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Low-calorie recipes

Lighter recipes that are still filling and full of flavour. (499 recipes)

HangopHung buttermilk with fruit

Hangop means 'hang up', and that is the method: buttermilk poured into a cloth, hung up over a bowl overnight until it thickens into something like a tangy, creamy fresh cheese. It was a summer dessert on Dutch farms, eaten with rusk crumbs, brown sugar and fresh fruit, and is having a revival in Amsterdam restaurants. A common mistake is straining it at room temperature, which lets it turn too sour. Chef's tip: strain it in the fridge, and use a clean tea towel rather than cheesecloth; the finer weave keeps more of the creamy curd.

10 minDutchDessertsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Teochew fish soup

Office workers in the CBD form long lunch queues for a dish that looks almost plain: a bowl of clear, sweet broth with thick slices of batang (Spanish mackerel), wedges of tomato, silken tofu, lettuce and a little salted vegetable, served with rice or thick rice noodles. Good stalls simmer fish bones for hours, but at home a well-flavoured stock and plenty of ginger get you close in half an hour. The fish should be just set and springy, the broth light, gently tangy from tomato and savoury from fish sauce. Most home versions go wrong by boiling the slices hard, which breaks them up and turns them chalky; they need only a few minutes at a gentle simmer. Chef's tip: toss the fish slices with a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of tapioca starch before cooking, which keeps them silky and stops them falling apart.

30 minSingaporeanSoupsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Taiwanese sweet potato congee

Tainan's late-night congee shops lay out dozens of little dishes under glass, and the bowl that goes with them is this loose, gently sweet rice porridge dotted with soft orange sweet potato. Older Taiwanese remember it as the food of lean years, when sweet potato stretched the rice; today it is comfort food at breakfast, at midnight after the markets, and whenever someone is unwell. Unlike Cantonese congee, the grains stay distinct in a cloudy, silky liquid. Many cooks cut the sweet potato too small, so it collapses into mush and turns the pot muddy; chunks of about 3 cm keep their shape. Chef's tip: serve it with something salty and crunchy, such as pickled cucumbers, peanuts or a radish omelette, because the contrast is the whole point.

45 minTaiwaneseBreakfast & BrunchVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Skyr

Skyr has been made in Iceland since the Viking settlers arrived: skimmed milk soured with a spoonful of the last batch, set with a drop of rennet, then strained until very thick, high in protein and mildly sour. Icelanders eat it every day with milk or cream and berries, or whisked into a drink, and skyrkaka is a favourite cheesecake. You need a few spoonfuls of plain shop skyr with live cultures as a starter. A common mistake is skipping the long, slow set; rushed skyr is thin and grainy. Chef's tip: strain it in the fridge overnight and stir it smooth before serving. Rennet is traditionally animal; use vegetarian rennet.

50 minScandinavianBasicsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Jamaican pumpkin soup

Ital kitchens in the Blue Mountains cook pumpkin soup on cool evenings, when the mist comes down over the coffee farms and something golden and peppery is needed. This one is meat-free and dairy-free: calabaza, carrot and chocho simmer with thyme, scallion and pimento until the pumpkin breaks down into a thick, naturally sweet broth, with a few spinners for chew. People often add the scotch bonnet already cut, which can make the whole pot ferociously hot; drop it in whole and take it out when the soup tastes right. Chocho (chayote) is optional, and courgette is a fair swap. Chef's tip: leave the soup chunky rather than blending; Jamaicans like to see the pieces of pumpkin collapsing into it.

60 minJamaicanSoupsVegan
by KrazyBadal 0 views

SufSunflower seed milk

During the long Orthodox fasts, when milk is off the menu for weeks, Ethiopian households turn sunflower seeds into suf: the seeds are pounded or blended with water and strained through a cloth into a pale, creamy drink with a gentle nutty taste. It is served cool in glasses, sometimes lightly sweetened, and the same liquid is poured over torn injera to make the fasting dish suf fitfit. It is light, filling and costs very little. Chef's tip: squeeze the pulp hard in the cloth at the end; the last, thickest drops carry most of the flavour.

