Low-Fat
394 recipes found

Spring Rolls With Thai Basil

Frittata Template
There is a technique to making a frittata that is always the same, no matter what the filling. The eggs are beaten with salt, pepper, and sometimes a little bit of milk, the filling stirred in, and the omelet cooked in a wide skillet. You can use cooked vegetables, chopped herbs, leftover vegetable stews like ratatouille, fresh tomato sauce, even leftover risotto to fill a frittata. Frittatas and omelets are a great way to stretch a small amount of leftovers into a meal. Templates will be useful to you, because you may have a different vegetable or filling on hand from the one called for in a given frittata recipe. Using the template, you’ll be able to make the frittate, substituting what you have.

Morels With Ruffled Pasta

Lentil and Tomato Stew
Even people who swear they don’t abide beans find pleasure in the distinctive, profound flavor of lentils. They cook quickly, so for stews and soups, 40 to 45 minutes will suffice. Lentils never need to be soaked and for those of you who are sensitive to beans, you will be happy to hear that they don’t contain sulfur, the gas-creating compound present in most beans.

One-Ingredient Banana Ice Cream
This outrageously easy "ice cream" is just the sort of dessert to please everyone at the table – the vegans, the lactose-intolerant, the paleo enthusiasts, the picky children. Just toss four frozen bananas into a blender and give it a good whirl. If you like soft-serve consistency, eat it right away (and adding a few tablespoons of milk to the blender wouldn't hurt, but it's not necessary). For more traditional scoops, freeze it in an airtight container, and dole out as you would the Ben & Jerry's. Consider adding a spoonful of peanut butter, Nutella or honey; a handful of chocolate chips or almonds; or a 1/2 teaspoon of powdered ginger, cardamom or cinnamon.

Chicken Thighs With Cumin, Cayenne and Citrus
Chicken thighs have a huge advantage over lean breasts. The skin browns nicely and the meat stays juicy even when thoroughly cooked, which makes them ideal for grilling or broiling. The dark, rich meat also responds brilliantly to the strong equatorial flavors often associated with grilling. The Mexican-inspired treatment here, a quick liquid rub for the thighs, packs plenty of punch, even if you use just a little cayenne. What makes it evoke Mexico is the combination of two characteristic spices, cumin and oregano, with a mixture of orange and lime juices to simulate the sour orange that is used in the Yucatán but is rarely seen in this country.

Turkey (or Chicken) Soup With Lemon and Rice
This comforting soup is inspired by a Middle Eastern chicken soup. It’s great with or without leftover turkey — don’t hesitate to pull turkey stock from the freezer and make it with just vegetables and rice.

Basil Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Grilled Tuna Rice Salad Provencal

Gorgonzola Cream Sauce With Angel-Hair Pasta

Roasted Tomato Soup
Roasting intensifies the flavor of tomatoes, especially when your summer harvest is sweet and delicious to begin with. This rich-tasting bread-thickened soup will please vegetarians and vegans, and meat eaters too!

Israeli Couscous, Bean and Tomato Salad
Finely chopped tomatoes seasoned with garlic, balsamic vinegar and basil serve as both dressing and vegetable in this main dish salad. I’ve been making tomato concassée all summer and using it as a sauce for pasta and fish. I decided to use it as a stand-in for salad dressing in this hearty salad, a simple combination of cooked Israeli couscous and beans. I used canned pinto beans, and they were just fine. Chickpeas would also work. Use lots of basil in the mix. The red onion contributes some crunch. You can add a little celery if you want more texture. Make sure to use sweet, ripe, juicy tomatoes. I love the finishing touch of the feta, but it is optional.

Soda Bread With Walnuts and Raisins
This Irish soda bread is inspired by a classic, made with white flour and currants, called “spotty dog.” My whole wheat version proved to be the perfect home for some particularly luscious golden raisins and walnuts that I get from a vendor at my farmers’ market.

Brown Soda Bread With Oats
For years I’ve been trying to make a moist soda bread loaf like the kind I love to eat when I’m in Ireland. Finally I’ve achieved it with this recipe, which is adapted from Bon Appétit’s recipe for Fallon & Byrne Soda Bread (Fallon & Byrne is a restaurant in Dublin). The bread is a whole-wheat loaf with both rolled and steel-cut (pinhead) oats, and does not have the hard crust that round soda breads can have. One reason is that the moist dough is baked at a lower temperature than free-form soda bread.

Brown Soda Bread Loaf With Caraway Seeds and Rye
Some regional variations on Irish soda bread, from Donegal and Leitrim, call for caraway seeds. I love caraway seeds in bread, but in my personal food memory bank they will always be paired with rye. So I decided to add a little rye flour to this already dark brown, grainy and moist bread.

