Christmas is just around the corner. When it comes to celebrating the festive season, Western cuisine is usually the public’s first choice. In recent years, healthy eating became more and more popular. How can restaurants take advantage of this trend and prepare healthier Western dishes? To help restaurants establish a healthy brand image, registered dietitian Denise Luk shared the following tips on preparing healthy dishes.

“Choose” Appropriately to Follow the Trend

To take advantage of customers’ tendency of trying out something new, Denise recommended restaurants to take note of the latest food trends and provide new and healthier options, such as serving wholemeal bread with guacamole or balsamic vinegar and providing baked nachos with “salsa” made with fresh vegetables. Regarding cooking skills, Denise suggested that restaurants make use of popular and low-fat cooking methods such as air frying and slow cooking. “Although air-frying requires a lot less oil to achieve a similar taste and texture to deep-fried foods, it is still a high-temperature cooking method. As such, do not overcook the food. For example, when air frying French fries and sweet potato sticks, one should aim for a golden colour,” said Denise. Preparing meat by slow cooking results in less water evaporation and flavor loss, and helps preserve its original flavor. In addition, slow cooking enables precise control of the temperature and makes the meat tender. Denise reminded chefs to strictly control the cooking temperature and time to ensure food safety.

“Smart” Ingredient Choices

Creating healthier dishes can be easy. Besides using lean cuts such as pork loin, sirloin steak, beef chuck, and skinless chicken to replace processed meats, Denise suggested that restaurants select high-quality protein options such as shrimp, mussels, scallops, clams, salmon, and low-fat vegetarian meat substitutes as ingredients of pizza or pasta dishes.

“Nutritious” and Appealing Dishes

A typical Western meal consists of a few courses. In order for restaurants to provide a balanced meal , Denise suggested including vegetables and fruits in each course, such as adding beetroot, fresh fruits and kale to salads. This not only provides phytochemicals with antioxidant properties but also enables customers to increase their dietary fiber intake. Many weight-conscious people hope to reduce their intake of carbohydrates, especially high glycemic-index (GI) foods such as white rice and white bread. Denise pointed out that, in addition to using multi-grain rice, whole wheat bread and quinoa, restaurants can add finely chopped cauliflower to white rice to increase vegetable intake as well as lower the GI and energy content of the dish. In addition, bell peppers, asparagus and zucchini can be added to grilled seafood skewers.

Making good use of natural herbs for seasoning is another technique to improve the nutritional value and reduce sodium (a main component of salt) content in dishes. Denise shared with restaurant tips on pairing different ingredients with natural seasonings to reduce the use of salt, sugar and other seasonings. “Garlic, ginger, lemon, herbs and pepper are ideal natural seasonings. For example, oregano and basil go well with tomatoes; chicken can be seasoned with rosemary and paprika; while dill is the perfect match for fish. On the other hand, some novel herbs or edible flowers such as saffron, butterfly pea and roselle can add colours to dishes!”

Denise believes that, by adjusting the recipes slightly, restaurants can easily prepare appealing, aromatic, tasty and nutritious Western dishes to attract customers.