Healthy Cooking Substitutions for a More Nutritious Meal
Do you have a favorite family recipe that you’d like to improve on? Are you interested in learning how to be a more mindful and health-conscious cook? Use this list of cooking substitutions to improve the nutritional quality of your favorite recipe!
Some tips to keep in mind:
- Think of substitutions in cooking as “trial and error.” Sometimes they’ll work out great and other times they might flop, but it’s all part of the process. Every recipe is different – you’ll never know unless you try!
- If you’re tweaking an old favorite recipe, try changing just 1-2 ingredients at a time. Then, if it doesn’t turn out, you’ll know which change didn’t work.
Happy cooking (and eating)!
| If your recipe calls for… | Try this instead… | For this nutritional benefit… |
| Condensed milk or evaporated milk | Evaporated skim milk |
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| Sour cream | Nonfat plain Greek yogurt or (depending on the texture desired) nonfat cottage cheese |
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| Cream cheese | Neufchâtel cheese (find it right next to the cream cheese in most grocery stores) |
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| Bacon | Canadian bacon, turkey bacon, or lean prosciutto |
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| Mashed potatoes | Steamed, pureéd cauliflower |
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| Potatoes | Sweet potatoes |
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| White rice or pasta | Whole grain pasta, brown rice, bulgur, couscous, barley |
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| No vegetables | Add any vegetables you have around! |
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| Butter | Canola oil or avocado oil |
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| Salt | Herbs (oregano, parsley, thyme, sage, basil, chives, garlic), spices (turmeric, cumin, curry, lemon pepper, black pepper), lemon juice, or use half the salt |
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