Low-Calorie Recipes

Healthy cooking tips from Diabetes UK - A healthy balanced diet is key to managing diabetes. Diabetes UK share their top tips for adapting recipes, planning ahead and packing a healthy lunchbox. Small changes can make a big difference to the nutritional value of your meals. Diabetes UK share their top healthy cooking tips to help you to make healthier choices and reduce the fat in your favourite dishes. Healthy cooking tips from Diabetes UK [toc heading_levels="3,4,5"] 1. Adapt recipes to be healthier Use less salt in cooking – replace salt with spices, herbs and black pepper Trim any excess fat from meat. Use pulses to replace some red meat in dishes Use low-fat or tomato based sauces for curries and pasta dishes.  Or why not try reduced fat c rème fraîche or natural lower-fat yogurt? Choose lower-fat cheese, cream or milk in recipes Try using dried fruit, a fruit purée or sweet-tasting vegetables like carrots to sweeten cakes naturally or reduce sugar in b...

Top 10 tips for healthy Mexican cooking - Thomasina Miers, co-founder and executive chef of award-winning Mexican restaurant chain Wahaca, shares her top tips for keeping your Mexican dishes authentic and healthy... Top 10 tips for healthy Mexican cooking [toc heading_levels="3,4,5"] 1. Char your salsas The secret to a good salsa is to dry-roast the tomatoes, chillies and onion to get maximum flavour. Other than that no fat is needed in the salsa at all so you can ladle on heat, flavour and a touch of sparkle (and vitamins ) to simple, healthy food.   2. Slow-cook fattier, cheaper cuts When you slow-cook the cheap cuts, an amazing flavour comes from the marbled fat running through the joints. But by slow-cooking meat like this, the fat slowly dissolves in the sauce. If you slow-cook a cheap cut one day and allow to cool, you can spoon off excessive fat the next day, whilst also allowing all the flavours to improve overnight making healthier, better tasting food.   3. A litt...

Top 10 tips for healthy French cooking - Three-Michelin-starred chef Michel Guérard is the author of Cuisine Minceur, and a driving force in the nouvelle cuisine movement, which redefined French cooking in the 1970s. Here he shares his top tips for making your fancy French delights a little healthier... Top 10 tips for healthy French cooking [toc heading_levels="3,4,5"] 1. Cut the fat of rich sauces Instead of using a lot of oil in vinaigrette sauces, replace three quarters of what you would use with a broth that you thicken (with corn starch for example) in order to give it an oily consistency. If you have time, you can even infuse oil with fresh herbs (rosemary, verbena, thyme, etc). This will bring a very complex and aromatic flavour to your sauces without the superfluous calories. When you are making mayonnaise, replace half the oil with fat-free yogurt. Do the same for béarnaise sauce: instead of butter, use whisked concentrated milk.   2. Go crazy for vegetables You ...

Why isn't my low-fat diet working? Kerry Torrens explains why some low-fat diets are high in sugar, and how the white stuff may be scuppering your weight-loss goals... Although we think of sugar as the stuff in our sugar bowl, that's not the full picture. Many foods, such as white bread, pasta and rice, are made up of sugars, and that's what we break them down to when we digest them. These foods, like sugar, can cause blood sugar swings and cravings, and if you eat too many your body converts the excess into fat for storage. Some low-fat diets are high in these types of foods, so take another look at your diet and focus on making these simple changes:   Swap... ...white bread, rice and pasta with wholegrain versions, like oats, granary or wholemeal breads, brown rice and wholewheat pasta. Recipe suggestions: Chicken & vegetable stew with wholemeal couscous Miso prawn skewers with veggie rice salad Apple & sultana porridge Spaghetti with caramelised onion, kal...

What to eat to stay healthy and happy Nutritionist Kerry Torrens suggests foods to fend off the blues - packed with the nutrients your body needs to make serotonin, the happy hormone. Get your daily dose of vitamin D... Get a daily shot of sunshine with foods rich in vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin associated with better moods. It's found in eggs, oily fish, and fortified breakfast cereals and spreads. Recipe suggestions: Sardines with chickpeas, lemon & parsley Perfect scrambled eggs Spanish sardines on toast Salmon & spinach with tartare cream Baked eggs with spinach & tomato Lay the foundations... Pack main meals with foods rich in the amino acid tryptophan, a key building block for serotonin. Chicken, venison, oily fish like tuna or salmon, dairy foods, soya, nuts and seeds are good choices. Vitamin B6 - found in brown rice, wholemeal wheat, beans and pulses - will help your body to process it. Recipe suggestions: Miso brown rice & chicken salad Soy tuna with ...

Top 10 tips for healthy Chinese cooking - Celebrity chef, Ching-He Huang, was taught the basic philosophies of Chinese cuisine at a young age, and champions the importance of using fresh ingredients and healthy cooking techniques. Here, Ching-He shares her passion for nutritious Chinese cooking and passes on her tips for making your own healthy and authentic dishes at home... Top 10 tips for healthy Chinese cooking [toc heading_levels="3,4,5"] 1. Stir-fries This popular cooking technique retains the nutrients of the ingredients due to the quick cooking method. You only need a small amount of oil, lean meat or fish and lots of seasonal veggies for a delicious supper. By eating within the seasons we are eating what is optimally nutritious. Food that has travelled miles will not be as fresh and therefore, may have lost some of its nutrition. Like it hot? Throw in spices too. 2. Use plenty of garlic, ginger and chilli There are massive health benefits to using this tasty trio...