30 minEthiopianDrinksVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Panta bhatSoaked rice with onion and chilli

For farming families across Bangladesh, panta bhat was simply what you ate in the morning: last night's rice, left covered in water, now cool and slightly tangy, eaten with a fistful of salt, a raw green chilli and a bite of onion before going out to the fields. Today it is also the ritual breakfast of Pohela Boishakh, the Bengali New Year in mid-April, when Dhaka families gather near Ramna Batamul in red and white and eat panta from clay bowls, usually beside fried hilsa, which many households now skip, and a few bhortas. The grains are soft and cold, the soaking water is drunk too, and mustard oil and charred dried chilli give it bite. The real pitfall is food safety: cooked rice left warm on the counter overnight can grow harmful bacteria, so cool it quickly and soak it in the fridge. Chef's tip: use cold boiled water for soaking and eat it within 12 hours, while it tastes fresh and only faintly sour.

15 minBangladeshiRice & GrainsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Burmese pennywort salad

Myin khwa, 'horse's hoof', is the Burmese name for pennywort, after the shape of its round leaves, and Mandalay grandmothers swear by a plate of it to cool the body during the hot months before the monsoon. The fresh leaves are slightly bitter and grassy, a little like watercress, and they are tossed by hand with toasted chickpea flour, crushed peanuts, crunchy fried garlic and its oil, lime juice, tomato and sliced onion. The salad is served as a side to rich curries, where its clean sourness cuts through the oil. Wet leaves ruin it: the dressing slides off and turns watery, so dry them completely after washing. Chef's tip: look for pennywort sold as gotu kola at Asian and Sri Lankan grocers; young watercress makes a fair stand-in.

20 minBurmeseSaladsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

PressgurkaPickled cucumber

Pressgurka, 'pressed cucumber', is the quick, sweet-sour cucumber pickle that goes with Swedish meatballs, fish, roast chicken and the Christmas julbord: very thin cucumber slices salted and pressed to soften, then covered in a light vinegar-sugar brine and scattered with parsley. A common mistake is skipping the press, which leaves the slices stiff and the brine watery. Chef's tip: slice on a mandoline as thin as paper, salt for 10 minutes and squeeze gently before adding the brine.

15 minScandinavianSidesVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Fever grass teaLemongrass and ginger tea

In Jamaican country yards a clump of fever grass, the local name for lemongrass, grows by the kitchen door, and a handful steeped in boiling water is the old remedy for colds, aches and restless nights. Brewed with fresh ginger, it is lemony, gently peppery and soothing, and is drunk hot, sweetened with a little brown sugar. The mistake people make is using the stalks whole, which gives a weak tea; bruise and cut them to release the oils. Chef's tip: tie long leaves in a knot before you add them, as country cooks do, so they are easy to lift out.

15 minJamaicanDrinksVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

MatsoniGeorgian yogurt

In Kakheti, matsoni is set every evening in clay pots and eaten the next morning with honey, folded into soups, or stirred with water and herbs on a hot afternoon; it is thicker and sharper than most shop yogurt, with a skin of cream on top. To start, you need a spoonful of matsoni or any live plain yogurt, and after that each batch seeds the next. A common mistake is to add the starter while the milk is still hot; above about 45 °C the cultures die and the milk never sets. Chef's tip: wrap the pot in a blanket and leave it somewhere warm and still, like an oven with just the light on, so it sets evenly without separating.

25 minGeorgianBasicsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

KesäkeittoSummer vegetable and milk soup

In July, when Finland's first new potatoes, baby carrots, peas and cauliflower arrive at market stalls in Helsinki and Turku, families make kesäkeitto: the vegetables simmered in water until just tender, then finished with milk and a knob of butter and lots of dill. It is light, sweet and pale green, eaten with rye bread and butter. A common mistake is boiling it once the milk is in, which can curdle the soup. Chef's tip: add the vegetables in order of cooking time, so each is just tender and keeps its colour.

40 minScandinavianSoupsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Aiyu jelly with lemonAiyu fig jelly with lemon

Squeezing a little cloth bag of seeds in a bowl of water until it turns into jelly sounds like a magic trick, yet that's how aiyu has been made for well over a century in Chiayi, at the foot of the Alishan hills where the climbing fig grows wild. The pectin in the dried seeds sets the water into a soft, glassy, pale-gold jelly with almost no taste of its own, so it's cut into cubes and served icy cold with tart lemon juice and honey syrup, the most refreshing thing on a sticky Taipei summer afternoon. The classic failure is a bowl that won't set, usually because the bowl was oily or the water was distilled or very soft; it needs ordinary tap or mineral water. Chef's tip: rub the bag steadily for 8–10 minutes and stop as soon as it feels slippery and nothing more comes out, or the jelly turns cloudy and bitter.

30 minTaiwaneseDrinksGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

ChalopCold yogurt and cucumber soup

When Tashkent summers reach 40 °C, families eat chalop: chilled katyk or suzma loosened with cold water and filled with diced cucumber, radish and a pile of fresh dill, coriander, basil and spring onion. It is served in bowls with torn non bread, alongside plov or grilled shashlik, and some like a little ice in it. A common mistake is using thin, runny yogurt, which makes the soup watery; start with a thick yogurt and thin it to taste. Chef's tip: salt the cucumbers lightly and leave for 5 minutes before adding them, so they season through and stay crisp.

15 minUzbekSoupsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Pwason gwo sèlFish poached in lime broth

Fishing villages on Haiti's southern coast make pwason gwo sèl, "big-salt fish", when the catch is fresh: whole snapper rubbed with lime and coarse salt, then gently poached in a peppery broth with onion, peppers, thyme and a whole scotch bonnet. The fish stays moist and clean-tasting, and the light broth is spooned over boiled plantain or rice. The common mistake is boiling it hard, which breaks the flesh; keep it at a gentle shiver. Ask for the fish scaled and gutted. Chef's tip: slash the fish twice on each side and push epis into the cuts so the flavour reaches the bone.

45 minHaitianFishGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

ŠaltibarščiaiCold beetroot soup

Šaltibarščiai is the shocking-pink soup of Lithuanian summers, so loved that Vilnius holds a pink soup festival every June: cooked or pickled beetroot grated into cold kefir with cucumber, dill, spring onion and boiled egg, served with a plate of hot boiled potatoes on the side. The contrast of icy soup and steaming potatoes is the point. A common mistake is using warm beetroot, which dulls the colour and warms the soup. Chef's tip: grate chilled beetroot into ice-cold kefir and let it stand for 10 minutes; the colour deepens to vivid fuchsia.

30 minBalticSoupsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Sisnu ko jholStinging nettle soup

Sisnu grows wild along every terrace wall and trail in the middle hills, and before vegetables were easy to buy it was the green that kept villages going through the dry season; Rai and Magar families still pick the tender tips with tongs or with a cloth wrapped round the hand. Cooked, the sting disappears completely, leaving a deep green, silky soup that tastes somewhere between spinach and seaweed, thickened with a spoonful of cornmeal and seasoned with garlic, chilli, jimbu and timur. It is poured over rice or eaten with dhido, and many Kathmandu restaurants now serve it as a proud reminder of hill cooking. Never handle the raw leaves bare-handed; the sting lasts for hours. Chef's tip: wear rubber gloves until the nettles have been in boiling water for a minute, and pick only the top four to six leaves of each shoot.

30 minNepaliSoupsVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Iskus ko tarkariChayote and potato curry

Every hillside garden in the eastern hills, from Dharan up to Bhojpur, has an iskus vine rambling over the roof or a bamboo frame, and from late summer the pale green chayotes hang down by the dozen, so this simple dry curry appears on the table almost every day. The chayote is peeled, cut into chunks with a little potato and cooked in mustard oil with fenugreek, cumin, garlic, turmeric and green chilli until tender but still holding a crisp edge, with a splash of tomato for colour. It is mild, juicy and slightly sweet, the everyday tarkari beside dal, rice and a sharp achar, and it packs well into a tiffin box. The usual mistake is adding water, which turns the chayote watery and bland, as it releases plenty of its own juice. Chef's tip: oil your hands before peeling, because raw chayote leaves a sticky, tight film on the skin.

30 minNepaliVegetarianVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

UkhaClear river fish soup

Fishermen on the Volga sandbanks make ukha in a blackened pot over driftwood with whatever is in the net, perch, pike-perch, a small pike, and it is still the soup cooked at dachas on summer evenings. The point is clarity: a light, pale-gold broth that tastes cleanly of fish, with soft potatoes, a whole onion simmered in and a fistful of dill at the end. It is served with black bread and a squeeze of lemon. A common mistake is letting the pot boil hard, which clouds the broth and breaks the fish into flakes. Chef's tip: simmer the bones and trimmings first for the stock and only then poach clean fillets in it, so you get both a rich broth and neat pieces of fish.

