Modify Recipes with Healthy Ingredient Alternatives

By including more fiber, fruit and vegetables, and decreasing saturated fat, added sugars and added salt, you can modify traditional recipes to make them with fewer calories and more nutritional benefit.

Less sugar

Cutting back on a 1/3 of sugar in a recipe will not make a noticeable difference to the taste. When you do reduce the sugar in a recipe, it is recommended to increase liquid. You can also add mashed bananas, prunes, mashed dates, or applesauce as a natural way to sweeten desserts or toss in dried fruits that don’t contain added sugars; dates, apricots, and raisins are naturally sweet. Consuming foods with added sugars can lead to consuming more calories and cause weight gain. Sugar is inflammatory and is absorbed quickly, increasing your blood sugar and triglycerides. Dried fruits are concentrated, so moderation is recommended.

Increase fiber

You can add high fiber ingredients such as rolled oats, dried fruit, pureed beans, nuts and seeds, grated carrots, apples, zucchini, and wheat germ into your holiday recipes. Adding whole berries add flavor and fiber! Sneaking in fiber can help you reach the goal of getting at least 30g or more of fiber each day.

Spice things up

Warm, aromatic spices are always a hit for the holidays. Adding a few dashes of cinnamon, nutmeg, or clove to any holiday recipe is not only a great way to add holiday cheer, but spices also provide phytochemicals. These spices are another great way to add additional flavor to your foods to help you cut back on salt and sugar in your baking. Boost nutrients and flavor-make dessert recipes that feature fruit, whole grains, nuts, and seeds as main ingredients. You can add shredded or pureed apples, pears, carrots, mashed banana, pumpkin, or sweet potatoes to boost nutrients, flavor, and moisture. You can use these ingredients to add extra flavor and act as a replacement for some of the butter or oil in the recipe.

Use different flours

White flour or enriched flour is refined and is quickly digested. When you use a flour that is a whole grain, legume or nut it adds fiber, satiety, and phytonutrients.

• Replace refined grain flour like white flour with whole wheat flour.
• Begin by swapping whole wheat flour by 25%-30% and then adjust.
• If you are making yeast bread there will be a notable difference as the gluten content is different. The greater the percentage of whole wheat flour you substitute in your white flour recipe, the more pronounced its effect will be.
• Substitute just 25% whole wheat, you probably won’t notice any difference at all in flavor, color, or texture.
• Substitute 100%, and the difference can vary from none (in the case of most anything chocolate flavored) to pronounced (in yeast loaves). Whole-wheat flour is made from ground hard red wheat berries and uses every part; the wheat germ and bran give the flour a darker color and a higher nutritional worth. Additionally, red wheat berries have a nuttier flavor.

• White whole-wheat flour is prepared the same way as whole-wheat, but using hard white wheat berries, which have a sweeter flavor. Whole flour is made from white wheat.
• White whole wheat flour (1:1) can be directly substituted for white flour in a recipe.
• Almond, teff, buckwheat and chickpea flour can also be swapped.
• Add up to 1/3 cup almond flour per cup of wheat or gluten-free flour in yeast baking (think bread, rolls, and pizza).
• Use 1/4 (25 percent) less almond flour in non-yeast baking (think cookies, scones, cake, biscuits, and muffins).
• You may need to add an additional egg white or binder. If a recipe calls for 1 cup of flour, use 3/4 cup almond flour instead.

• Chickpea flour, oat flour, buckwheat and teff are great flours to experiment with too. 

Healthy substitutes