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When it comes to making food delicious and light, you may struggle with the “how-to's” of adapting your tried and true recipes. As a Registered Dietitian I have been working with recipe alterations for over 30 years. I understand when you first start trying to decide how to change a tried and true recipe for health reasons, or just to become a healthier eater, it can be quite overwhelming. Once you learn how to make the changes to a recipe, it will soon become second nature. My best advice, is to work on your recipes gradually. If the first stab at changing the recipe does not give you the desired results, don't give up. Write down what you did and adjust the changes for the next round.
My Journey with Lightening Up Recipes
When I was working on a Low fat cookbook at work, I rounded up all the cooks in my division to serve as taste testers. Our boss required us to test every single recipe and make sure it was acceptable and tasty. Boy did I do A LOT of cooking to test recipes back then. Sometimes we had to test the same recipe several times before we got it right. This was just part of the process and we embraced it wholeheartedly!
Once we were working on lightening up key lime pie and some of the crew came into our conference room to taste test our recent batch. One of them looked around and asked, “What about the key lime pie?” My other fellow cohort in cooking, looked at me and I looked at her and grinned. Then we spilled the beans, laughingly, we told the others, “We kept tasting the Key Lime pie to see which one we liked and it was so good, we ate ALL of the samples!” You know you have a winning recipe when the practice batch quickly disappears!
Here, I will share some tried-and-true techniques for making dishes more nutritious without sacrificing an ounce of flavor. I will be giving you suggestions to reduce certain ingredients in recipes. Use this as a guide and you may even come up with creative ways of altering your favorite recipes.
Steps to Alter Recipes to Make them Healthier
19 Steps You Can Do Today!
1. Choose a recipe and decide what part of the ingredients you want to change. It is best to slowly take out or substitute ingredients to give you a more acceptable product. Look at each ingredient in the recipe to see where you can take away, add, or substitute. Don't forget to write down the changes! You may want to use a notebook to document how you altered the recipes.
2. Guidelines for reducing the amount of salt, fat or sugar. With most recipes you can reduce the amount of salt, fat and sugar by ¼ or ½ without sacrificing flavor.
Salt-Try using half the amount of salt in a recipe. In baked goods, it enhances the flavor of the other ingredients. In cooking, it adds flavor and serves as a preservative. By using other spices, you can still hold onto flavor in recipes.
Fat-When cutting back on fat, use half the butter, margarine, shortening, or oil and replace the other half with applesauce or mashed bananas. If your goal is to choose a healthier fat in a recipe, chose vegetable or olive oil.
That melt-in-your-mouth, creamy, rich, and smooth taste sensation are all often associated with fat.
Fat can blend flavors of ingredients together or enhance the flavor, such as butter. In baked goods, fat also contributes to the tenderness of a product as it prevents flour from absorbing water. Without fat, the baked product would be dry.
Sugar-reduce the amount of sugar by ¼- ½. When you reduce sugar in baking, add spices such as cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and nutmeg or flavorings like vanilla, extract or almond extract flavorings to enhance the sweetness. Many baked products can be produced using sugar substitute, however I recommend you check the website of the product you use since the various sugar substitutes vary in how they affect the food they are added to. For instance, Equal looses sweetness when heated. This sweetener would not be a good choice for a baked product.
*Keep in mind sugar affects texture and keeps baked goods soft and moist. The bond between sugar and water allows sugar to lock in moisture so that items such as cakes, muffins, brownies, and frostings don't dry out too quickly.
3. Reduce portion sizes. When plating, start with a smaller amount and see if that satisfies you. Just by cutting back, you can take a huge step in improving your health.
4. Be patient with yourself as you test recipes. Back when I was working on that cookbook, we tried different versions of the same recipe three or four times. Remember, "recipes are a science; you may need a few attempts to get it just right."
Tips on Toppings and Baking
FOR TOPPINGS
5. Choose a flavorful cheese. "Use a variety with more flavor, such as Parmigiano-Reggiano, "The stronger the flavor, the less you have to use." If a recipe call for cheese, you can use half the amount or chose a lower-fat version.
6. Sprinkle cheese, chocolate, or nuts on top rather than mixing into batters. As toppings, they deliver concentrated flavor.
7. Reduce sugar-crumb toppings. Half the amount is often enough.
8. Substitute panko, extra crisp Japanese breadcrumbs, for ordinary bread or cracker crumbs. Doing so can reduce the crust's fat, calories, and sodium by half.
FOR BAKED GOODS
9. Think beyond fat-free. Sometimes no-fat foods don't turnout. "To account for this, you can use a blend of reduced-fat and fat-free varieties.
10. Use egg substitute in recipes that call for more than one egg. A quarter cup equals one egg, cutting 5 grams of fat and 213 milligrams of cholesterol from your recipe. You can also use egg whites and take out the yolk.
11. Use fresh zest of citrus fruits to enhance flavor to baked goods. I recently added fresh orange zest instead of dried orange zest in a pumpkin bread recipe. I was amazed with how much making this one simple switch, enhanced the flavor.
12. Make healthier substitutions. For example, add extra vegetables to casseroles and fruits to breads, muffins, or snack cakes.
Tips for Meats and Vegetables
13. Opt for leaner meats, such as center-cut or loin meats and skinless, white-meat poultry. You can substitute ground turkey or chicken for the ground beef in many recipes. Choose low fat cuts of beef and pork and trim visible fat prior to cooking.
14. Add zing with citrus. A squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice can help brighten the flavors of veggies and meats without added sodium.
FOR Sautéing or Stir-frying
15. Use nonstick pans and cooking spray in place of oil or butter. Use water, cooking wine or broth to sauté.
16. When you need oil, use canola, which has nearly half the saturated fat and more healthful, unsaturated fat than other oils.
For Soup And Stews
17. Use low-sodium broths and no-salt-added tomatoes; always rinse canned beans in a strainer under cold water, which cuts sodium by up to 40 percent.
18. Puree vegetables to add body. For example, mash some of the beans in a chili or the potatoes in a chowder.
19. Trade 1% milk for whole, or half-and-half for heavy cream, in creamy soups.
By integrating one or more of these tips, you will be on your way to a healthier YOU!
Several years ago, I set up a display of sugar in Soda to educate folks at Church. This was part of our health ministry. Within a few weeks, I had a fellow come up to me and tell me, "After reading the info on sugar in soda from the display, he stopped drinking it. As a result, he lost 15 pounds! Just one change! Needless to say, this was a HUGE encouragement to me! I love it when people can implement something helpful in their life and gain positive results!
Don't underestimate the impact on your health by taking small steps toward lightening up your recipes. For a Free Guide to help you lighten up your recipes, click below. Good luck and let me know if you have questions.
Zechariah 4:10 (NLT)
"Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.. "
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