The Truth About Condiments - Taste Boosters

“Taste boosters” are my secret weapons in the kitchen. Use these very low-calorie and very tasty condiments at will.

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The Truth About Condiments - Dips & Sauces

I know dips and sauces add some taste to those baby carrots you might consider bland when eaten alone. But they can be a huge source of fattening ingredients if you don’t choose them wisely.

Hummus

Avoid

Hummus with added vegetable oil or sugar.

Choose

Hummus made with olive oil – or even better, that doesn’t contain any oil.

Homemade Hummus

Ingredients :

• 2/3 cups dry chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• ½ tsp. sea salt
• ½ tsp. ground cumin
• Fresh ground pepper, to taste

Instructions :

1. Soak the chickpeas in water overnight, and then boil them covered for 2 hours over medium heat.

2. Blend all ingredients together. Adjust taste with salt and lemonjuice.

Note: I prefer not using any oil or tahini in my hummus to keep the calorie content very low.

Tzatziki

Avoid

Tzatziki with added vegetable oil and regular yogurt (that comes from hormoneladen cheap cow milk).

Choose

Tzatziki made with nothing else than plain organic yogurt, cucumbers, garlic, spices and olive oil.

Homemade Tzatziki

Ingredients :

• 1 cup organic, plain Greek yogurt
• Juice of half a lemon
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 medium cucumber, diced
• Sea salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
• Fresh dill, finely chopped (very optional)

Instructions :

1. Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

2. Adjust taste with salt and lemon juice

Pesto

Avoid

Pesto made with vegetable oil.

Choose

Pesto made with olive oil (hard to find).

Homemade Pesto

Ingredients :

• 2 packed cups fresh basil leaves
• ½cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup pine nuts, cashews or walnuts (optional)
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• Sea salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

Instructions :

1. Put the basil, garlic and nuts in a food processor and pulse until everything is chopped.

2. Add the olive oil and pulse again until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Guacamole

Avoid

Guacamole dips made with vegetable oil (and Kraft’s guacamole that contains less than 2% avocado).

Choose

Guacamole that’s made with avocado, veggies and spices – nothing else.

Homemade Guacamole

Ingredients

• 1 ripe avocado
• 1 lemon or lime (I prefer lemon)
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• Sea salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste
• Fresh coriander, chopped (optional)

Instructions :
 

1. Crush the avocado, garlic, salt, pepper together, adding about half the lemon or lime juice.

2. Adjust taste using lemon juice or salt.

The Truth About Condiments - Salad Dressing

Salads are pretty bland in their nature. But when it’s time to give them a boost, make sure you’re not transforming them into a fattening mess.

This Time Saver Is Costly

 
It might be easier to open a bottle of your favorite brand’s salad dressing than to make your own, but it comes with a price. Most dressings contain fattening ingredients, like:

 

Sugar and high Fructose Corn Syrup

Most reduced-fat dressings usually have more sugar than the “regular” dressings. Read the nutrition label to make sure that the sugary ingredients are not within the first 4 or 5 ingredients on the list.

 

Artificial Sweeteners

If your dressing is low in fat and calories, it might be sweetened with aspartame, acesulfame-K or sucralose. Those artificial sweeteners are generally even more fattening and unhealthy than sugar.

 

Vegetable oil

Vegetable oil made from soybeans, corn or canola is inflammatory and can contain up to 4.6% trans fat that’s not on the label – even the organic kind. Doesn’t it sound delicious?

Healthy Salad Dressing

It’s possible to prepare a salad dressing that will support your fat loss goals – but always use oil in moderation and actually use a tablespoon to help you portion control. They pack a lot of calories, and going overboard is very easy. If you opt for store-bought salad dressing, look for these ingredients:

• Unrefined olive, sesame or coconut oil
• Vinegar (any kind)
• Herbs and spices

Homemade Caesar Dressing

 
You don't have to skip your favorite Caesar salad. Try this homemade version of the classic creamy dressing and try it with crispy pasture-raised bacon, lemon wedges and homemade croutons!

Ingredients :

 

• 2 raw eggs yolks (pasture-raised, if possible)
• 6-8 anchovy filets (minced)
• 1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp. minced garlic
• 4 tbsp. rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp. organic soy sauce (or Tamari)
• ½ tbsp. sea salt
• 5 tbsp. fresh lemon juice (with a little zest as well)
• 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
• Fresh ground pepper, to taste

 

Instructions :

1. In a food processor or blender, blend all ingredients except the olive oil.

2. Open the top of the processor and slowly drip in olive oil as you would for making homemade mayo (this is a very slow process – about 5 minutes). Will stay fresh for two weeks minimum.

