August 29, 2009
Making a Recipe Healthier
People ask me all the time to help them “healthify” a recipe and I’m happy to do it. Apparently I’ve had enough experience messing up recipes that I know the pitfalls to avoid when substituting.
While some recipes cannot be redeemed - Deep-Fried Snickers Bars, for example - most can either be made healthy or can be re-worked to keep the same flavor elements you love, but in a new recipe.
Here are a couple of practical suggestions:
- Make it healthier and smaller. Grandma’s cheesecake can be made with 1/3 less fat cream cheese, half the sugar, topped with real fruit, and made in a half-batch when having company over. Everyone enjoys a big piece, and then it’s gone.
- Rework the proportions. Use the largest amount of the healthiest ingredient and the smallest amount of the unhealthiest. In a cheesy chicken and broccoli casserole, use a huge amount of broccoli, then a reasonable amount of brown rice, then some chicken, and top with a little cheese. This concept works in most casseroles and soups.
- Experiment with new brands to use. There are tons of pastas, breads, crackers, and cereals made with whole grains. The ones with the most nutrition have “whole” wheat or oats, etc as the first ingredient in the list. They all have a different taste and texture, so experiment until you find ones you like and then use whole grains.
If you have a favorite recipe that you would like to “healthify” but can’t figure it out, email it to me and I’ll be glad to tell you how I would do it.
August 30th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
I love the advice of inverting the healthier ingredients! Thanks Kathy I will try that with my casseroles….been overdoing it on the cheese lately, this will really help.
September 20th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Amber - Another trick with cheese is to use the 2% milk cheeses so there is less fat, but use a sharper tasting cheese and leave it on top where it hits your taste buds first. A sprinkle of 2% sharp cheddar on the top of each serving packs more taste than a larger amount of american, mild cheddar, etc. My other favorite sharper tasting cheeses are parmesan, pecorino romano, and feta.