50 minRussianSoupsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Gebna areeshSoft fresh cheese

Farm families in the Delta have long made areesh from the skimmed, soured milk left after churning butter, draining the curds in reed mats until they are soft and crumbly. The cheese is pale, light and mildly tangy, with almost no fat, and is eaten at breakfast and supper with tomatoes, cucumbers, spring onions, herbs and a thread of olive oil, or crumbled into salads and pies. This home version starts with pasteurised skimmed milk and cultured buttermilk; the milk then needs 18 to 24 hours to sour at room temperature before the short cooking and draining. No rennet is used: the curd is set by souring alone, so it suits vegetarians. Don't boil the soured milk hard: rapid heat makes tough, rubbery curds instead of soft, delicate ones. Chef's tip: heat the soured milk very gently; boiling it makes the curd tough and squeaky.

60 minEgyptianBasicsGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Moringa leaf stew (Konso shiferaw)

On the stone terraces of Konso, moringa trees grow beside almost every house, and their young leaves are picked daily for a simple green stew eaten with sorghum dumplings or injera. The leaves are stripped from their stems and simmered with onion, garlic, a little green chilli and oil until soft, giving a deep green, slightly peppery dish that tastes a little like spinach crossed with watercress. It is plain, nourishing and naturally vegan, so it fits any fasting day. Fresh or frozen moringa leaves are sold in many Indian and Asian grocers; if you cannot find them, use spinach with a squeeze of lemon. Leaving the stems in is the usual mistake; they stay woody, so strip the leaves off. Chef's tip: add the leaves in handfuls and stop cooking as soon as they are tender, so they keep their colour and their gentle bitterness does not deepen.

35 minEthiopianSidesVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Sinki ko jholFermented radish soup

Sinki is the radish answer to gundruk: in late autumn, families in Ilam, Dhankuta and Terhathum pack chunks of radish root into pits lined with straw or into airtight jars, let them ferment for a few weeks, then cut and sun-dry the pieces into chewy, pungent strips that last all year. In winter and through the monsoon, a handful turns a pot of water, tomato, garlic and chilli into a thin, tangy, warming soup that is poured over rice or drunk from a bowl alongside dal bhat. It is light, sharp and savoury, and many people in the hills swear by it for a cold or a heavy stomach. It goes wrong if the sinki is not rinsed and soaked, so the soup tastes musty and gritty. Chef's tip: soak the strips in warm water for 10 minutes, squeeze them dry and fry them briefly in the oil before the water goes in, which mellows the funk and brings out a pleasant smokiness.

30 minNepaliSoupsVeganGluten freeSpicy
by KrazyBadal 0 views

Tunisian octopus salad

Fishermen of the Kerkennah islands, off Sfax, still catch octopus in clay pots laid on the shallow seabed, and in winter the season's catch turns up in harbour cafés and home kitchens as this simple salad. The octopus is simmered slowly until tender, cooled in its broth, then sliced and tossed with red onion, plenty of parsley, lemon juice and good olive oil, with a little harissa if you like. It is light, clean and briny, eaten as a starter with bread or on a summer table of salads and grilled fish. Buy octopus from a reputable fishmonger; frozen and thawed octopus is often more tender than fresh. A common mistake is boiling the octopus at a rolling boil, which makes it rubbery; keep it at a gentle simmer until a knife slides in easily. Chef's tip: let the cooked octopus cool in its cooking liquid for 20 minutes before slicing; it stays juicy rather than tightening up.

80 minTunisianFishGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

BlitvaSwiss chard and potatoes

Order grilled fish in any konoba along the Dalmatian coast of Croatia, from Zadar down to Dubrovnik, and a heap of blitva usually comes with it. Swiss chard and potatoes are boiled together until soft, then crushed roughly with lots of good olive oil and a little garlic, so the potatoes turn creamy and the chard stays silky and green. It is humble, quick and very good, also with grilled vegetables, eggs or a simple bean dish. The usual slip is not draining well enough, which leaves a watery, grey mush; let everything steam dry in the colander for a minute. Chef's tip: use the best olive oil you have and add a final drizzle at the table, as Dalmatians do, so its peppery taste stays bright.

30 minBalkanSidesVeganGluten free
by KrazyBadal 0 views

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