The 30 Best Low-Carb Vegetables, Ranked. #1 Has Less Than a Gram of Carbs.

Most “low-carb vegetable” lists are just a photo of broccoli and a shrug.

This one is ranked, it’s built from the USDA’s nutrient database, and it counts the number that actually matters: net carbs.

That’s total carbs minus fiber, because fiber is a carb your body never turns into sugar. It’s the figure keto and low-carb eaters track, and it changes the whole leaderboard.

In the UK and EU, all nutrition labels already show net carbs with the fibre deducted, listed as carbs and then “of which sugars.” In the US, the label shows total carbs and you do the subtraction yourself. Same food, different math on the box. Once you know which one you’re looking at, the numbers below line up.

A quick honesty note before we start. The bottom of this list isn’t “bad.” A 9-gram vegetable is still a vegetable, and nobody got fat eating peas. But if you’re keeping a hard carb ceiling, portion size starts to matter down there, and stops mattering almost entirely up top.

So we’ll begin with the ones to keep an eye on and climb toward the ones you can pile on the plate without doing math.

The reason any of this matters: these vegetables do real work for people. One reader I won’t soon forget put it bluntly. Down 30 pounds in 4 months after being diagnosed diabetic with numbers off the charts, refused the meds, went low-carb at 20 grams a day, and watched the numbers drop so far the doctor was in shock.

Green veggies were the whole foundation. I’m not your doctor and neither is a list on the internet, so take the big swings to a real one. But that’s the kind of thing the produce aisle can do.

Every number below is per 100 grams. Here are 30 low-carb vegetables, ranked from “watch the portion” to “eat the whole tray,” with what to actually cook with each one.

30. Green Peas

Peas lead off because they’re the carbiest thing that still gets called a vegetable instead of a starch. 9.1g net carbs and almost 6g of that is straight sugar.

The above-ground and below-ground rules are a good starting place for newbies, but it isn’t a hard rule. There are veggies that grow above ground that are high in carbs, such as peas and beans, and there are root veggies that are low in carbs, such as radish. Peas are the proof.

They’re not the enemy. You get a real hit of vitamin C and fiber out of them. Just don’t treat a bowl of peas like a bowl of lettuce. A scatter through a cauliflower fried rice, not a side dish of their own.

29. Onions

Onions are very carby. That sounds wrong until you check, then it stings a little. 9g net carbs and 5g of sugar, which is exactly why caramelized onions taste like candy.

Here’s the thing though. You’re almost never eating 100 grams of raw onion in a sitting. A few rings in a stir fry or a spoon of soffritto is a rounding error. A pile of onion straws is a different story.

Green onions, garlic, and chives carry the same flavor at a fraction of the carbs if you’re being strict. And a little red onion earns its keep: two large bags of spinach cooked down with some red onion and a can of coconut milk makes a very nice creamed spinach side that keeps for several days.

28. Carrots

Seeing carrots this far down makes some people feel betrayed. They’re sweet for a reason, 7.5g net carbs, but they also bring a ridiculous 91% of your daily vitamin A in a single serving.

Roast them whole with cumin and a little olive oil until the edges go dark and sticky. Or shave them raw into ribbons for crunch. Cooked carrots taste sweeter, so if you’re watching it, raw shaves the sugar hit a touch.

The strict crowd lumps carrots in with parsnips and sweet potatoes as too much sugar, and that’s a fair line to draw. Just know what you’re spending your carbs on.

27. Beets

Beets are the sweetest vegetable on this entire list. All 7 grams of carbs are sugar, every single one.

That’s not a reason to skip them, it’s a reason to respect them. Folate is sky-high here, and the color does things to a plate that nothing else can. The greens are the real prize, though. Kale and beet tops are wildly underrated. Make a mean kimchi with leafy greens, onion, carrots, and beets or turnips, and it goes great in soups and stews too. Roast the roots, slice them thin over arugula, and call it dinner. Just don’t kid yourself that they’re a freebie.

26. Winter Squash

There’s a split in the squash family worth knowing. Summer squash like zucchini is genuinely low carb. Winter squash, the butternut and acorn types, sits higher at 6g net carbs because it’s denser and sweeter.

Still a great roast. Cube it, toss with olive oil and sage, and roast until the corners caramelize. Big vitamin A payoff. And if you’ve never tried chayote squash, you are missing out on a very versatile veggie. It is very mild tasting and will take on the flavor of whatever you are cooking it with. You can even make a mock apple pie with them. You can fry, roast, bake them or even eat them raw.

Spaghetti squash is the one I reach for most, though. I’m learning to use it to handle my craving for spaghetti and sauce. Last time I made a version of a pasta dish with sliced black olives, artichoke hearts, cherry tomatoes, and green onions, dressed with a zesty Italian dressing and my favorite seasonings. Nutritional yeast on top instead of parmesan and you’d never miss the noodles.

25. Artichokes

An artichoke is mostly fiber wearing a vegetable costume. 6.3g net carbs, but a huge 5.7g of fiber, so for all that bulk you’re barely moving your carb count.

They’re also the most fun thing on the list to eat, because eating one takes twenty minutes of peeling leaves and scraping them with your teeth. Steam a whole one, melt some garlic butter, and go leaf by leaf. Or buy the hearts in a jar and toss them into everything. They turn a sad salad into something worth eating.

24. Red Bell Peppers

Red peppers are sweeter than green because they’re just green peppers that stayed on the vine longer. That extra time means more sugar, 5.5g net carbs, and an absolutely absurd 158% of your vitamin C.

Watch the red and yellow ones if you’re being strict, the green ones are leaner. But for vitamin C per bite, almost nothing beats a raw red pepper. They’re also the heart of a great mixed veggie stir fry: fennel, peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, green beans, onions, garlic. Yummy.

23. Brussels Sprouts

The mini cabbage that packs a lot of punch in a small package. 5.4g net carbs and a wild 153% of your daily vitamin K. They would have been #16 on the original keto-veg lists that skipped them, coming in around 5g of net carbs, and they’re still a great vegetable to eat often.

If you still think you hate them, you ate them boiled. Halve them, toss with oil and salt, and roast at high heat until the outsides are crispy and a little burnt. Totally different vegetable. The kid who gagged at the steamed gray ones grows up to fight you for the crunchy roasted ones.

22. Snow Peas

The flat ones in the stir fry. 5.1g net carbs, snappy, sweet, and you eat the whole pod.

They want about ninety seconds of heat and not a second more. Blister them in a screaming hot pan with garlic, pull them while they still squeak when you bite them. Limp snow peas are a tragedy.

21. Green Beans

Green beans pull a clever trick on a low-carb plate. 4.6g net carbs and they hold sauce like pasta does. The French green beans, the skinny ones, are the standouts, and people are genuinely thrilled to see them rank high.

Use them instead of spaghetti under a good vegetarian bolognese. Sounds like a diet hack, eats like a real dinner. Or just blanch them, then finish in brown butter with toasted almonds. I grill almost all my veggies and I use a lot of garlic, and green beans take to that beautifully. I’ll admit not everyone’s a fan. To be honest, some people just hate green beans, they don’t know why, they just think they’re nasty. But those people are wrong.

20. Okra

Somebody put it perfectly: at four carbs per serving, it’s low carb. 4.6g net, and yes, you can dodge the slime. It’s low carb and rich in nutrients. It might not be for everyone, though, because the inside is very often slimy.

The trick is high, dry heat. Roast okra whole or halved until the pods are charred and crisp, and the goo never gets a chance to show up. There’s also a dish called callaloo where you boil okra and spinach together with spices. It’s so good and doesn’t really raise your blood sugar that much. Cornmeal-dusted and pan-fried is the Southern move.

19. Turnips

The forgotten root. 4.6g net carbs, peppery when raw, mellow and almost sweet when cooked.

Recently I learned to boil them about 15 to 30 minutes and, with some imagination and butter, you can make a great faux mashed potatoes. They come out very lightly pink, with a texture a bit like rutabaga or parsnips, and a nice flavor. The grocery store sells them in bulk, without the leaves. Easy peasy. Small ones are sweeter and less sharp. Big old turnips can get woody and bitter, so shop young.

18. Jicama

If you’ve never had jicama, picture an apple and a potato had a crunchy, faintly sweet baby. 3.9g net carbs and a surprising 4.9g of fiber holding it down.

Best eaten raw. Cut it into matchsticks, hit it with lime and chili powder, and you’ve got the crunch of a chip with none of the regret. It also refuses to go soggy, so it’s the move for a slaw that has to sit. Tucked into a taco it’s the closest thing to a tortilla chip you’ll get under 4 carbs.