Homemade Italian Dressing

Ingredients :

• 1 cup olive oil
• 1 cup red wine vinegar (or experiment with a combo of other
• vinegars or lemon juice)
• 1 tbsp. garlic powder
• 1 tbsp. onion powder or dried minced onion
• 1 tbsp. dried oregano
• 1 tbsp. dried basil
• 1 tbsp. pepper
• 1 tbsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. Dijon mustard

 

Instructions :

1. Combine ingredients in a jar. 

2. Store tightly covered at room temperature or in the refrigerator. Shake well before pouring.

The Truth About Condiments - Essentials

These 5 condiments are always around. That’s why you have to make sure they contain the right ingredients.

1. Soy sauce

Avoid

Regular “soy sauce” that’s nothing more than a blend of HFCS and cheap soy protein

Choose

Organic soy sauce or Tamari that’s made through fermentation of soybeans

2. Mustard

Avoid

Flavored mustard with added sugar.

Choose

Mustard made with mustard grains and vinegar. Even better – mustard made with apple cider vinegar

3. Ketchup

Avoid

Regular ketchup – a single tablespoon packs 4 g of sugar, and most people use quite a few tablespoon at a time.

Choose

Sugar-free ketchup sweetened with stevia – especially if you want to reduce the amount of sugar your consume.

4. Mayonnaise

Avoid

Mayo made with any kind of refined vegetable oil (corn, soybean, canola, safflower, sunflower, grape seed) – even the ones made with organic canola or soybean oil.

Choose

Mayo made with unrefined olive oil or coconut oil (homemade mayo is your best bet).

5. Homemade Mayo

Is making your own mayonnaise that hard? With this recipe in hand and a couple minutes to kill, it doesn't have to be. 

Stock

 

Avoid

Regular chicken, beef or vegetable stock that contains refined salt and MSG.

Choose

Organic chicken, beef or vegetable stock – homemade broth is even better.

Ingredients :

 

• 1 whole egg (pasture-raised, if possible)
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• ¼-½ tsp. sea salt
• ¼ tsp. pepper
• 1/3 cup expeller-pressed coconut oil (melted if solid)
• 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

 

Instructions :

 

1. Combine the eggs, mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper in your blender or food processor.
 

2. With the blender or food processor running on a low speed, start adding your oils very slowly. Start out with drops and then work up to about a 1/16 inch stream. Continue blending until all the oil is incorporated (about 5 minutes).
 

3. Place in your refrigerator to thicken. Store in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

Homemade Bone Broth

 

Bone broth is packed with a ton if minerals and vitamins, and does not contain any undesired ingredient. Unlike what most people think, making it at home is very easy and is a great way to make the most out of your quality meat. If you don’t have access to pasture-raised or grass-fed bones, stick with pre-made organic stock.

1. Place the grass-fed beef bones or pasture-raised chicken carcass in a large soup pot. Add vegetable scraps and spices if you want.
 

2. Cover bones and scraps with water: Set water level about one-inch above the bones.
 

3. Add 2 tbsp. of apple cider vinegar. This will help draw more minerals from the bones.
 

4. Cover the pot and set let simmer for 12-24 hours.
 

5. Keep the lid slightly ajar as the broth warms up to avoid boiling (make sure your liquid does not boil out or you will be left with burned bones).
 

6. Strain the broth. It will stay fresh for days in the fridge and for months in the freezer.
 

7. Add water to the bones again and make a second batch of broth. Keep doing this until you are tired of it or your bones have disintegrated.

The Truth About Condiments

What are fries without ketchup?

Burgers without toppings?

And what about your BLT sandwich without mayo or mustard?

They’re bland.
That’s where condiments come in… to save the day and make everything tasty. But be warned… while they’re busy fixing the taste of your favorite meals, the same condiments are adding a boatload of calories and nasty ingredients behind your back.
Let’s say that an adult eating the average 2,000 daily calories uses these condiments in a day:

• 2 tbsp. ketchup with eggs in the morning
• 2 tbsp. ranch salad dressing with a salad for lunch, plus 2 tbsp. of mayo in a sandwich
• 2 tbsp. cream cheese on whole wheat crackers as a snack
• 4 tbsp. guacamole for dinner, plus 2 tbsp. whipped cream to top off berries at night

That’s a whopping 591 extra calories worth of conditments in a single day – 30% of that person’s daily calories! Calories made of high fructose corn syrup, trans fat-laden vegetable oil and inflammatory pasteurised dairy. Not good. And remember that this number could have been way higher. After all, who really takes the time to portion control condiments to the very tablespoon?

Now, how can you avoid that condiment trap and still make your meals tasty?

Simply read this next articles :


1. The Truth About Condiments - Essentials


2. The Truth About Condiments - Salad Dressing


3. The Truth About Condiments - Salad Dressing


4. The Truth About Condiments - Dips & Sauces


5. The Truth About Condiments - Taste Boosters