for people with allergies
Christel Oerum
I don’t know that answer to that. You could try googling “recipes without nightshades”. It’s hard to substitute tomato for anything else but for onion I’ve sometimes used just the green top of green onions, most can tolerate those since they’re not as strong
Julie
If you chop onions, soak them in boiling water, rince and repeat a few times, it removes all the “milk” that causes the allergies. Maybe give that a try. ?
Julie Louwrens
Rinse not rince hahaha
H
27 weeks pregnant and diagnosed with gestational diabetes. It was devastating at first, having seen numerous type 1 & 2 diabetics in my family lose life/limb/joy to the disease. I stumbled across your website and I’m coming around to the idea that I’ll probably be living with this disease the rest of my life. Made the lemon piccata tonight as our first diabetes friendly recipe & even my non-bloodsugar challenged husband ate it willingly, and said it was good. I adored it w/ a side of Heart of Palm noodles, him with a side of mashed potatoes. On to some friendly desserts – as much as I dislike artificial sweetners I guess anything is worth a try in our new direction. Thank you again!
Christel Oerum
You’re welcome. I’m glad these recipes are helping you. And yes, artificial sweeteners are a bit of an acquired taste
Hilary
I wanted to come back with an update because I really loved your site and recipes! Although my son showed up early, he was the healthiest guy in the NICU (no extra support just there ’til he reached 36 weeks and put on a few ounces). Neither of us had any blood sugar issues the entire week before or after his birth. I also found after all the dust settled, that I have lost 36 lbs! My A1c was rechecked this week and it was 4.9. My blood pressure and lipid panel made remarkable change in the positive direction. Thank you so much for inspiring hope.
Christel Oerum
That’s amazing news! Thank you so much for taking the time to write, I really appreciate that.
Congratulations on becoming a new mom and on your good health
H
I’m back for my annual thank you for keeping the great recipes, diet, exercise (and general) advice here. I have since lost another 10 lbs (it wasn’t as easy as the first 30, but I did it). I am actually in an ideal weight range for my body shape/height for once in my whole adult life. I haven’t been strict about anything except tracking my glucose, adding in the daily walking/swim when it’s hot, and keeping myself from take-out food with all the awesome goodies on here. I know I may not currently have diabetes, but over 50% of women who’ve had GD will go on to develop T2D at some point in the 10 years following index pregnancy. My only goal since diagnosis more than 2 years ago has been to stall disease progression. I can’t thank you enough for helping to make this attainable for me thus far! I’m due for bloodwork, and though I don’t expect to see my awesome 4.9 A1c (breastfeeding really is magic in the BG department), I suspect I am still well under the threshold of prediabetes.
Denise
I make some Keto deserts that use monk fruit extract for some recipes instead of artificial sweeteners. There is a peanut butter fat bomb I make using the monk fruit instead of sugar that is amazing.
trac
try using stevia there is less of an aftertaste and it is all natural.
H
Stevia in the powdered form for baking became my go to for fun things. I also tried the brand name “Swerve” which does have a very mild cooling sensation, but I liked it (husband not so much-but he also eats a family size bag of M&M’s every day so I think any “false” sugar will be problematic for his taste buds!). Since I am “no longer diabetic” I have been replacing half the sugar in our desserts with swerve & the other half I’ve been experimenting with other natural sugars (we raised honey bees and have tapped our own maple so I have honey & syrup on hand, but they are very sugar dense so I like to lighten it up a bit hopefully stave off type 2 for a while longer). Thank you all for the suggestions, there is a lot of trial in error in diabetic baking that’s for sure!
Vesi
My grandmother ? have diabete type 2 and I waned to cook her something special thanks from this wed-site I know what to make her
Suzy Bruce
I too have recently been diagnosed with Type 2. I am 76 years old and it is difficult to teach an old dog new tricks on eating, but once I see your recipes, I think I might be able to comply and be healthy! Thank you for your posts and your FB page!
Christel Oerum
I’m so glad to hear that. Thank you for taking the time to send us a note
lexi brooklyn
my dad was found with diabetes and were muslims we cant take bacon and pork so were can i get some healthy like healthy healthy not um bacon is not healthy and it contains calories
Christel Oerum
If you go to our recipe page (https://diabetesstrong.com/recipes/) you can choose the types of recipes that work for you, for example, Vegan, lamb or fish & seafood
Jessica
I was just diagnosed as Type II and I’m on the search for healthy options! I’m making three of your recipes this week! Thank you so much for sharing!
Christel Oerum
I hope you like them!
crod
Are these recipes good for type 2 diabetes as well as type 1? My son has been been pre-diabetic for almost a year & just this week the Dr. said he’s very close to being a type 2. We have 3 months to get his levels under control.
Christel Oerum
All of these recipes are low carb in the sense that they each have less than 20 g of carbs per serving. So if you’re looking to reduce his carbs (which is often advisable in the given situation) these would be good.
I’d also encourage you to read this article (CLICK HERE) since what he eats is only part of the equation
Mark
Also make sure his portions are smaller and he get plenty of exercise. Im type two and if I had not been lazy and kept my portions small I could have prevented it. Now I have to live with it, but eating right is a good start.
Jason
I have just been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes I am new to this I need to get my head around the fact I have diabetes but looking at your recipes the food it’s not all gloom and doom just need to be strong not only for me but for my family aswell
Christel Oerum
It’s is not all doom and gloom! I promise you’re not restricted to only eating lettuce. You will most likely have to make some changes, but we can live good (tasty) lives