Low Fat Recipes

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Peaches in Fresh Berry Coulis

To choose a perfect peach, use your nose. It should exude an intense fragrance.

Ingredients

4 large ripe peaches, peeled, pitted, and sliced
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 cup fresh raspberries
1/2 cup whole blueberries or blackberries
1/3 cup honey
Crushed amaretto cookies (optional)

Directions

Place peach slices in a large bowl, add zest and juice, and toss well to combine. In a blender or food processor, puree berries and honey. Press puree through a fine mesh sieve to remove seeds. Pour berry puree over peaches and toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Stir gently before serving and garnish with amaretto cookie crumbs, if desired.

Makes 4 servings.
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Cherimoya Smoothie

For a thick smoothie, use frozen fruit and chill all ingredients as well as the serving container. Drink immediately.

Ingredients

2 cups frozen cherimoya pulp, seeds removed
2 cups frozen banana chunks
1 cup skim milk
1 (8-ounce) carton strawberry or plain non-fat yogurt
Optional: 1/2 teaspoon flavoring extract, i.e., coconut , almond, vanilla, or strawberry

Directions

Combine all ingredients using a knife blade in food processor or blender and mix to a slushy consistency. Serve immediately.

Servings: 2

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Krab Kakes

This recipe is a real treat for vegetarians who miss the seafood specialties of the U.S. East Coast. But would you look at this: there’s almost no fat, little salt, lots of protein, and a heck of a lot of flavor! Best served with salad, you can precede these little expressions of delight with a light tomato soup and serve with a seafood cocktail sauce (check the ingredients first!) or simply with slices of lemon.

Ingredients:

14 to 16 oz. prepared seitan (see below)
2 cups 1-cm-cube bread crumbs
2 tablespoons fresh, minced onion
1 ripe plantain
2 teaspoons lemon juice and pulp
5 dashes Tabasco sauce
4 tablespoons mayonnaise (see below)
8 teaspoons Old Bay (see below)
1/4 cup or less of chopped dried nori (seaweed)
1 teaspoon fresh parsley, chopped

Method:

Cut the seitan into pieces roughly 1cm by 1cm by 3cm — you know, the size of picked crab meat. Gently mix it in a large bowl with the bread crumbs. Add the onion and mix again.

Process the plantain with the lemon juice and Tabasco sauce in a food processor or with an electric blender until smooth. Add this blend to the seitan mixture and gently stir. Add the mayonnaise, Old Bay, nori, and parsley, and stir. Cover and chill at least one hour.

Dust hands with flour and shape the mixture into 12 or 15 patties or balls. Bake on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees F until brown and heated through (30 or 40 minutes). Serve hot, garnished with parsley and a slice of lemon. Squeeze a lemon over them and/or flavor with Tabasco sauce.

Notes:

Important notes about seitan: Seitan is available in natural food stores, prepared, flavored, and packaged in tubs. This seitan is not recommended, because it is seasoned for Asian dishes and has ginger in it. Ginger is not an appropriate flavoring for a crab cake, vegetarian or not! Your best bet is to obtain unflavored seitan or to make it yourself. Arrowhead Mills sells packages of “Seitan Quick Mix,” which is easy to prepare. (Seitan can also be made from scratch with normal bread flour, but this process is long and tricky.) Finally, to get a nice seafood flavor in the seitan, toss a handful or two of dried nori (seaweed) and a teaspoon of Old Bay into the water as the seitan dough boils.

Note about mayonnaise: You can purchase prepared vegan mayonnaise from many natural-food stores, and it can also be made from tofu. I don’t have a tofu-mayo recipe; Nasoya’s “Nayonaise” works well.

Note about Old Bay: This is a blend of spices easily found on the U.S. East Coast. Now that McCormick has bought the original company, it’s distributed nationwide and can be found in the fresh fish area or spice aisle of any large supermarket. If you can’t find it, any other blend of crab boil should do.

Preparation time is about an hour, plus preparation time for the seitan.

Yields 12 to 15 krab kakes.

When preparing this recipe and any other food you enjoy, please use organically-grown vegetables, fruits, grains, and flavorings. The Earth you save may be your own.
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Basic Beef Rub

Ingredients

1/2 Cup Pickling Salt
1/4 Cup Garlic Powder
1/4 Cup Onion Powder
2 Tbs. ground Thyme
2 Tbs. ground Bay Leaf
2 Tbs. ground Mustard
2 Tbs. Paprika
2 Tbs. Black Pepper

Directions

Mix thoroughly and put into a shaker-type dispenser. Place the meat on a rack over a pan large enough to contain it, and rub the mix well into the meat. Load it with all that will adhere. If you don’t have enough, mix another batch because, you will use any leftover soon. Or you may put it into shakers and provide at the dinner table.

Italian Recipes

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Southwestern Apricot Salsa

Ingredients

Fresh Apricots
4 oz. red onion
1 oz. olive oil
1 oz. cilantro, chopped
1 oz. lime juice
1 oz. lemon juice
2 tsp.white wine vinegar
chopped Jalapeno pepper, minced
1/2 tsp.lime peel, grated
1/2 tsp. ground cumin
White pepper, to taste
salt, to taste

Directions

Combine apricots and remaining ingredients in bowl, stirring gently. Cover and refrigerate until served.

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Strawberry Chicken Salad

Ingredients

1 c. grilled, chilled, cubed chicken breast
2 Tbs. no fat, Strawberry yogurt (not fruit on the bottom)
2tsp. skim milk
2 c. Lettuce
3 sliced strawberries
2 Tbs. dried cherries
1 cup. Cubed melon

Directions

Toss chicken in yogurt and milk, set on bed of lettuce and surround with fruit.

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GORGONZOLA AND RED PEAR RISOTTO

Toss Italian greens like arugula and radicchio with a vinaigrette dressing and toasted walnuts for a fresh starter, and offer crunchy seeded breadsticks alongside this unusual risotto. Finish up with chocolate biscotti and espresso.

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups (about) canned vegetable broth
1 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil (preferably extra-virgin)
1 cup arborio rice or medium-grain white rice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage or 2 teaspoons dried rubbed sage
1/3 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese (about 2 ounces)
1 ripe unpeeled red-skinned pear, halved, cored, diced

Directions

Bring vegetable broth and white wine to simmer in heavy small saucepan over medium heat. Reduce heat to low; keep mixture warm.

Heat oil in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat. Add rice and sauté until translucent,about 2 minutes. Add all but 1/2 cup broth mixture to rice. Simmer uncovered 15 minutes, stirring often. Mix in sage. Cook until rice is tender but still firm to bite and risotto is creamy, adding remaining broth mixture 1/4 cupful at a time if risotto is dry, about 5 minutes longer. Mix in Gorgonzola and pear. Cook until cheese melts and pear is heated through,about 1 minute. Season with salt and generous amount of pepper.

Serves 2, can be doubled.
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