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Choosing and preparing food

Friday 30 September 2005

chefs working in a kitchen

This section takes you through breakfast, main meals, desserts, snacks and drinks, explaining how each of these can play their part in helping you create healthy balanced menus. There is also information on how you can add fruit and veg throughout your menu to help your customers bump up their daily portions.

• Breakfasts
• Lunch and evening meals
• Desserts
• Snacks
• Drinks

Breakfasts

Here are some suggestions for you to give your customers a healthy start to the day:

• unsweetened, lower sodium varieties of breakfast cereals
• skimmed or semi-skimmed milk
• low-fat yoghurt
• dried fruit (as a compote or to add to breakfast cereals)
• tinned fruit in fruit juice
• fresh fruit salad or pieces of fruit
• some nuts and seeds to sprinkle
• toasted teacakes
• scones
• bagels
• fruit buns
• crumpets
• raisin bread

And remember to serve spreads separately.

For a traditional, but healthier, hot breakfast, you can offer:

• baked beans (choose reduced sugar and salt varieties)
• poached eggs
• grilled lean bacon
• grilled tomatoes and mushrooms cooked without fat
• all served up with thick crusty bread

Lunch and evening meals

When you're choosing and preparing your ingredients, check this section for advice on making your main meals healthier. There is info on fruit and veg, starchy foods, protein, fat, salt and sugar.

Fruit and veg
Serve plenty of fruit and veg and remember these can be fresh, frozen, tinned, dried or juiced. Serve them at every meal in some form and offer them as snacks if this is appropriate to your business.

The aim for everyone should be to have at least five portions of a variety of fruit and vegetables each day. For information on what is a portion, see the link at the end of this section.

There are lots of ways of increasing the amount of fruit and veg you offer. You can:

• add more veg and pulses to dishes such as stir-fries, casseroles and stews
• include plenty of veg with meals
• offer colourful salads (with low-fat dressing) as part of the meal
• use a variety of fresh and dried fruit and vegetables for snacks
• offer fruit and vegetables as starters - for example vegetable soups, grapefruit salad, tricolore salads, Parma ham and melon, asparagus tips, crudités and dips
• offer a variety of fresh fruit (aim for at least five types, so a regular customer can choose a different one each day) and offer fruit-based dishes for dessert
• offer fruit juices and fruit smoothies to drink

Remember that the vitamins and minerals in fruit and veg can be lost easily. Some vitamins are water-soluble, others are lost when cooked at very high temperature such as by pressure steaming. And they may disappear altogether if food is kept warm for too long.

So here are some practical tips for maximising the goodness, flavour and texture of fruit and vegetables:

• store and cook for as short a time as possible and prepare as late as possible
• don't leave them sitting in water for long periods because the vitamins can be lost into the water
• use the minimum amount of water for cooking
• try to steam or microwave rather than boiling
• if you do boil, use as little water as possible and boil up the water before adding the fruit or veg
• stir-frying vegetables in a small amount of oil helps keep their texture and 'seals' in the vitamins

Starchy foods
Base meals on starchy foods and make these the main part of the meal. Starchy foods should make up about a third of total diet.

Here are some examples of starchy foods you can use to base meals on:

Rice - offer boiled or steamed as a healthy alternative to fried. You can make paella, risotto, pilaffs and kedgeree.

Pasta - serve big portions of all types but don't use much oil.

Breads - let your customers add their own butter or low-fat spreads. If you're serving sandwiches, offer thicker slices of bread and rolls and include low-fat fillings. Include wholegrain, granary and seedy varieties of bread or toast.

Other healthy bread choices include:

• speciality breads such as olive and sun-dried tomato bread wedges served with soup
• chapattis with Indian food
• pitta breads with Mediterranean food
• flour tortillas with Mexican food
• bagels and crispbreads

Potatoes, yams, cassava - leave the skins on potatoes where possible because the skin contains fibre. If you peel potatoes - or when you peel yams or cassava - don't peel too deeply because not only is this wasteful, but you will be losing some of the nutrients too.

