A Dietitian’s Survival Guide – Recipe Substitutions

There’s absolutely no reason to worry about what to eat during the Christmas period, and with a little planning ahead of time, you can avoid the pitfalls of seasonal overeating.

One way of cutting calorie intake is to modify your recipes. Simply by reducing the amount of fat, salt and sugar they contain, and increasing their fibre content, your meals will be much healthier.

The main thing to consider is the overall balance of your meals, even at Christmas time. This way you’ll be able to enjoy a variety of foods, including those that are higher in fat and sugar, but still achieve a healthy diet, as long as the balance is correct!

Healthier alternatives for the Christmas period

Appetizers:

• Choose a fruit based starter, such as melon, or fruit salad.
• Opt for lower fat versions of mayonnaise, yoghurt or sour cream to make dips, and serve with a selection of colourful raw veg.
• Make your own salsa and serve with fingers of toasted wholemeal pita pockets.
• Use strong-flavoured cheeses, such as Parmesan, this way you won’t need so much.
• Make home made soups, thickened with pureed root vegetables, or mashed beans, rather than using full fat cream.

Dinner:

• Use oil and butter in smaller quantities, with no more than a teaspoon per person.
• Grill, bake, poach, steam, microwave or boil foods, rather than frying them, or cooking with added fat.
• Use fats and oils which are high in monounsaturates.
• Light creme fraiche is very similar to traditional soured cream, and is ideal for use in savoury sauces.
• Try to reduce the amount of salt used in cooking, and at the table, by adding extra flavour with lemon juice, herbs, spices or mustard.
• Serve lean cuts of meat, such as pork, turkey or beef tenderloin, and remove any extra fat, or skin.
• Steam, microwave, or roast a selection of seasonal vegetables, and flavour with a sprinkling of herbs and pepper, rather than butter.
• Serve mashed potatoes with reduced fat sour cream, or low fat cream cheese, instead of butter.
• For roast potatoes slice into larger chunks, and coat with a little olive oil before baking.

Desserts:

• If you’re making a fruit crumble, substitute some of the flour for oats, this will add extra fibre.
• Make fruit coulis as an accompaniment to puddings instead of cream or brandy butter. Simmer a selection of berries, blend in a processor, and strain through a sieve.
• For cheesecakes use reduced fat and fat free cream cheese.
• Some fruit based puddings, or those with added dried fruit, will not require any additional sugar, so reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe by half, or leave out altogether.
• Poach or bake seasonal fruits, and top with low fat frozen yogurt or fat free whip.
• Light creme fraiche can be served hot or cold puddings instead of double cream.
• Fromage frais can be used in desserts in place of cream or Greek yogurt.
• Top desserts with fat free whip, or low fat frozen yoghurt instead of cream or ice cream.
• If you do feel like cream, spoon extra thick single cream onto fruit or puddings instead of double cream.

Cakes, cookies, and snacks:

• Experiment by reducing the sugar content of your baked goods. Most cakes, for example sponge cake, will work even if the sugar in the recipe is cut by a half.
• Use canola oil/rice bran instead of butter.
• To cut the fat completely from your recipe, use applesauce, mashed bananas, or other suitable fruit purees.
• Use cocoa powder instead of chocolate in baked goods to add a rich chocolaty flavour without the fat, or use smaller quantities of miniature chocolate chips instead.
• Instead of the usual crisps, nuts and chocolates, fill a bowl with exotic dried fruits, such as pineapple, peaches, apricots, and mango.

This is part 2 of your Christmas Survival Guide, please let me know if there are any topics you would be interested in reading about over the Christmas period. Check out Part 1.

Check out this post on healthy recipe substitutions.

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