If looking to give a favorite family recipe a healthy makeover these 24 light cooking tips may be helpful.
Transforming a favorite high-fat and high calorie meal into something just as enjoyable with fewer calories is easy as long as you have a few tricks. These ideas help to improve texture and maximize taste by adding juiciness, creaminess or crunch to the food without adding calories or fat.
- Use highly concentrated flavors that allow a small amount maximize flavor. Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, hot chili oils and toasted sesame can replace larger amounts of mildly flavored ingredients. You can have more flavor with fewer calories.
- Before adding seeds, nuts or spices to the recipe, toast them to enhance the flavor. Place nuts in a shallow pan and bake at 350ºF for ten to fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally. Seeds and spices can be briefly toasted in a hot frying pan, stirring until their fragrance is released.
- Casseroles, desserts and other dishes can be topped with shredded cheese, shaved chocolate and chopped nuts. These higher calorie toppings, when cut into smaller pieces, can cover more surface area allowing less to be used while still providing an excellent flavor.
- When creating creamy soups or sauces, replace the cream with silken tofu that has been pureed. It will also work in preparing salad dressing. Create a creamy Green Goddess Sauce to pour over spaghetti or other pasta for a low fat meal to die for.
- Replace up to one third of the oil or butter in cakes and cookies to reduce the fat in light colored batters. If creating a chocolaty desert, substitute pureed prunes. Pureed sweet potatoes and prunes also work well. Do not be afraid to substitute as needed.
- When attempting to cut back on fat in a recipe replace the flavor with fresh herbs, citrus juices, pungent spices, spicy relishes, chilis and hot peppers. Fat caries many flavors so it must be replaced with ingredients that have a strong flavor.
- Use nonstick woks, skillets, steamer baskets, grill baskets and silicon baking mats to reduce the fat required for preparing meals and enjoy enhanced flavors.
- Cook your own large pots of homemade stocks from beef, chicken or vegetables. Freeze the broth in trays as ice cubes. Toss in as many cubes as needed to increase the flavor of food, especially on busy days when time is often limited.
- Roast your favorite vegetables, including onions, carrots and sliced peppers topped with a drizzle of olive oil or cooking spray and Kosher salt to enhance their natural sweetness. Use them for a side dish or to chop and incorporate into other dishes to add texture and flavor.
- Use vegetable or chicken broth to replace oil or butter for sautéing. Fruit juice or wine can add a flavor boost. Add broth to grains such as rice or couscous when cooking.
- Dry crispy rice added to brownie and muffin batters can increase volume while reducing calories. This is an excellent choice with fruit muffins.
- If using reduced-fat cheese, chill before attempting to shred. You will have better success when attempting to finely shred the cheese.
- Use instant mashed potatoes prepared with water or pureed cooked potatoes to replace heavy cream. If the recipe must have a dairy base, use evaporated skim milk in its place.
- Stir a pureed cooked potato into gravy to provide a fat free thickener. This is an excellent addition to Yankee Pot Roast.
- Blue cheese, feta and other strong crumbled cheeses sprinkled on a bland dish can improve flavor while adding little fat.
- Rolled oats that have been toasted can replace nuts in certain baked goods.
- Thicken fat free milk to resemble whole milk by adding pureed tofu, fat free yogurt or powered skim milk. This increases the protein without increasing fat.
- Add an authentic color to dishes where egg whites are substituted for whole eggs (such as casseroles or frittatas) by coloring the egg-white mixture with turmeric.
- Plain lowfat yogurt or seasoned silken tofu, dressed with diced vegetables can be used to replace mayo in egg, tuna, chicken or pasta salads.
- Use oatmeal, cornmeal or corn flakes to form a seasoned batter applied to fish or chicken before baking to give a crispy finished product. Cornmeal battered oven-fried catfish is a good option.
- Zest of citrus fruits such as oranges, lemons and limes can be a great way to boost the flavors of foods. However, avoid including the white pith that can add a bitter flavor that should be avoided.
- Replace commercially prepared taco shells with soft, fat-free tortillas that have been hung over the oven rack and baked at 400 degrees until crisp.
- When dip recipes call for sour cream, replace it with plain yogurt. Greek yogurt is best as it is naturally thick and creamy in texture.
- Use chicken or vegetable broth along with fresh garlic to season mashed potatoes instead of milk and butter. For even more robust flavor, roast the garlic beforehand.
More about Dr. Chad Cohoon
Dr. Cohoon is not only your Functional Healthcare provider in Frisco, Texas, his practice is the flagship Functional Health Center in America. Dr. Cohoon has been providing an alternative to traditional healthcare since 1995, having impacted the lives of thousands of patients from all over the country. A severe asthma sufferer as a child, Dr. Cohoon decided early on that something different should occur with healthcare, and he wanted to be a part of it. Read More