If you're anything like me, one of your favorite meals is a traditional Sunday roast. Mmmm, those delicious roasted vegetables, crispy on the outside but soft and luscious on the inside! But now we're on a diet we can't indulge in that taste anymore... right?
Not true. While traditional roasted vegetables are very high in fat due to the fat bath they sit in while they cook. There are ways to prepare low fat roasted vegetables. And it's really simpler than you think (and sometimes even yummier than fat soaked traditional roast vegetables). You see, it's not really necessary to have so much fat to roast vegetables. Although it is the fat that kind of semi fries the vegetables to that nice crispy exterior... a little fat works just as well, if not better, than a lot.
So here is one way to prepare low fat roasted vegetables. Doing it this way won't result in soggy roasted vegetables.
Low Fat Roasted Vegetables
- Preheat oven to 350F (190C)
- Line your baking tray with parchment (baking) paper
- Prepare and cut up your vegetables as per usual
- lay your vegetables evenly over the parchment paper
- Spray vegetables with extra virgin olive oil cooking spray
- Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes
- Turn vegetables and spray the unsprayed side with cooking spray
- Bake for a further 20-30 minutes
Cooking time on this will vary according to the size of the vegetable pieces of course and you're the best judge of that. But preparing them this way results in a nice crispy skin without all the excess fat.
Oh, and the meat can be prepared the same way. Tip with cooking pork, remove the skin and the excess fat before cooking. If you really must eat the crackling you can rub salt into it and cook under the grill. Not only is it lower in fat, It works better and results in lovely crisp crackling (but you have to watch it carefully). Just be certain to trim most of the fat from the underside first, you need a little to generate the heat to form the crackling... but certainly not the amount that is usually there.
Oh, and this makes it much easier to clean your roasting tray which is the other advantage of this low fat roasted vegetable recipe.
Hope you enjoy my low fat cooking tips.