17. Fennel

Fennel scares people because raw, it tastes like black licorice. Cook it, and that anise flavor mellows into something sweet and soft. 4.2g net carbs.

Shave it paper-thin into a salad if you like the bite, or roast wedges until they go jammy and the licorice fades to background. It’s the secret weapon in a mixed veggie stir fry: fennel, carrots, bell peppers, shrooms, zucchinis, green beans, onions, garlic. Yummy, and not a single ingredient over budget. The fronds are free herbs, don’t toss them.

16. Green Bell Peppers

The lean cousin to the red ones. 3.9g net carbs, less sugar, and still 110% of your vitamin C.

This is the pepper for stuffing. Hollow them out, pack them with cauliflower rice, beans, and cheese, and bake until the tops slump. Worth a note for the raw-veggie crowd: some people skip raw tomatoes and bell peppers because of lectins, which cooking destroys. If that’s you, roast them. If it’s not, eat them however you like.

15. Eggplant

Eggplant is a sponge, and that’s the whole point. 3.1g net carbs, almost no flavor of its own, and a texture that turns silky and rich when you treat it right.

Here’s a swap worth knowing: though a lot of people love eggplant, you can use zucchini instead. It’s lower carb and higher in magnesium, calcium, and potassium, and it substitutes easily in a lot of dishes. But eggplant earns its own slot. Salt it first to pull the bitterness, then roast or grill it. It’s the backbone of baba ganoush and the reason eggplant parm works without anyone missing the meat.

14. Cauliflower

If cauliflower can be made into a pizza crust, then my friends, anything is possible.

3.1g net carbs and the most versatile vegetable in the entire low-carb world. Mark Twain called it a cabbage with a college education, and honestly that tracks. It becomes rice, it becomes mash, it becomes pizza crust, it becomes wings. For a lot of people it has become the rice substitute, so it’s not unusual to go through a whole head in a given day.

The mash is where it really shines, and the best version I’ve seen is a half-and-half trick someone swears they invented and never saw anywhere else: half cauliflower and half broccoli, boiled or steamed, then roughly mashed in a food mixer, not a blender or food processor. Make it in large amounts and freeze it in portion sizes. Then take what you need from the freezer, heat it with some oil or butter, add some crème fraîche or cream and herbs to taste. Easy, versatile, and super delicious.

People lean on this one hard. I live off cauliflower, more or less, and I’ve watched it carry someone through losing over a hundred pounds as their daily staple. One vegetable. I’m not saying a single floret is magic, nothing is, and anything diet-shaped is worth running past your doctor first. But when a food is this low in carbs and this willing to become whatever you need, I get why it ends up at the center of the plate.

13. Mushrooms

Quick riddle the internet loves: which one of these isn’t actually a vegetable? Mushrooms. They’re a fungi. Be a fun-guy and forgive me for that one.

The best version of this I’ve heard came from someone whose grandmother taught biology, and who swore that grandma would roll over in her grave if the answer to “name the fungus” was missed. Fair. The botany sticks with you once somebody frames it like that.

Mushrooms belong here regardless. 3g net carbs and a savory, meaty depth that makes them the best meat stand-in on the list. They’re breakfast food too: two eggs with spinach and mushrooms is a near-perfect low-carb start to the day. Sear them hard in a dry pan first so they release their water and brown, then add fat. Crowd them and steam them, and you get sad gray slop. Give them room and you get something you’d pay for at a restaurant.

12. Kohlrabi

The alien-looking one nobody buys. 2.6g net carbs and a near-70% vitamin C hit, with a taste somewhere between broccoli stem and a mild radish.

Peel off the tough skin, then eat it raw in sticks or roast it in wedges. It’s crunchy, faintly sweet, and weirdly refreshing. Slaw it raw with a lemony dressing and it disappears off the plate. It’s the kind of vegetable you buy once on a dare and then keep buying.

11. Cucumber

Cucumber is not boring.

2.5g net carbs and basically water with a crunch, sure, but the prep is where it lives. Slice it thin with onions, dill, vinegar, salt and pepper for a five-minute salad. Dice it with onions, tomatoes, olive, feta cheese, avocado oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and oregano. And baby cucumbers, the little ones, are so tasty and make a great snack straight up.

