How To Make Filipino Foods Healthier

How To Make Filipino Foods Healthier

In a Filipino home, the kitchen is the heart. There is rarely a company that doesn’t have need eating – and we all know you really can’t lip no. With obligatory and voluntary consumption of delicious ensaymada, puto, and ube rolls, my innards is happy but my waistline is not.
Lately my repair has been call me if I could make some of his favorite Filipino dishes healthier. My first thought was, how can you make crispy pata healthy? As a registered dietitian and professionally trained chef, I’m constantly at police action with myself when I cook and eat Filipino food. I want it to be healthy, but no matter what it must be masarap or it won’t get eaten.
With a generation ahead of me full of celebrations and weekday dinners, I want my family to know and enjoy Filipino cuisine, but I don’t want this to impact our long - term health. Much of the average Pinoy diet is comprised of meat, fried foods, bulky starches and sometimes sugars and sodium. Lob it all together with American portion sizes and you’re at risk for heart disease and diabetes – just by saying the recipes.
I’ve risen to the challenge of verdict ways to tweak average recipes and staple foods to shave off calories, saturated fat, sodium, and sugar but not skimp on savor.
Here’s a look at a few of the healthy changes we’ve made in our bullpen:
The rice knob was a sticky stage. Telling any Asian they should eat brown rice will most often come with a peak of resistance. I’ll admit – there’s shutout fully cognate waxen, fluffy rice that slightly sticks together when you push it onto your ladle. At first it’s best to meet this challenge half way, mixing both brown and fair rice to get half your grains whole. It’s not quite the identical but it’s not as dire a stud as racket to all brown rice.
After doing that for a while, we took the plunge to get our fiber intake up and keep our cholesterol in good standing by only eating brown rice at home – exclude when we have arroz caldo.
Depending on what meat your lola’s recipe used, a few changes can make this a healthier dish. If making pork adobo, choose a lean cut of pork approximative pork loin; if it’s chicken make incontrovertible it’s skinless. No matter what the meat is make it lean. Knops the soy sauce to a low sodium book to help keep hypertension at bay. These little switches can be made in many of the stewed recipes from calderata to bulalo for a healthier profile.
When it comes to afternoon snacks, we try to keep it light and easy, semanship away from baked goods and sweets. This is an easy opportunity to increase our fruit and vegetable intake for the day and we’ll often have just fresh produce for our merienda. Making this spending money keeps the calories in check and helps us increase our vitamin and fiber intake. If it’s a melting summer day, we might make a mango shake ( see recipe ).
Spice it up
With family from the Bicol region, we’re not afraid to spice up our dishes. Research suggests that eating hot peppers may help promote metabolism ( every little bit counts ). We get our fix with a side of suka at sili with our meals.
These are just a few of the alterations we’ve incorporated for a healthier Filipino meal. I haven’t initiate a way to alter the crispy pata just yet, but with our other small changes and wit we’re able to fit it in!
Mango Shake Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup of Sof๚l Mango ( you can find this is the yogurt section of your local Asian retailer )
3 halves ripe fresh mango or frozen mango
1 cup skim milk
ฝ cup harmed ice
2 Tbsp whipped topping ( optional )
Directions:
Place all ingredients in a blender. Rhythm on high speed until combination is smooth. Precipitate into a glass, top with whipped topping and enjoy!
Makes 2 servings.
Nutrition breakdown per serviceable:
Calories: 173 calories