Most supermarket ready meals are built around rice, pasta, potato or a flour-thickened sauce, which is exactly what a keto day cannot fit. But a growing number are not, and with a minute at the chiller you can find a hot dinner that stays inside your carb limit. This guide shows you how to spot them in any UK supermarket.
The one number to look at
Turn the pack over and find carbohydrate in the nutrition table. On UK and EU labels this figure already leaves out fibre, so it is effectively the net carb figure keto followers count. You do not need to subtract anything.
Look at the per pack column, not just per 100g. A meal that looks fine per 100g can still be a lot once you eat the whole 400g tray.
As a rough guide, if you aim for about 20g of carbs a day, a ready meal of 10g or less per pack leaves room for the rest of your day. If you are on a more relaxed 30 to 50g a day, up to around 15g can work.
Meals that usually work
- Curries sold without rice: tikka, korma and jalfrezi pots often come in under 10g, as long as the sauce is not sweetened. Pair them with cauliflower rice.
- Chilli and bolognese without the pasta or rice: check for added sugar in the sauce.
- Cauliflower-based dishes: cauliflower cheese, cauliflower mash toppings and cauliflower rice bowls.
- Salmon, chicken or steak with vegetables: the “protein plus greens” style meals in premium ranges.
- Stews and casseroles: fine when they are not loaded with potato, but check flour in the gravy.
Meals that catch people out
- “Lighter” or “healthy” ranges: these are usually lower in fat and calories, not carbs. Some are higher in carbs than the standard version.
- Sweet sauces: sweet and sour, teriyaki, barbecue and honey glazes are mostly sugar.
- Pies, lasagne, cottage pie and fish pie: pastry, pasta and potato toppings put these well over a keto budget.
- Thick, glossy sauces: cornflour and wheat flour add carbs that the menu name does not mention.
Where to look, supermarket by supermarket
Every chain has a few good options and many poor ones. Our store guides list what we found worth buying:
- Best Tesco keto ready meals
- Marks & Spencer keto picks and the M&S Food Hall guide
- Asda keto shopping list
- Sainsbury’s keto foods
- Waitrose keto list
- Aldi keto foods and Lidl keto list
- Co-op keto list for top-up shops
Make any ready meal more keto
- Leave the rice, naan or potato on the side and add a bag of microwave cauliflower rice or steamed greens.
- Stir in a spoon of butter, olive oil or a handful of grated cheese to bring the fat up and keep you full.
- Share a higher-carb meal over two days, with extra vegetables, to halve the carbs per sitting.
The short version
Check carbohydrate per pack, aim for 10g or less, skip anything sweet, breaded, pastry-topped or served on rice or pasta, and use our supermarket guides to shortlist. Recipes and ranges change, so always read the label on the day.
