Five Tips to Make Country Cooking Healthier and More Enjoyable
June 23, 2021
By: Allison Rautmann
Categories: Nutrition & Diet
June Is National Country Cooking Month. Down-home country cooking is a pleasure to cook and a treat to eat.
June Is National Country Cooking Month. Down-home country cooking is a pleasure to cook and a treat to eat. What balmy summer evening doesn’t pair well with barbeque and peach cobbler?
Our favorite country meals are delicious, but often high in saturated fat and sodium. Saturated fat is found in meat, cheese, and solid cooking fats, like butter or margarine. If you eat too much saturated fat, it may increase your levels of the “bad” LDL cholesterol, which increases your risk of heart disease. Eating too much sodium is also a risk factor for poor cardiovascular health. Sodium is linked to hypertension and can cause fluid retention in people affected by heart failure.
Keep on reading for some tips to put a healthy spin on your favorite country recipes.
1. Up the spice, slow the salt
Salt is a tasty seasoning, but there’s a whole cabinet of spices waiting to take your dishes to the next level. Adequately season your dishes as you’re cooking to make them taste so good, no one will be reaching for that table salt shaker. Some spices you can add to kick up the flavor include black and white pepper, garlic and onion powder, red pepper flakes, and so many others.
2. Pick the right canned foods
When a recipe calls for canned goods, see if there’s a low-sodium (or better yet, salt-free) product on the shelf instead. Many canned foods come in low-salt versions.
Also, if you’re using canned peaches for your peach cobbler, opt for fruit packed in juice rather than syrup so you don’t go into sugar overload later on.
3. Baking is best
Fried food tastes delicious - fried chicken, chicken fried steak, hush puppies, catfish… the list goes on. But eating fried foods frequently is often is unfavorable for your heart. Try baking your meats instead. You’ll still get a nice, crispy crust, but with less of those saturated fats.
4. Be mindful of butter
Butter is delicious. It makes our corn on the cob savory, makes the layers in our biscuits, and is a vital component to thickening gravies. However, most country recipes call for butter - and a lot of it.
There’s no need to get rid of butter entirely, but with so much of it in most of our favorite dishes, it’s a good idea to not go overboard. Some people like to use a butter replacement, like margarine, that is made out of plant oils that have less saturated fat (if you want to try this, just make sure the tub you buy doesn’t have trans fats, which are also unfavorable for heart health). But another thing you could do is limit how much of it you use, where you can.
Using Greek yogurt for your mashed or baked potatoes will cream it up and give it a tang similar to sour cream. Pouring olive oil over your grilled or roasted veggies makes them taste rich while also giving you a healthy dose of monounsaturated fatty acids. Remember that you already used butter to make the gravy - your steak can do without more.
5. Most importantly—enjoy your meal!
Food is an important source of comfort and community. It’s okay to stick with the recipe you learned from your grandma because it’s important to you. Just be sure to savor the experience - how the food looks and smells and tastes, who you’re eating with, and how you feel. Eat slowly and stop when you’re full. You can’t truly enjoy a meal if you feel guilty about it afterwards.
Checkout these delicious and healthy recipes: