Ingredient swaps to make Thanksgiving dinners healthier

It’s not too late to modify a few of those Thanksgiving recipes that don’t exactly score high on the health food scale. When aiming to eat foods with a high nutritional value, Thanksgiving can be a bit of an obstacle. Stuffing the belly to its absolute fullest isn’t always wise and neither is wolfing down rich dishes heavy in butter and fats. We’ve rounded up some of the bad-for-you foods on the Thanksgiving table and given a healthier option. These adjustments can be made without throwing off your menu plan.

Butter: Vegetable dishes, mashed potatoes and roast turkey recipes often call for heaping spoonfuls of butter. A basic tip: just add less. Look out for common butter swaps and see if they would blend nicely with your recipe. Pureed avocado, applesauce, kidney beans and ground flax seed are all good butter replacements. When making a mashed veggie dish (like turnip or potato), add skim milk in place of some of the butter to get the desired texture.

Mashed potatoes: Cauliflower is your best friend when wanting to cut the calories out of a mashed potato dish. Basically, you’re looking to steam the cauliflower until extra soft and then puree it in small batches adding milk (or soy milk) when necessary. Add your regular mashed potato flavouring and it tastes nearly the same. For mashed cauliflower recipe ideas, see here.

Gravy: Gravy is pretty much fat and flour combined. Yes, it’s delicious but it’s not exactly a runner’s friend. A small helping might be fine but for runners looking to try something new, try alternatives like vegan mushroom gravy. Using ingredients like white wine, Italian herbs, mushrooms and onions, this is a gravy that health conscious runners can get behind.

Salad: This isn’t exactly a swap but more of an addition. Put a salad on the table and you and your guests are likely to fill up on the healthy stuff (at least somewhat). For something fall themed, try a salad like this apple walnut salad with cranberries.