by As a dietitian, I’m obviously interested in food that nourishes the body, but to me, it also tastes great! As luck would have it, a large part of what I do for a living is developing and testing recipes. In fact, I tested 185 recipes in 2023 alone! This means I spend a lot of my time in the kitchen, testing the recipes I come up with to make sure they taste as good as they do for you. When I started my career 14 years ago, recipe development was not in my repertoire. It’s a skill I’ve developed and mastered over the past few years and, as a result, I’ve learned a lot along the way. Here are some of the valuable tips and tricks I’ve picked up:
By using herbs and citrus for flavor, you can cut back on sodium. One of the first things I realized when I was doing a nutritional analysis (determining how many grams of fat, carbohydrates, protein and calories are in a recipe) was how easy it is to go over the recommended daily limit for sodium. By adding herbs and often citrus juice and zest for flavor, I barely even noticed the lack of salt, even though I was cutting back significantly many times.
Not all salt is created equal. Another thing I discovered is that the type of salt you choose is important. Although I’m not a big fan of pressed brands, I use diamond crystal kosher salt exclusively in my kitchen for one simple reason: Because of the way the salt crystals are formed, this type of salt contains half the amount of sodium. mostly another teaspoon of salt for a teaspoon.
Cooking with plant-based proteins is easier and tastier than I expected. I’m a born and raised omnivore, but since I started developing recipes, I’m more and more vegan curious. There are actually two main reasons for this: Firstly, the evidence pointing to the health benefits of following a plant-based diet cannot be denied. Second, using plant-based protein is a healthy recipe developer’s dream when trying to keep saturated fat to a minimum. That’s because almost all sources of saturated fat come from animals, notes the American Heart Association. Although I haven’t cooked regularly with foods like tofu or tempeh in the past, I was surprised to learn how easily they can be incorporated into healthy recipes.
Swapping fats is an easy way to reduce saturated fats. I grew up eating butter, and let’s be honest, it’s delicious. Although I use butter sparingly in my personal kitchen, I would never use it in one of the healthy recipes I develop because it is not going to help me meet the nutritional goals I have set for these recipes (especially when it comes to). unhealthy saturated fat). As a result, I only use healthy fats like extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, and nut and seed oils. The recipes are still very tasty and I miss the butter just a little.
There are plenty of natural sugars to go around. Keeping added sugars to a minimum in foods that are expected to taste sweet is no easy task, but after a bit of experimentation, I found that natural sugars from unsweetened apples, bananas and dates were quite good for refined sugar while adding fiber, vitamins, and minerals to the finished product. When needed, a tablespoon or two of honey or maple syrup add sweetness and trace minerals (although they still count as added sugars).
Whole grains are extremely versatile. As a registered dietitian, whole grains have influenced me for many years. Brown rice, quinoa, farro, oats, and wheat flour have all been staples in my diet and my pantry. It wasn’t until I started experimenting in the kitchen, though, that I really discovered how versatile these grains can be. For example, while most of us think of oats as a breakfast food that could only be served with sweet ingredients, I tried it in a Tasty Oatmeal Buddha Bowl and was amazed at how amazing it was!
Fruits and vegetables can be entrees. When it comes to healthy recipes, fruit and vegetables have to take center stage. These low-calorie foods are also a rich source of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and have been linked to lower blood pressure, reduced risk of heart disease, stroke, and certain types of cancer, notes Harvard School of Public Health TH Chan. . Additionally, plant-based meals have always helped me keep calories and saturated fat low and more than meet my guideline for fiber.
Keep trying the foods you “don’t like.” Although it may come as a surprise, there are some healthy foods that I really don’t care for. However, as a recipe developer, sometimes I have to step out of my comfort zone. The results were sometimes shocking. Take, for example, the time I was supposed to develop a recipe with grapefruit (a fruit I haven’t tried since childhood, when I hated it!). When I added it to the recipe I was testing and gave it another go, I really liked it! I guess taste preferences change over time!
After testing hundreds of recipes, I’m not only proud of the healthy meals, snacks and desserts I’ve created, but also what I’ve learned along the way. I hope these tips inspire you to cook more healthily. I know I’m looking forward to another year of delicious, healthy adventures.