It’s the base of a great Israeli salad too: tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, lemon juice, olive oil, alongside a couple of eggs. You can even sauté cucumber, which sounds wrong and tastes great. Peel and halve it lengthwise, scoop the seeds with a spoon, cut into half-inch slices, then cook in a little butter until soft and lightly browned and toss with salt, pepper, and fresh dill.

10. Cabbage

The cheapest vegetable on the list and one of the lowest carb. 1.3g net, 14 calories, and it lasts in the fridge roughly forever.

Cabbage soup is the move when it’s cold out: half a head, an onion, garlic and onion powder, a couple handfuls of greens, some shredded carrot, and water, simmered 30 to 40 minutes. Or make your own sauerkraut, it’s delicious and it’s even better for you. Roast wedges of it until the edges char and it goes sweet. It’s the vegetable that stretches a near-empty fridge into dinner.

9. Radishes

Radishes are wonderful. 1.8g net carbs. They roast up wonderfully with a very mild flavor and make a wonderful substitute for potatoes. They are also great in soups and stews.

Most people only meet them raw, sliced on a salad, where they’re sharp and peppery. Cooking is the secret, because roasting kills the heat and turns them mild and almost potato-like. Grate or slice them, toss with olive oil, season, and bake a thin layer at 400 until crispy for low-carb hash browns. Arugula is good sautéed too, by the way, as well as radishes and kale. When you’re burned out on cauliflower, this is your nice change of pace.

8. Celery

The vegetable everyone forgets and then loudly demands. 1.7g net carbs, mostly water, basically a crunchy delivery vehicle.

After you steam it you can mash it, put some butter or fresh cream or both, add salt, and that’s it. Very nice. I was told celery is basically a zero-carb food, that you expend as much energy eating it as its calorific value. I can’t stand it raw, but it goes great in soups and stews. Stuff the raw ribs with cream cheese or almond butter for the snack you grew up on. It does quiet, important work in the base of every dish. It’s not the star. It’s the bassist. The dish falls apart without it.

7. Zucchini

The reigning champ of low-carb cooking and for good reason. 2.1g net carbs, 17 calories, and it’ll be whatever shape you need.

Spiralize it into zoodles for a pasta night, slice it into planks for the grill, or layer it into a lasagna instead of noodles. It releases a ton of water, so salt it and pat it dry first or your dinner turns to soup. Don’t overcook it into mush, a little bite is the whole point. The British call it courgette, which somehow makes the same vegetable sound fancier.

My favorite bit of zucchini lore is about a green-fingered home cook, a very imaginative one, mother of three strapping lads. She grows courgettes in profusion, and the boys are thriving on her many ways of cooking courgettes. Soup, as part of a veggie side dish, even in cake. She is a wonder. I think about her every time I’m staring at a glut of summer squash wondering what to do with it all.

6. Asparagus

Spring in vegetable form. 1.9g net carbs and a third of your daily vitamin K per serving.

Roasting is foolproof. Toss the spears with oil and salt and blast them in a hot oven until the tips crisp. Snap off the woody bottoms first, they’re never going to soften. Thin spears cook in minutes, fat ones want a little longer. A squeeze of lemon at the end and you’re done.

It’s also one of the easy daily ones. I try to vary my veggies and still stay within the guidelines, and asparagus, spinach, kale, avocado, peppers, cucumber, spaghetti squash, olives, mushrooms, broccoli, salads, tomatoes and sprouts are all on the rotation. Spaghetti squash in particular is the cure for a spaghetti craving, it carries a good sauce the way real pasta does.

5. Avocado

The one that breaks the pattern. 1.8g net carbs, which is nothing, but 160 calories, which is not. On keto it’s the safe one, which is why it tops half the lists out there.

So eat avocado for the good fats and the creamy texture, not as a free-for-all. Half a one mashed on a plate, scooped into a salad, or sliced with olive oil, vinegar, herbs, and a little raw garlic spooned right into the pit. An avocado a day keeps the doctor away, more or less.

As a quick snack, make avocado crackers. Slice up some avocado and put it on a slice of cheddar cheese, meaning the cheese is the cracker, then top with a smidge of sea salt. Give one to a skeptical kid and the verdict comes back fast: OMG, this is food crack. It keeps you full like almost nothing else this low in carbs. Just respect the calorie weight.

