Healthy Low-Calorie Recipes

Tarator is an easy-to-prepare tahini sauce that often accompanies baked fish, shawarma, falafel or cooked vegetables like these chard stalks.

Simmered in a tomato sauce fragrant with garlic and cilantro and finished with pomegranate molasses, this okra recipe might be just the dish that turns okra haters into lovers.

Dolma are stuffed vegetables common from the Mediterranean all the way to Central Asia. This easy recipe pairs ripe tomatoes with a ground beef filling that's lightened with eggplant and onions. Serve the stuffed tomatoes as a starter or double up for a main dish.

You may not typically serve your cucumbers bruised, but intentionally smashing them releases their flavorful juices. Taking the time to soak the walnuts for this dish gives them a special soft texture and plumpness. Serve this vegetable dish with pita as part of a mezze platter or as a side salad.

Circassian cooking is from the North Caucasus, which was at different times part of the Ottoman and Persian empires. This chicken stew recipe is made with a creamy walnut sauce and was originally served as a main dish, but became a mezze somewhere along the way. Serve at room temp along with some bread for dipping.

This simple recipe for slow-cooked sloppy joes is perfect for vegetarians as the traditional beef is replaced with heart-healthy lentils.

Shredded Parmesan cheese is baked for the perfect crispy addition to this salad.

This light, lemon-poppy seed cake is filled and topped with a lemony blend of Greek yogurt and whipped topping and sprinkled with crisp pomegranate seeds.

Hazelnuts, blueberries and fresh ginger are delicious additions to this kale and chicken salad.

Enjoy these lemony cookies with a warm cup of tea.

Teriyaki sauce and ginger add Asian flavor to this beef, rice and vegetable soup. It's a filling meal, yet has under 200 calories per serving.

This Asian-inspired beef stir-fry recipe is loaded with crisp-tender vegetables and served over spaghetti with a sweet orange-teriyaki sauce. If you don't have spaghetti noodles in your pantry, substitute soba noodles, rice or quinoa.

Chutney is an East Indian specialty that can range in texture from smooth to chunky and in flavor from sweet to tart. Mixing store-bought chutney with rum and rice vinegar for this steak marinade adds a whole new dimension of flavor to this meal.

Originally from Uruguay and Argentina, chimichurri is a sauce or marinade with the main ingredients being fresh parsley and garlic. In this recipe it is paired with grilled steak, zucchini and tomato skewers.

A simple lime-cilantro dressing along with sliced mango and crisp jicama adds freshness to this beef salad. If you like, you can use mint in place of the cilantro for a change of flavor.

In this main-dish recipe, the pot roast is slow-cooked with carrots and low-sodium beef broth. Toward the end of the cooking time, shredded cabbage is added in to round out the meal. Each of the two servings has just 215 calories.

Sesame seeds and sesame oil give this beef and fruit stir-fry a double dose of nutty flavor. Served over brown rice, this quick dinner can be on the table in under 30 minutes.

Sometimes the best meals are the ones that are the easiest to prepare. This pot roast is simple to make--a quick searing on the stove and then a long simmer in the slow cooker with vegetables and stewed tomatoes. Served over hot noodles, this flavorful recipe is one you'll love.

Tri-tip roast is a boneless cut of beef from the bottom sirloin. Because of its triangular shape, it's also sometimes called triangular roast. This versatile cut tastes wonderful roasted, grilled or broiled, but best of all it's low in calories.

Earthy mushrooms, fruity figs and fresh rosemary are a lovely combination in the sauce on this class roast beef entrée. It pairs nicely with roasted vegetables and has under 250 calories per serving.