Whole Wheat Soda Bread With Raisins (Spotted Dog)
Traditional spotted dog is made with white flour and does not always include an egg. I’ve always preferred brown soda bread made with a mix of whole-wheat and white flour, with more whole wheat than white. For this version, rather than traditional currants or sultanas I used a delicious mix of large golden, flame and jumbo raisins. As always with soda bread, the trick to success is to handle it as little as possible.

Whole Wheat Irish Soda Bread With Bulgur
If you have ever been to Ireland you have tasted soda bread, a moist, easy to make bread that is rich and nutty tasting when made with whole wheat flour. It is a very quick and easy bread to make as long as you are willing to get your hands sticky. When you pull the bread from the oven wrap it loosely in a kitchen towel and allow to cool. This softens the crust and makes it easier to cut.

Mediterranean Cucumber and Yogurt Salad With Red or Black Quinoa
The idea of embellishing a yogurt soup or salad with quinoa comes from Deborah Madison, who uses black quinoa in a brilliant recipe for a soup in her book “Vegetable Literacy.” I used red quinoa to add texture, color and substance to this typical Mediterranean combination – finely diced cucumber, garlic, and thick plain yogurt. Use mint or dill, or a combination, and make sure to dice the cucumber very small.

Cod Fillets With Cilantro Yogurt Sauce
This cooling herbed yogurt sauce is adapted from the chef Yotam Ottolenghi in London, who serves it with leek fritters. But it’s wonderful with mild fish like cod. The fish, while delicious, is utterly simple: fillets baked in a 300-degree oven until opaque, 10 to 20 minutes depending on the thickness of the pieces. It is the sauce that is the star, and that comes together quickly in a food processor. Combine roughly chopped cilantro and parsley, garlic that has been mashed to a paste, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and yogurt. (Whole-milk yogurt would be best for body and flavor, while low-fat is O.K., and nonfat untenable.) Process until the mixture is smooth and green. There will be sauce left over, which you can use on yet more fish, or as a dip for vegetables or fritters, anything that would thrive when dunked in the refreshing, herb-graced sauce.

Roasted Mushroom Base
At this year’s Worlds of Health Flavors conference in Napa, Calif., Pam Smith, a culinary nutritionist, presented delicious recipes by the chef Clifford Pleau featuring a finely chopped roasted mushroom mix (chefs refer to it as simply “The Mix”), that she combined with beef for a delicious burger with half the meat, and with tuna for a wonderful tuna burger. Inspired, I made up a big batch of my own version of the mushroom base when I got home and had a lot of fun using it all week in adaptations of classic meat or fish dishes with the animal protein cut by half or more and replaced with the mushroom base. I recommend using pre-sliced mushrooms for this – then the mix goes very quickly. It is very easy to make and keeps well for several days in the refrigerator.

Leek, Kale and Potato Latkes
These delicious cumin-scented potato pancakes are laced with leeks and crispy kale, adding a putatively healthy touch to the standard fried latke. You can serve them with Greek yogurt, sour cream or crème fraîche. But a chutney or yogurt blended with cilantro, mint and garlic would make for excellent eating as well. You might even try a salsa.

Avocado and Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
I have been making tomatillo and avocado salsa for years, but I usually simmer the tomatillos rather than roasting them. Roasting the tomatillos, chiles and garlic – toasting really, as I use a skillet for this, on top of the flame – produces a salsa with a delicious charred flavor. I learned something recently from the chef Iliana de la Vega, who demonstrated the recipe at the “Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives” conference in Napa Valley in March: she says, in no uncertain terms, that you should not add water to tomatillo salsas. Without the water, this is a more intense salsa with pleasing density.You can use it as a sauce to serve with chicken or fish, or as a dip with chips or other vegetables.

Spiced Tomato Ketchup
This sauce is a tomato jam that tastes more like a richly spiced ketchup. A long simmer is important. This is inspired by a recipe for a delicious tomato jam in the chef Matthew Kenney’s cookbook, “Matthew Kenney’s Mediterranean Cooking.” My version is not as sweet as his; I decided to call it ketchup rather than jam because to me, it tastes like a richly spiced ketchup, with sweet and sour flavors and a little kick from the cayenne. A long simmer is important for cooking the sauce to the right consistency and for concentrating the flavors. After that, I put the ketchup through a food mill to achieve smoother texture, but that step is optional. I salt toward the end of cooking because the mix will reduce quite a lot and it’s too easy to oversalt if you salt before that happens. However, be sure to use enough salt to balance out the sweetness and bring out the spice.

Dried Porcini Consommé
A refreshing and light soup that can be an appetizer or full first course. I could drink this refreshing consommé for lunch every day. It makes a very light and satisfying appetizer soup or first course.