4. Broccoli

The vegetable on the default low-carb poster, and it earns it. 4g net carbs and an almost cartoonish nutrient load: 90% of your vitamin C and 88% of your vitamin K in one serving.

Roasting beats steaming every time. The florets crisp, the edges char, and it stops tasting like punishment. But here’s the one people don’t try: mash it like potatoes. Steam it soft, then put it in a blender with a little butter, salt and pepper, and it makes a great substitute for mashed potatoes. It scratches the mashed-potato itch for a fraction of the carbs.

3. Spinach

Nearly carb-free at 1.2g net, and it collapses to nothing when you cook it, so a giant pile becomes two polite bites. Plan for that.

The numbers are silly in the best way: 472% of your daily vitamin K, plus a stack of vitamin A and folate. Wilt a mountain of it into garlic and oil. Cook two large bags down with some red onion and a can of coconut milk for a quick saag-style side. Fold it raw into everything.

One real caution, and then I’ll get off the soapbox. Someone who went hard into keto developed a kidney stone and traced it back to eating a lot of high-oxalate foods, including raw spinach in a daily salad. Spinach is loaded with oxalates. If you eat it every single day in big raw quantities and you’re prone to stones, that’s worth a chat with your doctor. For most people, a normal amount is a nutritional jackpot.

2. Turnip Greens

The runner-up is the part of the turnip everybody throws away. 0.8g net carbs, 20 calories, and 305% of your vitamin K with a side of huge vitamin A.

Southern cooks have known forever: low and slow with something smoky. Skip the ham hock, lean on smoked paprika, a splash of vinegar, and plenty of garlic, and you’ll never miss it. They’re peppery and a little bitter, which is exactly what cuts through a rich plate.

1. Dark Leafy Greens

The lowest-carb food on this entire list isn’t one vegetable. It’s a whole category, and they all hover near zero.

Kale lands at 0.3g net carbs. Collards bring 4.3g of fiber and 390% of your vitamin K. Swiss chard is so loaded it clocks 691% of your daily K in one serving, which barely sounds legal. Swiss chard, kale, spinach, collards, arugula, wild greens, turnip greens. Pick any of them and you’re eating for under 2g, and definitely not boring.

Swiss chard especially is so versatile. Separate the stem from the leaves and use the green part as a spinach substitute. The stem is cooked the way you’d cook green beans, okra or squash, curried, or thrown into any stew. There’s a simple French move too: rinse the chard, cut it into two-centimeter pieces, mix with fresh cream, parmesan, and salt to taste, pour into an oven dish, and bake 20 minutes at 200 degrees. Very simple, very quick, very tasty.

And the trick that converts kale skeptics is massaging it. Put a little olive oil on your hands and work the leaves until they break down and soften, then season with salt and pepper. Fresh kale from the garden is even better steamed with salt and butter, topped with two over-easy eggs for breakfast. When the lowest-carb food in the world is also the most nutrient-dense, the math isn’t close. Eat the greens.

Honorable Mentions That Almost Made It

A few vegetables kept getting shouted out and deserve a nod. Bok choy is a great veggie, low in carbs and super delicious. Fry it with garlic and eat it just like that, or build a stir fry with riced cauliflower, onion, and bok choy with a little soy sauce, ginger and garlic. There’s also a five-minute tofu version worth stealing: garlic and ginger in the pan, cubes of golden tofu, herb salt, bell pepper, then a big handful of chopped bok choy and spinach, finished with a splash of tamari.

Olives belong on any list, if you can stop at a handful, which is the hard part. Parsnips get a lot of love but land just over the line, too sugary to call truly low carb, right in the same bucket as carrots and sweet potatoes. And celeriac and bitter melon both deserve a try if you like to wander the produce aisle.

The Bottom Line

Low carb doesn’t mean a sad plate of plain broccoli. It means almost the whole produce aisle is open to you, and the few things to portion out, peas, onions, beets, carrots, are the exception, not the rule.

The real lesson isn’t which vegetable won. It’s that cooking is the cheat code. Cauliflower becomes pizza. Radishes become hash browns. Broccoli becomes mash. Zucchini becomes pasta. You’re not giving up the food you love. You’re just swapping out what’s underneath it.

So stop staring at the broccoli. The plate’s bigger than you think.