Top 10 ways to make your dishes healthier
Do you want to cook healthier versions of your favourite recipes without losing the taste? Never fear, here are a few tips that will help you adapt your favourite recipes to reduce fat, sugar, salt, calories and increase fibre without changing your normal diet radically.
1. Cut down on fats
If frying, use a good non-stick pan and dry fry (e.g. in the case of mince). Leaving out the oil could cut 45 calories per teaspoon in your meal. If your food is drying out, don’t add more oil, add a little water. Use fats and oils that are high in good fats (poly- and mono-unsaturated fats), e.g. olive oil and try using less than the recipe suggests. Why not try grilling, baking, poaching, steaming or boiling foods instead of frying where possible?
2. Cut down on salt
Most recipes indicate that you need to add salt. Replace salt with alternative seasonings such as pepper, herbs, spices, lemon juice, vinegar or mustard. Allow people to season their own food after tasting it – they are likely to add less. You could be eating more salt then you think, so please read this below:
How much salt are you eating?
Most of the salt we eat comes from processed foods, fast food, canteen and restaurant food.
In most people’s diet:
70%-80% of the salt we eat is from processed foods added during processing
20% is added to food during cooking or at the table
10%-15% of the salt we eat is found naturally in food
Even if you stopped adding salt to your food at the table, you could still be eating far too much of it each day. The best way to cut down on salt is to eat more fresh foods and fewer processed foods.
Check out how much salt there is in some of the foods we eat every day.
High in salt
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Lower in salt
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Check the labels
Have a look at the nutrition labels to see how much salt is in that food. The proper name for salt is sodium chloride, and sometimes it is the amount of sodium, rather than salt, that is listed on food labels. 1g of sodium = 2.4g salt
As a general rule:
Foods are low in salt if the label says:
Foods are high in salt if the label says:
Less than or equal to 0.1g sodium/ 100gor0.3g salt/100g
Greater than or equal to 0.5g sodium/100gor1.5g salt/100g
3. Cut down on sugar
Experiment by using less sugar when you bake – most cakes will work even if the quantity of sugar in the recipe is halved. Items such as fruit cakes, fruit scones and tea breads can be made without adding sugar as the dried fruit will provide sweetness.
A good alternative as well when you are having a tea, eating your porridge, etc.
It’s to use artificial sweeteners.
4. Increase fibre
Use brown alternatives of rice, pasta and bread to increase the fibre content of recipes which will help you feel fuller for longer. Instead of using all plain white flour in recipes, use a mix of wholemeal and plain flour when baking, e.g. when making apple crumble – you can also add porridge oats to make the top crunchy and add more fibre! Top dishes usually requiring pastry, such as chicken pie, with mashed potato instead.
5. Soups and stews
Allow your broth, stew or soup to cool and skim off the fat that gathers on top of the liquid. Replacing some of the traditional fatty meats in stews with pulses like peas, beans and lentils can save calories and fat as well as adding fibre.
6. Sauces and dips
Skip the fatty sour cream, choose fat-free Greek yogurt. Whether it’s used as a garnish or in a sauce, sour cream adds a shot of saturated fat to otherwise heart-healthy meals. To cut out that excess fat without sacrificing taste or texture, swap the sour cream with no-fat Greek yogurt—one of the world’s healthiest foods. Just about any recipe that calls for sour cream can be made with Greek yogurt instead.
7. Cheese
AVOID IT IT WILL BE MY 1ST ADVICE… but if you still want it so badly… use strongly flavoured cheeses like mature cheddar or blue cheese in savoury dishes – you can use less and still get all the flavour. If you don’t like the strong taste of such cheeses simply use low fat alternatives of your favourites. Grate cheese instead of slicing as it will spread across a dish more easily and you can use less. Replace cream cheese with low fat cream cheese.
8. Mayonnaise
Replace mayonnaise in salads with natural yoghurt or fat free yogurt. Better still, try using vinaigrette dressings and serving them on the side. When making sandwiches, choose mayonnaise or butter, not both.
9. Vegetables
Flavor cooked vegetables with herbs instead of butter or oil. Replace some meat in dishes such as shepherd’s pie, casseroles and lasagne, with vegetables and pulses (peas, beans and lentils). It is a great way to disguise vegetables for those fussy eaters. More tips on preparing and storing your vegetables!
10. Meat
Trim the fat from meat and remove the skin from poultry before cooking. Then bake, grill, microwave, roast or poach instead of frying it. When roasting, place the meat on a grill rack – this allows the fat to drip away. If you are cooking minced meat, brown it and drain away the fat before adding other ingredients.
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