How To Lighten Up a Recipe

This might fall under the "Duh" category. And if it does, sorry. Sometimes I think that people are afraid to change things in recipes because the Recipe Police may come arrest them or it just won't turn out at all if you wander from the "rules."

I hope you know there are no Recipe Police. And I hope that you also know that if you taste it along the way, and you like it, it doesn't matter what the dang recipe says. Of course, this might not be true for baking. There some rules just need to be followed for scientific/chemical reaction kinds of reasons. The good news is that cooking is vastly different from baking and it can be fun to take something and make it your own.

So, this is a real-life example of how I lightened up a recipe last night.
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Jim loves Zuppa Toscana from Olive Garden. We don't go to Olive Garden these days because there isn't much on the "healthy" end of the spectrum, but when I found this recipe online ... it's making the rounds in Pinterest ... I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Copycat Zuppa Toscana

Look at the nutrition summary. A single serving had 790 calories. That's 790. Like almost 800. You know, two-thirds of a 1200 calorie day.

Uh. No.

So here's what I did:

1. The recipe calls for a pound of Italian pork sausage. That's a whole bunch of calories and fat.
SWITCH: Find turkey sausage in your grocery meat department. It's lower in fat and calories ... by about a half, I think. Then don't use a whole pound. Use a half a pound. Or thee-quarters. Just use less. I also chose the "hot" sausage vs. the mild/sweet variety. If I'm using less, I want as much bang for my flavor buck as possible.

2. The recipe calls for two large russet potatoes. White potatoes aren't an enormous calorie issue, but they don't provide much nutrition.

SWITCH: Use fewer potatoes. Then, add something to bulk up the volume of things to chew. I added a package of sliced mushrooms. Calories in one cup of potato? 120. Calories in one cup of brown mushrooms? 21. Plus, the mushrooms have more nutritional value ... vitamin D, B, antioxidents. So now I'm making more soup with fewer calories, which helps lower the count per serving.

3. The recipe calls for 16 oz. of chicken stock. The recipe also says a single serving contains 75-freaking-% of your daily sodium intake.
SWITCH: Use low-sodium stock and add more water. Again, you're making MORE soup, lowering the calories and sodium per serving. With the bacon and sausage, you'll never miss the salt.

4. The recipe calls for 1C heavy cream. Holy crap.
SWITCH: I bought no-fat half and half. And then I only used a few turns around the pan ... maybe a third of a cup if I had to guess. It made the color and consistency enough like the original to count. I think you could also use skim milk, honestly. I just didn't have any on hand. Fewer calories, enough "creamy" consistency to fool your eyes and palette.

Now the big question. Bacon?

Yes, I used real bacon. And I used the recommended amount. To be honest, I might leave it out altogether next time. I couldn't taste a bacon/smoky flavor in the final product and it didn't really need the salt either. So, next time I make this recipe, it will be even lower in calories and sodium.

And, full disclosure, I also substituted frozen spinach for kale. I consider that a wash ... no calorie savings and no significant nutritional gain/loss.

Best of all, the soup was a total hit! He didn't notice a single difference between my version and the real thing.