Here are five ways I cook lighter everyday without a second thought—that is to say, I don’t even worry about using these things in my cooking when I know I want to eat lean.
1. Always use skim milk. Whatever I do, I reach for skim milk, mostly because it is all I ever have in the house. Be warned, skim milk does NOT take the place of cream in cream sauces—but I think if you are eating lean, you are probably not making many cream sauces.
2. Cook rice and potatoes in stock. Beef stock, vegetable stock, chicken stock, no matter what you use, you will notice a difference in flavor.
3. Learn to “steam sauté.” I often start something in a tiny bit of oil, then add water to help it cook. You won’t get the best crust from this method, but the little bit of oil does go a long way in adding flavor.
4. Add more vegetables. To everything. I add extra vegetables to sauces, stews, even rice. Chop the vegetables fine and add them with enough time to let them cook through (if I add them to rice, for example, I stir them in five minutes before the rice is done. I don’t worry about quantity—it’s all good (please note, I am NOT talking about starchy vegetables.)
5. Roast it. I love what roasting does to any vegetable—I toss vegetables with the smallest amount of oil I can get away with, salt them generously (this seems to help draw the water out of the vegetables), spread the vegetables out in a single layer on a baking pan and then let them bake away until they are golden brown and the natural sugars have come out. Onions, carrots (try whole carrots for a real treat), cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, green beans, summer squash. I don’t think I’ve found a single thing I haven’t LOVED when I’ve oven roasted it.
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