Beef bourguignon, aioli, chicken in the pot… Grandmothers' recipes are making a big comeback on restaurant menus, even in click and collect and delivery.
These sure values, passed down from generation to generation, are indeed a double blow: they satisfy the taste buds and provide a feeling of precious comfort in times of uncertainty.
And despite popular belief, their consumption is completely compatible with a healthy diet, believes Dr. Patrick Serog, nutritionist doctor, co-author of “Lose weight with the recipes of your childhood” which has just been released by Editions Marabout.
Why rehabilitate the recipes of grandmothers?
Patrick Serog.
It is impossible to lose weight under stress and without pleasure.
Traditional dishes meet these two objectives: they allow us to rediscover the culinary emotions of our childhood, buried in our memory, and to reconcile with the pleasure of eating.
This is fundamental because food is not just a biological function.
It is a very intimate act with oneself.
We also need to eat for comfort.
With the dishes of our grandmothers, we also reconnect with our roots, our identity, which gives a strong sense of security and allows us to calm down.
READ ALSO>
Waste hunting is also good for health
Are not traditional and dietetic dishes contradictory?
Our grandmothers had a healthy and varied diet.
Intuitively, they combined the different food families.
Our meals today are often contracted around a single dish that does not necessarily provide all the necessary nutrients, hence the risk of detrimental deficiency.
In order to better distribute nutritional intake and not to snack during the day, it is better to return to meals in three stages, as our grandmothers did: a small starter that allows us to dilate the stomach and prepare us to reduce our hunger, a dish and a dessert whose sweet note sends a signal to the end of the meal to the brain.
But in order not to increase the caloric load, only one of the main meals of the day should include starchy foods (bread, rice, pasta, etc.).
How to revisit its classics without sacrificing taste?
It is possible to revisit the recipes of our childhood to make them compatible with current nutritional recommendations by reducing the amounts of sugar and fats and by modifying a few ingredients.
For a light watercress soup, we replace the crème fraîche, for example, with 0% cottage cheese.
For a quiche, you can substitute the salt with spices and the bacon with strips of duck or chicken aiguillettes.
As for the aioli, nothing prevents it from being prepared with plain soy yogurt and only 4 tablespoons of olive oil.
Thus twisted with today's sauce, these dishes generate the same pleasure in the mouth with a lot of fewer calories.