Recipe Makeover

Giving your favourite family recipes a nutritional makeover can help you cut down on fat (especially the undesireable saturated type) and include more of the right carbohydrate and incorporate foods known to fight chronic diseases.

The tips following are particularly useful if you are watching your waistline, have insulin resistance, diabetes or a high cholesterol level.

1. Use calcium-fortified soy milk when mashing vegetables instead of butter/ margarine and full-cream dairy milk.

Go for low-fat if you are watching your weight. Note, steamed “new” potatoes eaten with their skin are much better for your blood sugar than mashed ordinary white potato.

2. Use low-fat evaporated milk whenever you need to make creamy sauces, eg mushroom stroganoff.

3. Use low-fat smooth (not set) yoghurt instead of sour cream as a topping or in salad dressings.

4. Make a delicious cashew-nut cream to replace the dollop of dairy cream frequently served with desserts. Puree cashews in a blender with some canned pears (no juice) and a drop of pure vanilla essence.

5. Swap grated cheese with a topping of smooth ricotta or creamed cottage cheese when making lasagna or baked casserole.

6. Use extra virgin olive oil, peanut oil, avocado oil or nut-based oils in cooking, but avoid deep frying as much as possible.

7. Make your own sweet-potato wedges (oven baked) to replace hot chips.

8. Substitute TVP (textured vegetable protein) for some or all the minced meat when making spaghetti bolognaise or burgers. TVP comes from soya beans.

9. Add red lentils when cooking soups to thicken them.

10. Try soy sausages for BBQs in preference even to using lean meat or chicken sausages.