Substitutions

As a health-conscious cook, I often make ingredient substitutions while following recipes. Sure, there have been instances when my substitutions have resulted in a sub-par dish or meal, but more often than not, I am completely satisfied with my lightened versions.

The other night I prepared two recipes for dinner, each with its own substitution(s). First up, Cooking Light’s Baguette. I substituted one of the cups of bread flour with a cup of whole wheat flour.

I feared that substituting all of the white flour for whole wheat flour would compromise the resulting texture.  The ratio of 2 cups bread flour : 1 cup whole wheat flour turned out really well. The loaves turned out light and doughy with a crisp, golden brown crust

The entree of the night was Ina Garten’s Eggplant Gratin. To reduce the amount of fat in this rich dish, I subbed in 1% whipped cottage cheese (I like the Friendship brand) for the ricotta, cut way down on the olive oil, and reduced the amount of parmesan cheese by half.

Eggplant slices are like sponges that soak up oil, so cutting the olive oil in the skillet down to just a drizzle (maybe 2 tsp?) for each batch drastically reduced the amount of overall fat added to the gratin.

I am a huge fan of 1% whipped cottage cheese. It is thicker than the non-whipped version, which makes it an ideal substitute for creamy ricotta cheese.

The eggplant gratin very closely resembled eggplant parmesan, minus the copious amounts of mozzarella and oil-saturated breading. Delicious and light… yes, even with the addition of half & half!

This goes to show that you don’t have to skim over decadent-sounding recipes – go ahead and clip, bookmark, and/or print recipes that sound delicious, and know that there are substitutions you can make to “healthify” any dish.