Most holiday foods are high in fat and calories. However, there
are ingredient substitutions that will make your favorite goodies a
little healthier
If there’s one thing almost all holiday food favorites have in common, it’s plenty of calories, high fat and lots of taste. South Valley chefs and food experts say it doesn’t always have to be that way – there are several ingredient substitutes that will lower calorie counts – but warn that by changing recipes, the taste will change, too.
“You can make a lot of holiday recipes low-fat,” said Wilson Miller, head chef at West Side Grill in Gilroy. “You can add just a little non-fat milk to your mashed potatoes and no butter. You can use Splenda in your homemade cranberry sauce or in your pumpkin pie. It’ll still taste OK, but not as good as they would taste if you made them the old-fashioned way.”
Both Miller and South Valley Newspapers food columnist Elizabeth Gage said their favorite way to make holiday meals healthier is to pay attention to portion control rather than compromising recipes. Gage said she doesn’t even bother to eat holiday foods she doesn’t enjoy.
For those that do want to try substituting regular ingredients with lower-fat, lower-calorie ingredients, Debbie Hernandez, owner of Morgan Hill Bakery, said to be sure and try a test run making the dish.
“Before I make something with substituted ingredients and serve it to guests, I want to try it ahead of time to see how it will come out,” she said. “And I certainly will try something new for myself before I’d ever put the Morgan Hill Bakery label on it. Sometimes you have to fiddle with ingredients to get things right when you change a recipe. You don’t want your holiday guests to be your guinea pigs.”
Hernandez said she’s used fruit juices as a substitute for sugar in baked goods such as muffins and pies, but never in cakes. She’s also used ripe bananas to sweeten recipes instead of sugar, and apple sauce instead of vegetable oil.
“Cooking is a science, so when you change what you put into a recipe, it changes the characteristics of the food,” she explained. “It can be tricky. Some things just don’t come out right when you change the recipe. For example, we’ve tried to do our zucchini bread using substitutes for the sugar. But, it didn’t come out right at all. It wouldn’t rise and the crust didn’t come out right.”
Joe Saindon, owner of Paine’s Restaurant in Hollister, also said fresh juices can stand in for less healthy ingredients.
“Instead of some broths, you can use juices – just make sure they’re fresh squeezed,” he said. “You won’t get the same flavor – it’ll definitely taste different – but you will cut out a lot of the fat. You can also use the citrus juices as a meat marinade or add them to sauces, which is a good way to flavor things without adding fat.”
People with high blood pressure should also consider low-sodium broths and products, Saindon added, which won’t change the flavor, just the sodium content.
Another way to make recipes healthier, though not necessarily lower in calories, is switching butter for olive oil, said Mike Barone, head chef of Ragoot’s restaurant in Morgan Hill.
“For me, I’d much rather use olive oil than butter, even though it’s still high in calories,” he said. “It’s a good fat instead of a bad one, so it’s healthier than using butter.”
Barone said he made an oatmeal cookie recipe healthier by using apple sauce instead of butter and by using some organic peanut butter in the dough. He also said health-conscious cooks can use egg substitute instead of eggs, but cautioned that the taste and texture of the dish will likely change.
“Eating healthy is great, but you just can’t expect things to taste the same when you change a recipe,” he said. “Maybe people can change their recipes during the rest of the year and splurge with the less healthy recipes for the holidays at least.”
