Low-Fat Tips to Rescue High-Fat Favorites

Over the years, we have given our readers a number of excellent recipes from the two low-fat cookbooks produced by the writers of the Berkeley Wellness Letter. While we got into the game early, there are now hundreds of good low-fat cookbooks available, so nobody should have a hard time finding easy ways to prepare delicious, healthy meals.

But if you’re old enough to remember the 1950s (and even before that), you know that high-fat, high-cholesterol foods were once the bedrock of American cooking. A number of our readers have asked us for guidance in reworking some of their favorite recipes, so if you have a collection of cookbooks containing recipes that really do not support your new healthier lifestyle, the hints below should help.

In order to see what works and what doesn’t, start gradually and change one thing at a time.

And for some things, there are simply no low-fat alternatives. Peanut butter cookies are an example. There is no way to make peanut butter cookies without peanut butter. Another is cheesecake. Lots of people have played around with low-fat cheesecake, and they have come up with some interesting substitutes. But if you expect them to taste like real cheesecake, you’ll be disappointed.

It may be that you simply need to adjust your expectations a little when adjusting your recipes.

The following suggestions may help you get started, but as usual, the possibilities for innovation are bounded only by your imagination.

* Ground meats are easy to replace. Try substituting an equivalent amount of cooked grains (like rice, bulgur, couscous, or wheat berries), legumes (like beans or soy grits) or steamed vegetables that have been chopped up very fine (like squash, broccoli, carrots or mushrooms), or use tofu in any of its many forms.

If you want to keep some of the meat for the flavor, replace only a part of it and use the leanest cuts possible.

* If a recipe calls for dairy products and you want to replace them altogether, try using an equivalent amount of tofu. If you simply want to reduce the fat content, use low-fat or skim varieties of milk, cheese and yogurt.

Cheese, for example, varies widely in fat content. Whereas 1 1/4 ounces of cream cheese has almost 12.5 grams of fat, the same-sized portion of part-skim mozzarella has 5.6 grams. A number of reduced-fat cheeses are now on the market, and while some of them are not very good for eating plain, they can be incorporated easily into a favorite recipe.

If you’re trying to maximize your calcium intake, don’t worry--lowering the fat may actually increase the calcium content of the cheese.

* A cup of regular sour cream has almost 500 calories, but a cup of low-fat sour cream has less than 300 and low-fat yogurt has less than 150. You can also try a combination of low-fat yogurt and low-fat mayonnaise to substitute for sour cream.

Or you can make your own faux sour cream by combining a cup of low-fat cottage cheese, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 2 tablespoons low-fat mayonnaise, a fourth of a cup of buttermilk and the zest of a half lemon. Blend the ingredients until creamy smooth. This makes 1 1/2 cups and is much lower in fat and cholesterol than the real thing. The best part is that you’ll hardly notice the difference in taste or texture. This recipe came from our old friend Laurel Robertson, who published “Laurel’s Kitchen,” one of the first vegetarian cookbooks, way back in the 1980s.

* If you would normally saute in butter or margarine, try substituting a highly unsaturated vegetable oil like safflower or canola. You probably won’t need more than a tablespoon and maybe even less if you use a nonstick pan. To make sure, don’t pour it out of the bottle without measuring a teaspoonful at a time. If the pan gets too dry, add a little water or wine instead of more oil.

* There are really no good substitutes for sodium that will produce the same “salty” flavor. However, if you cut down on the amount of sodium in your diet, in a week or two you will realize that everything tastes a little fresher without it. If you experiment with different combinations of herbs and spices, you can probably eliminate added salt almost entirely.

Remember that canned and other processed foods are usually very high in sodium.

* Use white grape, apple, orange or pineapple juice as a nonfat dressing or marinade. To cut the fruit flavor, combine the juice with a defatted chicken broth. Or just use flavored vinegars and forget the oil.

* If a fancy dessert calls for ice cream or custard, try substituting low-fat or nonfat frozen yogurt, ice milk or sorbet. If a recipe calls for whipped cream, you can’t really switch to nonfat milk, but try half-and-half or whole milk.

* Use marshmallow creme instead of margarine or butter in recipes for fluffy frosting. It adds creaminess and no fat (but of course is still high in calories).