5 Ingredients or Fewer

Few dishes are as soul-satisfying and luxurious as a buttery-rich potato puree or mashed potatoes. I love mashed potatoes, but I know that they’re not particularly good for me. Cauliflower puree makes a truly superb substitute.

This was a tough one. Everyone loves cheesy garlic bread, but between the white bread, the butter, and the cheese, it’s a tough sell to the health-conscious. The task was to figure out how to get whole-wheat bread to respond like white bread. Toasting the bread first, then dipping it in chicken broth before topping it with a generous amount of low-fat cheese, and finally broiling it did the trick.

The Japanese spin buckwheat flour into culinary gold with their rich, flavorful soba noodles. Buckwheat flour has many health benefits, including being much richer in antioxidants than wheat pasta. If you have a choice, buy inaka or “country” soba, because it’s made entirely from whole, unrefined buckwheat—which means more fiber. Traditionally, soba is served hot in a broth or cold with a sweetened soy dipping sauce called tsuyu. This simplified version is flavored with sesame, an American favorite.

The dirty little secret about Penne alla Vodka is not the vodka but the hefty amount of heavy cream. Vodka is colorless, odorless, and without much flavor—not really attributes of a superstar ingredient. It’s the combination of cream and tomato sauce that gives this dish its signature flavor. The traditional cream is swapped here for low-fat Greek yogurt.

Steak au poivre (steak with peppercorns) is one of the all-time great French bistro dishes. Few things complement a great steak like peppercorns, brandy, and cream. Needless to say, the original is way out of our budget, calorically speaking. At one-fourth of the original calories and one-tenth of the fat, this version will make you wonder why it hasn’t been revised until now.

In this country, dishes of Mexican origin have a reputation for being fat-laden and bad for you. At the same time, we can’t seem to get enough of them! The funny thing is that in Mexico, the traditional food is generally fresh, healthy, and wholesome—lots of grilled fish and meats, intensely flavored (and cream-free) sauces, fresh vegetables and fruits, and herbs. The problem is the blanket of full-fat cheese and sour cream under which most Mexican-American dishes are served. The Mexican flavors we love come from healthy foods like bright-tasting tomatillos and cilantro, so I banked on them in this new version of enchiladas.

“Jumbo” and “shrimp” aside, there’s another oxymoron at work in this recipe. How about a basket of hot, crispy fried shrimp and tartar sauce—and no eater’s remorse? The key to the crispy coating is a short blast in a hot oven, not a dunking in a tub of hot oil. A word to the wise: Lobster is really delicious with this preparation, too.

When I was young, I worked at a resort in the Poconos on the weekends. The way they made Shrimp Scampi was to simply let peeled shrimp sit in very large vat of warm garlic butter until an order came up. After many years of high-end cooking, I realized that wasn’t such a bad method after all—unless you were interested in living past the age of fifty. In this version, quick-broiled shrimp and broccoli, in a butter-free lemony, garlicky sauce spiked with fresh oregano, is every bit as good.

There are plenty of Asian stir-fry dishes that contain shrimp. Shrimp with Garlic Sauce and Creaky Shrimp were always my favorites. Don’t ask what “creaky” means—I still don’t know. I do know that Six Happiness Chinese Restaurant in my neighborhood in New York City was happy to deliver it within fifteen minutes, guaranteed every time. They also delivered a cardboard container—full of sugar and fat at about 800 calories a pop. This is a wholesome 600-fewer-calorie version of that “creaky” stuff: luscious shrimp, asparagus, a simple sauce, and basil.

As basic as a grilled cheese sandwich is, there are ways to make it badly (I’ve had a few of those) and ways to make it beautifully. This is how it should be: The bread should be toasted and crispy (hence the broiling), the cheese should be warm and melted but not running out of the sides, and there should be a little something extra to truly take it over the top. Here, a little orange marmalade adds a touch of sweetness to the otherwise savory elements.

The highest form of “cream of” soup starts out with cooked, pureed vegetables and pure, fresh cream. The second-best incarnation of that same soup winds up being pastier, with cornstarch as a thickener and the fresh cream replaced with cheaper fats, like vegetable oils. There’s one more way to make cream soup, though—a way in which you get the freshest, purest, least diluted taste of the vegetables. There’s no cream in this recipe—and no cornstarch, either. You still get a great creamy texture by using a lot of mushrooms and chicken broth. The key is to not let the mushroom liquor (the juice expressed by the mushrooms as they cook) evaporate, and to use a good blender to create a luxurious puree.

This is such a great salad—especially in the fall, when beets are in season. The sweet, earthy flavor of the beets provides a nice foil for the tangy blue cheese and peppery arugula. By lightly crushing the walnuts, you need less of this healthy but high-fat nut in your salad. Sometimes it’s the little things that make a big difference.

Frittata is a dish I have eaten and served for my entire life. It was always there just in case we were hungry or if an unexpected guest dropped by. It’s made with fresh eggs and whole vegetables, nothing unhealthy. I never thought of it as unhealthy or fattening. But at 20 grams of fat per portion, it’s not entirely benign. This dish was a little easier than most to make healthier because it starts out in a good place—but why not have fewer calories without sacrificing flavor?

Although artichokes are delicious, don’t try to take down a fresh one. Even chefs have a hard time with them. Instead, use the best quality canned or jarred artichokes you can find. Just stay away from oil-packed artichokes, unless you want to turn this classic dip back into a high-fat dish. Using water-packed artichokes gives us wiggle room to use astonishingly tasty Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.

This is a great late-night snack or easy lunch. It’s my version of stracciatelle or “rag” soup. Basically, it’s an Italian egg-drop soup. I make mine really full of egg “rags” or ribbons because when I eat chicken noodle soup I would make a bowl of noodles with a little broth. It’s best to eat this really fresh and hot, so if you’re cooking for one or two, just cut the recipe in half.

These bundles can be easily prepared on an outdoor grill or in a hot oven.

Why should potatoes have all the fun? These cute little French green beans are a lower-carb, lower-fat alternative to pommes frites, also known as: a pile of fries. Pair these with any of the Burgers, No Buns.