I love a good cream sauce. Who doesn't? But between the richness of the sauce and the heavy pasta, I usually feel sick after eating something that has cream sauce in it. That and the calories don't really do anything for my waistline. Through lots of cooking and trying different recipes, I've discovered two ways to make them a little lighter without losing any of the flavor.
1) Parsnips/Potatoes
One time a recipe called for me to use half heavy whipping cream and half cooked and pureed parsnips in a bechamel sauce lasagna. At first I thought it was strange, but it actually ended up really good! it was just as creamy and tasted just as good but it was a lot healthier. I thought it worked especially well in a lasagna with all the other meat and vegetable flavors helping to mask the parsnip.
Since parsnips have such an obvious taste, I thought that you could probably do the same thing with potatoes. Same concept, but potatoes might alter the flavor less than the parsnips do. I haven't tried it yet though so we'll see.
2) Chicken Broth
Another recipe I once tried had me replace half of the cream/milk in fettuccine alfredo with chicken broth. This idea worked great! The chicken broth adds flavor but the cream sauce wasn't nearly as heavy. Used it over plain pasta and it was wonderful.
I definitely recommend these substitutes if you want to shave off some calories or don't want to feel so bogged down after eating anything with a cream sauce.
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