Low Calorie & Low Carb Recipes

Traditionally, Chongqing chicken is made by encasing the meat in crunchy batter, like popcorn chicken but better. To make it at home, we decided to mimic the effect with a simple cornstarch dredge and just a little oil, sparing you both time and the stress of deep-frying. Practiced eaters focus their chopsticks on the meat, avoiding the many chiles and Sichuan peppercorns that give the dish its tongue-tingling character, but we encourage you to risk the lovely agony.

Traditionally, the star of this famous Burmese salad, laphet, is made by fermenting just-picked tea leaves for several months underground. While laphet is starting to be imported, it is still hard to find. This version, using readily available green tea, offers a quick alternative. Mix the salad at the table so everyone can appreciate the diversity of ingredients--from crunchy to savory--that make it so special.

Swapping out mayonnaise in favor of lime juice and shallots is a simple change, but its impact gives this healthy chicken salad recipe a light, fresh feel. For more color, try swapping in a bit of red cabbage for the green.

This easy Asian green bean salad recipe gets a deeply savory flavor from shallots and fish sauce. Part of the reason is time: after it's made, the dish is left at room temp for 20 minutes to allow the green beans to absorb more flavor. Serve with grilled chicken or shrimp.

Ginger salad is nearly as popular as tea-leaf salad in Myanmar and is just as crunchy. This version uses purchased pickled ginger; i.e., the same ginger on your sushi tray. This healthy salad recipe also has the nontraditional addition of romaine lettuce, which gives it a lighter bite.

Flan gets a savory treatment in this decadent vegetarian appetizer recipe. Sweet-salty gorgonzola dolce, crème fraîche, asparagus and eggs melt together into a delicious custard. Serve with crusty bread and dry Italian Gavi di Gavi white wine.

Crunchy on the outside and slightly soft in the center, these easy homemade breadsticks are a good way to use your sourdough starter. Substitute 1 tsp. of fresh starter for the active dry yeast, adding it with the olive oil and malt syrup. No barley malt syrup? Use molasses instead.

Update classic ants on a log, a favorite childhood snack, when you swap dried cherries for raisins.

This flavorful pork chop dinner recipe is proof that bold Neapolitan puttanesca sauce can liven up more than just spaghetti. Unlike brined olives like Kalamatas, oil-cured olives have a meatier bite because they're coated in salt then macerated in oil. Look for them on olive bars or with other Italian products. Serve with sautéed broccoli rabe and whole-wheat orzo.

This crunchy salad is made with spiralized carrots instead of noodles. Make sure to use unrefined peanut oil, which is way more flavorful than its refined counterpart and is one of the trio of peanutty ingredients that makes this simple salad stand out. Look for it with other specialty oils or in the Asian section of your grocery store.

Our spin on the traditional Venetian risotto swaps in cauliflower rice for arborio rice in this healthy vegetable side dish. Spring peas and Parmesan cheese keep the rest of the dish classic.

This supremely crunchy, quick side salad is best when spring vegetables are sliced as thinly as possible--a great excuse to pull out the mandoline or the slicing disk of your food processor, if you have one.

For this easy sheet-pan dinner, beets get a head start in the oven while you prep the shrimp and kale. For a prettier presentation, leave the shrimp tails intact. Serve this one-pan recipe with a cool glass of rosé.

Barramundi (aka Asian sea bass) is a mild white fish with a flaky texture and a respectable amount of omega-3s (667 mg per 4-oz. serving compared to 147 mg for mahi-mahi and 1,127 mg for wild salmon). Farmed barramundi is rated a Best Choice by Seafood Watch. You can substitute mahi-mahi in this recipe. Serve up this easy dinner with some roasted new potatoes. They'll need to cook for 20 to 25 minutes. Start them on the bottom rack of the oven while you prep this healthy recipe and then cook the fish and asparagus on the middle rack when you're ready.

Simmering wild blueberries with lemon zest and vanilla makes a tasty quick jam or dessert topping. Serve the compote on pancakes, stir it into yogurt or use it to top ice cream.

For this slice-and-bake cookie recipe, we've knocked back the sugar a bit and used white whole-wheat flour for more flavor, fiber and nutrients. Keep a roll of the dough in the freezer so you can quickly bake a batch if company stops by.

For this classic roast beef recipe, cremini or white mushrooms are delicious in the sauce. But if you want to get fancy, mix in some wild mushrooms, such as oyster, maitake or porcini.

For this simple baked salmon recipe, just order the right size whole salmon from your grocery store or fish market and have them clean and scale it. You can also use two smaller fish (1 to 2 pounds each) and reduce the roasting time by about 10 minutes. If you like, you can opt for other species, such as striped bass, snapper or tilapia.

These little cute stacks are everything you want in a potato side dish: tender in the middle, devilishly crispy on the outside, and seasoned with sage and butter throughout. For best results, use a mandoline to slice the potatoes extra-thin.

The cheesy-seedy crust that tops this healthy cauliflower casserole recipe evokes "everything" bagels. Serve for the holidays or as a hearty side dish with roast chicken.