Baked and boiled are the healthiest options - if possible let customers add their own spread. If you fry them, remember that the larger the pieces the less fat they absorb, they also absorb less fat if you fry them at a high enough temperature (155-225°C; 310-435°F).

If you make chips, remember that straight chips absorb less fat than crinkle-cut. Pre-blanch chips in a steamer, always drain well and change the oil regularly otherwise it will affect the flavour of the food cooked in it. For a healthier option than frying, cook chips by steaming, brushing with oil and oven baking.

Flour - wholemeal flour is the healthiest option, but not always a popular choice. You could use a mixture of white and wholemeal.

Protein foods
You only need to provide moderate amounts of foods rich in protein. These include:

• Meat
• Fish
• Eggs
• Pulses
• Nuts
• Soya products such as beancurd and tofu
• Milk and dairy foods

Meat - For a healthier choice, cut down on the amount of fat by doing the following:

• use leaner meats
• trim off fat
• remove the skin and fat from poultry before cooking or serving
• drain fat from mince or saut
  ed braising/stewing meat

You can also reduce the amount of fat in meat dishes by:

• baking, grilling, roasting or poaching
• adding the minimum amount of fat and always racking and draining
• replacing some meat with pulses to add extra fibre and protein and less fat
• reduce the amount of meat slightly and serve with more veg and starchy food
• use alternatives to meat such as tofu, soya, Quorn™ or pulses

Fish - Offer more fish choices and try to include some oily fish every week. People should be eating fish at least twice a week, and this includes fresh, frozen and canned. Each week, one of these portions should be of oily fish such as salmon, mackerel, herring, pilchard, sardines, trout or fresh tuna (canned tuna doesn't count as an oily fish because the canning process reduces the levels of beneficial oils).

White fish is a good low-fat choice, but try not to add a high-fat sauce, and offer grilled and steamed options.

Pulses - Pulses are low in fat, good value and a rich source of protein, carbohydrate and fibre. As well as being a good source of protein for vegetarians, they can also make a tasty alternative for meat-eaters. They count as a portion of fruit and veg and they are cheap and healthy, so why not add some pulses to your soups and stews?

Milk and dairy foods - Use lower-fat versions of milk and dairy foods in cooking and make them available for customers to choose. Lower-fat versions are a much healthier option and contain as much calcium as full-fat versions. Here are some suggestions:

• switch to semi-skimmed or skimmed milk
• use a strong tasting cheese such as Parmesan or mature Cheddar so you can use smaller amounts for example when you are making sauces
• offer lower fat cheeses in sandwiches, salads and on cheese boards - such as Brie, Camembert, cottage cheese, Edam, Emmental, feta, mozzarella and low-fat soft cheeses. Hard cheeses can be grated for sandwiches and salads, to reduce the amount you need
• replace some cheese sauces with a bechamel sauce
• replace some or all of the cream in cooking with low-fat plain yoghurt, quark, or very low fat (0.2%) fromage frais. But watch this doesn't change the look, taste or feel of the dish too much. When you use plain yoghurt to replace cream in savoury dishes such as soups and sauces, add arrowroot or cornflour to help stop mixtures from separating
• salad dressings - use some low-fat plain yoghurt or fromage frais in mayonnaise or serve lower calorie dressings

Dealing with fat
Try to cut down on the amount of fat you use in recipes, especially saturated and trans fats and try to replace saturates with unsaturates. This is because, while saturated and trans fats may raise the level of cholesterol in the blood, unsaturated fat actually lowers it.

So remember:

• use oil, butter and other fats sparingly
• try to replace saturated fats with monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats or oils
• use reduced fat varieties where possible
• give your customer the option of having polyunsaturated or reduced fat spread, or even no spread, instead of automatically giving them butter

All fats and oils are a mixture of saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. This table shows which fats mostly contain each of these.

Here are some tips:

• For thickening curries, for example, instead of ghee, use potatoes or low-fat plain yoghurt
• Encourage suppliers to offer lower fat alternatives
• When you are making pastry, use 'white' shortening, which is higher in unsaturated fat than butter or lard
• Replace creamed coconut - which is 59% saturated fat - with coconut milk - which is less than 1% saturated fat
• Think if it is really necessary before using butter - 52% saturated fat - to enrich a dish, or for tossing pasta, etc. Try olive oil instead - this is only 14% saturated fat
• Use puréed vegetables to make soups and sauces rather than 'roux thickenings'
• Don't offer too many fried foods
• Make sure the oil is at the right temperature when you are frying food, so that it absorbs less of the fat
• Cut chips thickly and straight so they absorb less fat or oil
• Grill, steam, stir-fry or bake rather than frying or roasting with added fat
• Use non-stick frying pans where possible because you won't need to use as much fat
• Dry fry or dry roast spices
• Skim the fat off gravy and sauces
• When roasting, use a rack or trivet so that food doesn't stay in the fat
• Offer dressings separately. For salad dressings, use 3 parts lemon juice or wine vinegar to 1 part olive oil

Dealing with salt
Try to cut down on the amount of salt you use because, on average, people are eating far too much salt. And if some of your customers are children, remember that children should be having less salt than adults. In fact, children are often eating more salt than is recommended for adults. A high salt intake can lead to high blood pressure, which increases the risk of stroke and heart disease.

Fortunately, there are lots of alternatives to salt that can make your food tasty and interesting, such as fresh, frozen or dried herbs and spices, onions, peppers, lemons, limes, vinegars and tomato paste. Try some different combinations.

Watch out for stock cubes or stock paste and any ready-prepared pickles, sauces or packet soups you use because these are often very high in salt. Remember that smoked foods and processed meats are also high in salt so avoid offering these too frequently.

If you are concerned about your regular customers' reaction if you reduce the amount of salt you use, why not do it gradually over, say, six months so that their taste buds get used to the difference.

Desserts

Here are some tips and suggestions for making desserts healthier:

• offer some choices that don't contain lard, suet, butter or margarine
• fruit fillings are a healthier choice than cream or chocolate
• fresh fruit is a tasty and a very healthy option. You could use tinned fruit in juice as a base and add a variety of fresh fruit to make a fruit salad
• as well as providing cream with desserts, offer some healthier alternatives such as low-fat plain yoghurt, fromage frais, quark or ice cream, and serve them separately
• offer single cream, which contains less than half the fat of double cream and less than a third the fat of clotted cream
• you could include a variety of sorbets
• remember that chocolate, cakes, pastries, biscuits and puddings tend to be high in fat
• if you serve cakes, watch the portion sizes and try to avoid serving too large a portion
• rather than the creamed method for making puddings, use a fatless whisked sponge method
• when you use plain yoghurt to replace cream, add arrowroot or cornflour to help stop mixtures from separating

Dealing with sugar
Sugar is great for sweetening dishes and is known as a non-starchy carbohydrate. But it supplies energy and no other nutrients - and it's bad for teeth. This isn't just white sugar but includes brown sugar, syrups and honey. So try to use less.

Offer sugar-free or lower sugar alternatives. Use fresh or dried fruit or fruit juice to sweeten where you can.

Snacks

Here are some healthy snack ideas you could offer:

• fresh fruit
• crudités and dips
• pasta salads
• currant buns without icing
• scones
• fruit bread
• crumpets and English muffins
• bread sticks
• plain popcorn
• unsalted nuts and dried fruit
• biscuits with less fat and sugar such as ginger biscuits
• low-fat yoghurts or fromage frais
• frozen yoghurts

Drinks

Try to offer alternatives to high-sugar fizzy drinks and other soft drinks because these sorts of drinks are associated with dental problems.

Drinks containing sugar increase the risk of dental decay particularly if they are drunk between meals. Having soft drinks often during the day - and this includes sugar-free varieties - can lead to erosion of tooth enamel because of the acids in the fruit extracts or that have been added to make the drink fizzy.

Here are some alternatives you could offer:

• mineral water
• fruit juices
• fruit smoothies
• yoghurt drinks
• lower-fat milk
• low-sugar drinks

When you offer tea and coffee, remember to provide lower-fat milk.

More advice from our eatwell website

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