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Healthy Vietnamese Recipes
Too often Vietnamese restaurants in the United States serve food that you'd be hard-pressed to dub wholesome: deep-fried spring rolls, meat-heavy curries swimming in coconut milk, and greasy stir-fried noodles. But authentic Vietnamese cuisine features tons of healthy ingredients, including an abundance of antioxidant-packed spices and fresh herbs, raw or lightly cooked vegetables, and heart-friendly seafood. While many Vietnamese dishes are inherently healthy and low in calories (Green Papaya Salad with Shrimp, for example), with a few clever substitutions or technique tweaks, the list of good-for-you Vietnamese recipes gets even longer. Use Herbs and Spices to Add Low-Cal Flavor and AntioxidantsHerbs and spices give dishes a nutritional boost and pump up the flavor without adding sodium, fat, or a lot of calories. Spicy-hot foods (chiles, chile sauce) may also boost your metabolism and fight inflammation. "Fresh herbs and spices used in Vietnamese cooking—such as turmeric, galangal, coriander, lemongrass, and fresh chiles—have antioxidants and immune-boosting properties," use a lot of lemongrass for many recipes, as it can help to detoxify. The reedlike herb has antiseptic properties, is a mild diuretic, and can help treat stomachaches, fevers, flu, coughs, and headaches. Balance Flavors Instead of Adding Fattening IngredientsCombinations of sweet, sour, salty, tanginess, and an assortment of chiles are used in typical Vietnamese dishes. The concept of balancing these key flavors is so important in Southeast Asian cooking. Know how to blend ingredients to excite and activate the senses. Remember that there are more ways to add flavor and dimension to your meal than burying it in caloric ingredients like butter, cream, oil, and cheese. If you are worried about consuming too much sodium and sugar, remember that it only takes a little bit of the salty or sweet ingredients to balance the tart and hot ones. Eat More Produce, Less MeatMeat plays a minor role in most Vietnamese dishes—it's used more as a garnish than as the centerpiece of the meal. Asian diets generally use meat sparingly, sometimes almost as a flavor enhancer. This way our cooking involves less animal fats, so [there is] lower risk of cancer and heart disease. Making 50 to 60 percent of your meal green vegetables—while the remaining portions can be adjusted for protein and carbohydrates depending on your health needs and goals. Think about where you can substitute tofu, vegetables, or fish for meat. For example, on a kebab stick, replace two of the four chunks of meat with mushrooms, also looking to vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains such as brown rice, oats, and whole-grain bread and pasta for your carbs. Easily digested carbohydrates from white bread, white rice, pastries, sugary sodas, and other highly processed foods may contribute to weight gain, interfere with weight loss, and promote diabetes and heart disease. Steam, Grill, and "Stir-Fry" Without Oil—Don't Deep-FryInstead deep frying, grilling and steaming are advocated, and for "stir-frying" use vegetable stock instead of oil. Lightly cooking ingredients this way allows them to maintain their flavor, texture, and nutritional value. By using vegetable stock, we can infuse flavor into the food and avoid consumption of oil such as trans fats and saturated fats, which contribute to heart disease and free radical damage and raise bad cholesterol.
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