This year you are the one who will receive! It takes work and organization, but if you pay attention to your figure it will be much easier to choose light recipes to please your guests, without seeing all your diet efforts disappear from the first fork. . To help you out, here are some ideas for making traditional Christmas dishes lighter.
Choose your dishes well
It’s hard to lose weight when the temptation is so great. The first step is to choose which dishes will be served during the meal. land side, lean meats like turkey, chicken or rabbit are best. That’s great, it’s our favorite during the holidays! At the seaside, salmon is always preferable to a piece of red meat, but white fish will be even better for holding the line! It is much less caloric. Bass, monkfish, sole… these are spices to include in your recipes. Seafood can also be a good choice, as a starter or as a main course. Think oysters, shrimp, lobster and scallops (no coral!). Avoid starchy side dishes, especially for dinner. Seasonal vegetables such as squash (squash, butternut, etc.), Jerusalem artichokes, cauliflower, endives, parsnips or even leeks fit perfectly into many recipes for light dishes. Think they won’t be festive enough? think again A fennel cappuccino will enhance the fish, individual butternut gratins with walnuts will be delicious with poultry and a lobster navarin will be perfect with seasonal vegetables. You can even incorporate them as an appetizer by making taramasalata toast over slices of black radish. Light food does not rhyme with being bored! For lunch, you can serve your vegetables with some potatoes, fresh wholemeal pasta or quinoa in a tasty risotto. The cooking method is also important. Cook without question roasts that do not require the addition of fat. We also validate aluminum wraps and steaming. On the other hand, be careful with fried foods and with added fat in the pan.
Is foie gras a must for you? Serve it as a starter and prefer a light dish to compensate. Guinea fowl and turkey are low-fat poultry. Fish will also be a good choice. Saffron sea bass fillet, roast duckling, roast monkfish… invite yourself to your festive table. You can also make a mini croque monsieur of gingerbread and foie gras for the appetizer to enjoy in bites.
If it’s the hood you can’t resist, go for a light starter. Indeed, the hood is a poultry with a little more calories. The same goes for the duck and its breasts. Starters of raw fish, scallop casserole with light cream, avocado, grapefruit and shrimp tartar, sea bream tartar and citrus or ceviche, are very good options to surprise your guests.
Choose the right ingredients
You can choose recipes that are very easy to prepare and at the same time look elaborate. The rules are simple to avoid the accumulation of calories: reduce the intake of fats and sugars. Avoiding butter, cutting back on sugar, opting for low-fat cream and skimmed milk are ways to enjoy a good meal without feeling guilty about your diet. And we bet your guests won’t notice a thing! To give relief to your preparations, do not hesitate to play with spices and aromatic herbs.
He also revives traditional dishes by substituting the most caloric ingredients or modifying the recipes. Smoked salmon on toast with butter can give way to salmon tartare or rillettes. The foie gras on its bed of candied onions can be tasted with a spoon (this way the quantities will be reduced) or you can make small balls of cabbage with foie. Turkey remains the leanest poultry, but is sometimes avoided because of its dry meat. Therefore, a stuffed turkey is often more tender and juicy. For a light filling, go for herbs and cream cheese, sage and onion, chestnuts, or even plums and corn.
Make a light dessert
If it is quite easy to lighten up the recipes of traditional dishes, what about the famous Christmas log? No one will surprise you by telling you that the butter cream log should be avoided. You prefer to use seasonal fruits, buy a log of sorbet or transform a charlotte into a log. Here are some tips to help you make a light dessert:
- Make a rolled cookie or a very light egg cookie.
- Avoid too heavy toppings. Opt for fresh seasonal fruit (mango, kiwi, passion fruit, etc.) rather than fruit in syrup (too sweet!).
- Replace the buttercream with fruit mousse.
- Limit your sugar intake and prefer fruit sugar.
If the trunk is not essential for you, you can replace it with several verrines, chocolate pears, a surprise baked apple, a clementine cake or a fruit salad. Make your own gingerbread and homemade chocolates too… but that won’t be a reason to overdo it!
To go further, find out how to make a balanced and much lower calorie Christmas meal?